Aside from a cameo in my last post, windmills haven’t made nearly as frequent an appearance on the old Blog as they have in times past. Heck, nothing has made frequent appearance here lately. The last two and a half years have been incredibly busy, to say the least. It’s time to get back into the swing of things. I actually have months worth of photos I’ve captured but haven’t had time to edit or post. Hopefully I can start getting caught up, but so far August has been the busiest month of all this year! Stay tuned.

I know Photoshop has a “sky replacement’ tool now, but I’ve never tried it. I did this one the old-fashioned way. I posted the original a while back with a perfectly blue sky. I’ve also mentioned in another recent post that I don’t really care for cloudless blue skies, because I find clouds so much more interesting. I’ve taken photos of just cloudy skies before in case I needed them for a project, and I decided to put one of those photos behind this windmill for effect. I’m pleased with the result.

It’s important for me to disclose that this photo is artificial as a matter of photographic integrity. I don’t mind this sort of pic, but in the proper context. I suppose I’m a bit of a purist in that regard.

I spotted this Morton County windmill while chasing down something on one of my “lists” of potential photo opportunities, and I had to stop to take a look.

I was bolting toward a photo subject for a project I’ve been working on when I spotted this windmill along the road. Over the past fifteen years of this blog I think I’ve established that I have a thing for windmills, although I don’t have one on my own property. But I have grown selective over the years, only looking for ones with a lot of character. This falls into that category.

Once I got in close and was able to find an angle with some interesting clouds in the background, I got my shot. This is one unique windmill. I liked the dangle of the wire, too. What an interesting photo subject! I spent a few minutes angling around to check it out, settling on the thought that this really was my best interpretation of this specimen, then moved on to continue the other project. Someday, if it’s ever ready, I’ll get to share that here as well.

2021 hasn’t exactly shaped up to be “the year we get it all back” after a completely nuts 2020, but I did manage to work a little less. I just didn’t get as much photography done as I’d wanted. I did, however, take a few photos, and naturally there were a couple of windmills in there.

I just got this one today, and it’s close to town. It sits right along 71st Avenue in Bismarck. Thankfully a guy can get this shot from the road, as the land is posted and I don’t violate those signs.

As the second photo demonstrates, fall colors are here! I wonder if I might be able to get a bunch of fall photos. We’ll see…

I spotted this as the rain was about to move in, but I knew I had some time to make a quick capture. Windmills catch my eye often, and this one didn’t disappoint. It looks like it’s got a lot of character, no doubt derived from years – generations, maybe – of service.

Since I was in Morton County, I couldn’t help but hope that it would say “Mandan” on the back. But as I got closer, I saw that wasn’t the case. This is still a grand prairie specimen…and I just just enough time to take its picture before the rain moved in and brought my photography day to a profitable end.

I haven’t been able to get out with my personal cameras for fun in quite a while, but I do still have plenty of photos to post.  It’s just a matter of combing through them, another activity for which I have little time to do.  But here we are.

Given my affinity for windmills, I figured this might be a good place to start.

It was a nice, sunny morning.  I was roaming the county roads, checking out spots I’d marked in my GPS long, long ago.  There were some targets of opportunity I’d marked but never had the chance to actually photograph.  This was one of them: a windmill which has seen better days, yet is still standing tall.

I always find little extra bonus items on these roaming trips, and today was no exception.  It’s amazing how sometimes I can spot something that I swear I must have driven past at least a handful of times, but which has obviously been there all along.  That was the case with this windmill.

The moon wanted to get into the picture.  I wish the angle would have been better to break out the telephoto and cheat the perspective to make the moon appear larger in this shot, but I just didn’t have physics on my side that day.

I love to roam.  As things start changing for Autumn, I’m now faced with a primal urge to get out and chase stuff with my camera, investigate things I’ve mapped for future photo jaunts, and make the best of the time before the trees become barren and the landscape a dull gray.  Winter has its own opportunities, but September is my favorite.  Hopefully, although my schedule is absolutely stacked, I can make the most of it.

I first noticed this windmill along, long time ago.  I’ve never gotten a close look at it, though, because there have always been cattle on the land where it sits.  Among the rules I have for my photo hobby are tenets like obeyance of No Trespassing signs, not entering old structures (out of safety and respect), and avoidance of disturbing livestock at all costs.  So I’d always just continue on down the road.

This particular windmill is being encroached upon from all sides as new neighborhoods continue to be developed in every direction.  They’re awfully close at this point, which leads me to believe that at some point this windmill will disappear just as some of my other favorites have.  Thankfully, after an evening of playing with the kiddos (and every water snake and frog they could catch and collect) at the lake nearby, I was able to get a closer look without causing a disruption.

Even now, this is pretty much the only angle available, unless one wants a highway or someone else’s backyard.  It was sufficient.  I got a little bit of a sunset, although I had to push the colors a bit.  Those darn horizon clouds always snatch the sunset away early!  As you can see, the head of this windmill has seen far better days.  Regardless of its physical condition, however, I think it’s inevitable that it’ll be gone in the not-so-distant future.  Unless the cows or their owner say otherwise.