I don’t consider myself a modern day Don Quixote – I’ll leave that to my friend Rob over at Say Anything – but I do have a thing for windmills, albeit photographing them instead of tilting at them. It’s been a minor theme since I got into this photography and blogging thing way back when.

I do consider myself an amateur yet a connoisseur, so I feel obligated to describe what makes a good windmill photo. This one was a particularly fine specimen. Why? First, the ravages of time – missing blades and mangled steel – are fascinating. Second, I got there at the right time. That may sound like a minor detail, but it’s not. It’s nice to roll up on one at the right time of day and with the sun in the right place. I don’t like having to settle for pointing my camera into the sun and capturing a silhouette of a windmill like this. In this case, the sun had graciously ducked behind a cloud momentarily, which eliminated any pesky shadows. Also, these things spin with the wind. That’s kind of their thing. The ideal windmill photo has both the sun and the windmill in the right orientation to each other.

Lastly, you need a good setting. Beautiful background both in the sky and on the ground, no junk piled around the base, no modern stock tank parked next to it, that sort of thing. Just a simple steel relic, outstanding in its field (see what I did there?), ready to tell its story in that well-timed photo.

I’ve actually visited this one a few times while bolting up Highway 14. It’s a trip I’ve made many times, and it’s always nice to stop in and see an old friend. In this case, I finally got the light I wanted! I’ve taken several photos of this windmill, but none of them have turned out as nice as these. I was on a mission, of course, and this was a target of opportunity, but it was well worth the stop as everything came together just right.