What’s in a Name?

I enjoy creating titles for my photos, tending toward evocative or descriptive instead of a restatement of the subject matter. It may be a whimsical nod to classic literature (“The Young Man and the Sea”), a play on words (“Nurture in Nature”) or something more enigmatic (“Hypnotic”). I was recently stumped, however, when naming this image of sunflowers.

A group outing to a private sunflower field was the perfect setting to play with an in-camera multiple exposure setting. The resulting photograph quickly became a personal favorite, but I could not settle on a name. The image felt like more than just “a nice flower shot” because it was also a growth moment with the camera as well as the successful pursuit of more abstract, artistic images for my portfolio.

For inspiration I turned to tradition and folklore, learning that Native Americans (attributed to the Iroquois and others) referred to 3 essential crops - beans, corn, and squash - as the Three Sisters. In folklore, sunflowers are referred to as the Fourth Sister: stalks support the beans, seeds lure birds away from the corn, and flowers attract pollinators for the squash.  For me, this embodied the marvel of sunflowers, and the image became “Fourth Sister”.

Behind the Lens

Fourth Sister –With the camera set for 5 exposures and on a tripod, I moved it incrementally to the right between shots, ending with the final composite image.

Shot with: Canon EOS 5DMark IV, ISO 100, f/5.6, 400 mm, 1/160 second