Windmill Water Trough: Zamora, California

Please view LARGER on black!

 

I was out in the middle of the storm the other evening looking for something interesting to photograph, when I ran across this old windmill/watertrough setup. The wind was howling through here, but the old wheel on top was only rotating when a huge gust would come in.

 

I took many shots here, from 6 minutes down to 30 seconds, and I decided that I wanted to try and get one where the wheel wasn't blurred much by the wind. This was the only one that showed the definition in the blades that I was after. I know that may sound odd, but for some reason, a motion-filled windmill wasn't as appealing (and I did take many with motion).

 

You can't tell by looking at the water, but it was splashing around in there. The motion made for a smooth reflection with some cool colors. I really liked the odd gradient green-blue color of the tank as well, especially paired with the rust.

 

This is asymmetrical, because that is the way the farmer made it! There was no way of giving it any more symmetry than you see here, but I also kind of liked that. So many manmade things are "perfect" and full of symmetry, but this unit is more pragmatic -the way of the farmer.

 

Flickr Explore #77 04/06/10

 

This is one single image, no HDR treatment.

 

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 17-40L @17mm

52 second exposure @ F16

Lee soft ND grad .9 + .75 filters

ISO 50

Done