Last weekend, I went out to check out the sunflowers at Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area near my home in St. Louis. Wow! They were all facing away from the sun and gloriously backlit, which should dispel the myth that they always follow the sun. Maybe they were just getting ready for the next morning's dawn?
For me the intense backlighting was visually exciting but technically challenging. Shooting directly into the sun with a 15mm super wide angle lens causes all sorts of problems with flare. In the end, though, I'm quite happy with the results.