In the Spring of 2014, I visited a beautiful barn along the Missouri River bottoms near Hartsburg, Missouri. The barn was surrounded by henbit, which is purple and blooms in neglected farm fields in early Spring. It subsequently became one of my most popular photos on Flickr.

The henbit flowers, an invasive species, only appear in fields if the farmer has not planted that year. Most years, this barn is surrounded by cornmilo, or soybeans. Every five years or so, the field is left unplanted so that the soil can recover; when this happens, the henbit can bloom freely.

I visited the barn every year since 2014 to check for the beautiful henbit blooms with no luck. But, in 2021, the glorious colors returned for an encore performance. I used this opportunity to test my new mirrorless Canon EOS R5 camera for my Fine Art Photography portfolio. I visited the location several times and finally had a perfect day with puffy cumulus clouds in the sky. I shot the following photograph with a Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at ƒ/8.0 with a 1/160-second exposure at ISO 100. The resulting RAW file was processed with Adobe Lightroom CC.

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