P#2 Tony Sweet's Flowering Dogwood Tree Photograph

See the background of this flowering dogwood tree

Tony Sweet: This is the last one. These are flowering dogwood tree blossoms. These aren't really flowers, they are flowering.

And this is just a very fun graphic to get here in the Smokies, because the background is early spring green and the redbud is out.

You don't get that often at the same time with the redbud, dogwood, and early spring green. So, it's very difficult-to-find color combination.

Since every season is different, this is a particularly long season here in Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains for getting all these flowers to happen at the same time -- all these colors to occur at the same time.

I just threw this flowering dogwood tree image in to give you a sense of the graphics of it and the color. (click the photo for a larger version)

Audri Lanford: That's gorgeous.

Tony Sweet: We have to mention the salient point here is: I spotted the background first. Which is the redbud and the green tree. I found that first and then I walked around to find some dogwood that I could put in front of that. Just like with flowers, it's the exact same approach.

Audri Lanford: That makes perfect sense.

Tony Sweet: They are beautiful trees. This is the best dogwood season down here in quite a few years.

In summary, as Tony has been saying in this interview, this image of the flowering dogwood tree illustrates how he finds the background first and then selects the flowers to photograph.