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.

After seeing so many of my counterparts out roaming and getting great cloud and storm shots, I finally decided to defy Dave Ramsey and blow some gas money with my boy.  We took our cameras out for a couple of hours and had a great time!   This is how our evening started, and it only got better from there.  More to come…

Shoegazing is a style of music from my beloved 1980s, basically because the artists would stare downward with appropriate angst while belting out their melodies on stage.  I could not ascertain what this windmill was focused on, but I doubt it had anything to do with Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine.