Sunflower Blooming Season Started in Thailand. Strangers and Friends in the Frame for #Monomad Challenge

I has had an opportunity to join a weekend trip of a small company's employees. The main destination was sunflower fields blooming in a nearby province. Actually it is a quite typical travel destination for those Bangkokians who wish a comfortable outdoor fun during the sunflower blooming season (December - January).

Waking up at 4 am, a three-hour trip from Bangkok on a rented minivan, and we entered the land of flowers in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) province. This area is located at a slightly higher altitude so the weather is a bit cooler there and, thus, better for some plant crops including the sunflower. Many farms there earn additional money with accepting flower lovers from Bangkok for a fee. There are also farms created specially to satisfy needs of selfie seekers.

Everyone took turns taking photos of each other, and I was part of this game.

I was surrounded by everyone's care as a foreigner and a guest of the company trip. And everyone affectionately called me Davis - Thais pronounce David this lovely way.

Of course, everyone wanted to be photographed by the person with the large camera (me). But I was also regularly called to enter thickets so that I could be a model too.

I also took photos of random people

I also took photos of random people, although I had almost no time for that.

It's amazing how spontaneous photography is superior to posing one. I did many images of my companions but a random kid in the field became the best my image from this trip:

She was posing for someone, and I couldn't help taking this image since the girl was just adorable. Look at this cutie, she is truly flying above sunflowers!

The secret is that farmers had put ladders in this field to help people with posing for social media.

Another fun construction for the same purpose:

Random women talks to each other by a village house decoration in a sunflower field

This stranger with lips painted red was posing for his relatives, and I joined the photo session. I started taking images of him (with those loud DSLR clicks), and he, it seemed to me, was happy with such an extra attention of a foreign male visitor. He didn't look at my camera because of shyness but I could see he was acting a bit more lively feeling himself a model in the center of international attention. 🙂

Strangers with an umbrella in sunflower field

My companions gave me a chance for sincere photography too

Amazing teenage daughters of the office boss

Shooting a video for Reels

Sincere emotions during a break between posing.

For some reason, photographs of people posing for someone else (or themselves) look quite sincere.

I personally don't feel fully comfortable taking photos of people posing for me, because I prefer candid photos so I feel upset about lost opportunities.

At another flower farm

But of course I didn’t tell anyone about this during the trip: my main goal was to please my amazing companions, so I did what they expected me to do.

Though, some posed images were lovely as photographs for good memory:

The full team in one frame

And some posed shots were nice as portrait photography imo.

Another highlight of the trip was a waterfall but I'll share this in the next post. 🙂

The whole trip (including luxurious dinner at the end!) was paid by the boss of the company, a cheerful Thai businesswoman and adorable mom of two daughters. Thanks to her for this, and thanks to everyone for being so kind and caring for me all the trip! 🙂

More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took the images with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G on Nikon D750 on December 5, 2023 at "Rai Manee Sorn" sunflower field and Hokkaido Flower Park Khaoyai in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand.