Going to plant a field just for portrait photography

How about posting some photos (and note which direction they're facing) of the field you're planning to work with?

Luckless wrote in post #17165172
How about posting some photos (and note which direction they're facing) of the field you're planning to work with?

Thats a good idea, I will grab some pics this evening when I get home. Most of it is not much to look at, the majority of the new crop will go between some larger out buildings. I am also thinking I might plant a couple smaller fields of maybe just wild flowers and maybe a small one of sunflowers.

We do a good amount of boudoir so I am super excited to bring a bed out into the "field" so a lot of the images wont have skyline in it.

Here is a Google Maps view of the property. The top of the image is North. Mt. Hood is East.

The light blue box is one area we can use, currently that is just open field

Yellow is where I am thinking of putting a wild flower patch, there will not be a lot of views from there but with the right composition it should work great.

The Red Box is another area we can use, the view east is blocked by the barn next to it, however if we plant far enough south we can shoot past the end of the building.

The Pink stripe is the building that has our studio in it.

The big chunck of crop are nursery stock trees. They will be pulled this winter and new planted come spring. The height ranges from nothing to 7' tall all summer long.

Corn grows tall enough to form its own background in a small area if planted densely. There are corn mazes.

I did not think about planting a couple rows of corn between the field and the barn, that is a great idea.

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #17165038
. . .some great views of Mt. Hood.

Well in that case I would want to take advantage of Mount Hood in the distance, and I think the best way to do that might be to keep it natural. Or at least natural-looking.

A wildflower meadow may be able to be done in such a way that it looks natural, and not cultivated. So you could photograph people in what appears to be a beautiful, natural setting with Mount Hood in the background.

Wildflower meadows are usually quite easy to grow, too, if you stick to mainly native species such as lupine, echinacea, indian paintbrush, balsam root, etc.

Right now I am thinking I might go first to the blue part, and do an outer square of some tall grass/wheat or soemthing. And in the middle far enough in that I can shoot just the grass/wheat and not see if I did not want, plant a patch of flowers. Allowing me to have just wheat, what and flowers, just flowers with a wheat field behind.

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #17163790
So I am going to plant about a 3/4 acer field strictly for photography purposes.

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #17165215
The light blue box is one area we can use, currently that is just open field

The blue and read areas look to be far, far smaller than 3/4 acre. By comparing it to the size of the houses, I would say they are each only 1/25th of an acre, at best.

Could you show us, on the Google Earth image, where the 3/4 acre size area is that you have to work with?

A 3/4 acre field allows for immensely more possibilities than an 1800 square foot plot.

Why are you bothering? Aren't there already lots of "fields" planted with many different crops? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just ask permission from someone, and pay a bit for the use of his "set"?

You don't have to do the work. You don't have to pay the real costs. You get a variety of backgrounds at a variety of times. You can adapt your plan to the season, themes, and looks that you want.

Go for a drive and visit some farms before you go to any expense and effort to do your own. Do some real cost analysis.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #17165472
The blue and read areas look to be far, far smaller than 3/4 acre. By comparing it to the size of the houses, I would say they are each only 1/25th of an acre, at best.

Could you show us, on the Google Earth image, where the 3/4 acre size area is that you have to work with?

A 3/4 acre field allows for immensely more possibilities than an 1800 square foot plot.

The blue area can be made much larger into the field that is already there, same with the red area it can be made the entire area and the barn to the east is no longer there.

rral22 wrote in post #17165515
Why are you bothering? Aren't there already lots of "fields" planted with many different crops? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just ask permission from someone, and pay a bit for the use of his "set"?

You don't have to do the work. You don't have to pay the real costs. You get a variety of backgrounds at a variety of times. You can adapt your plan to the season, themes, and looks that you want.

Go for a drive and visit some farms before you go to any expense and effort to do your own. Do some real cost analysis.

In my area everything is either Christmas trees or nursery stock trees which are very thin and look very plain. If any cover crop is planted it is very unpredictable and twice I have had shoots planned only to come home to a plowed over field.

Most of what I am looking for should require some work up front, and then limited after.

It looks big enough to have small patch's of blooming flowers in different sections the whole season if you wanted.
Though you may have to change to a gardener who also takes photos.

I'd go with whatever the government is paying farmers not to plant, use the money for a new camera and look for scenic backgrounds elsewhere. No work involved

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #17163809
I was honestly thinking more like a wheat field, I thought about a small patch of sunflowers since they are only around for a short time. I had not thought about doing a tall grass with wildflowers tossed in that might look good.

Watering is not a huge issue, however something that requires little to non is even better.

For a long lasting, picturesque grass/corn effect I would plant a small patch of Pearl (cattail) millet. It grows about 6 feet tall. If you can''t find a seed source buy some all-around birdseed mix. The millet is the small golden round seeds in it. Also (and we have done this in the back yard bird garden) just scatter a couple handfuls of the mix stomp it it, water it and voila a really nice patch of varied plants.

Always plant in 1-2 week stages so that you have a varied look with different stages of maturity. Someday I really should take a shot of our little patch.

ha! you made me run out back and take the shot. (small jpeg critique not needed lol)
The millet is the tall ggrassy/cattail stuff on the left side of the feeder.

A field of Poppies will look amazing, and you can make some secondary income off of it!

How about a fruit orchard ?

Or lavender rows. I think that would be cool

If you start to do commercial or stock, however, I would like to have an orchard on hand, to make for some unique agricultural/grocery specialized images.