Time for a windmill

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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.

Standing tall

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Barn? Private elevator? I don’t claim to know, but whatever this old building is, it’s magnificent. I’d taken a wrong turn (don’t *ever* trust Apple Maps) on my way back to the highway, and while I turned around in what appeared to have been a driveway at one time I saw this. I snapped a quick photo from the window of my truck and went back to Google.

For my photography and route planning I use a hiking model GPS – two, actually – with an incredible amount of information on it, including section lines and rural roads. But they have no idea how to navigate them. That’s not their purpose. Besides, the phone apps are so darn good (Google, not Apple) and are continuously updated. So I have GPS for very specific uses, and let the mobile app(s) do the navigating.

The broad side of a barn

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…I hit it. I spotted this cool looking barn on my way home one night, and what really caught my eye – aside from cast of the evening light – was the ladder. I was going to try brainstorming some witticism about “the corporate ladder” or something like that, but I’m not that clever.

Railing on and on

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When I took this photo, I was certain it wasn’t going to turn out the way I’d hoped. The sun was in the wrong place, the rail car was in the shade…it was doomed to turn out horrible, and I was already trying to plan a different time of day to arrive back at this spot. Then I looked at the results on my computer.

I’m happy to say the image I saw on my screen in the harsh daylight was not the final image I discovered when I got back home. So I don’t have a return trip planned in order to salvage this photo…but I do have the spot marked in my GPS in case I want to try something different here!

Curve ahead

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I’ve seen these power poles many times while traveling I-94 between Valley City and Jamestown, and always wanted a photo. Well, I finally got one…barely. I was roaming around northeast North Dakota and barely made it down Highway 1 in time to grab a sunset photo of these posts. Mission accomplished. And I got a great sky to work with, too.

Bill Clinton could not be reached for comment.

Wild clouds yesterday

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So I understand we had some weather on Thursday. Well, I was roaming the back roads of Morton County but was able to see from a distance that there was some significant action going on in the skies northeast of our location.

Once I zoomed in on the tail end of the massive cloud formation I saw some pretty striking features.

Here’s a slightly closer crop. What really caught my eye was the ring around the top of the cloud, but once I grabbed a telephoto shot I also noticed some serious convection going on back there. Pretty wild!

On the way back into town we did pass a stretch – about a mile long – during which there were hailstones piled up on the east side of the road. Otherwise, I stayed dry all the way back to town, but for a few sprinkles after we passed St. Anthony. I was pleased to find out that there wasn’t any damage on my property once I got home. But I heard it was quite a show!

For once, I spent more time watching than photographing

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We had a behind the scenes meet-and-greet with the US Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron Friday in advance of the Northern Thunder air and space expo at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, and it was a fantastic way to spend a Friday! The pilots and crew were gracious hosts, answering all our questions and clearly enjoying themselves when talking about their jobs and their aircraft.

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