Beautiful Central California

Pinnacles, CA -- During our seven-day road trip up to and around San Fransisco, we took side roads in search of worthy photo subjects. Amber and I stopped at barns, cows, rainbows, and even unique road signs. People are the coveted choice for subjects but we took what we could find. We were on a quest with no restrictions other than daylight.

One of our goals was to capture as many windmills as we could. After a while, the windmills started looking the same and lost part of their mystique, accept this one. Like most good photographs, the subject is nothing without an outstanding background.

Backyard Windmill Experience

Cambria, CA -- Although Cambria is a four-hour drive north of Los Angeles, it still counts as an "LA experience" since one could drive there for the day. Okay..., 287 miles (462 km) is a stretch, but we were on our way back to LA from our honeymoon! (one reason I haven't been posting for the last month)

One of the challenges we set for ourselves on our seven-day road trip was shooting every windmill we saw. Some turned out well while others where a faint blur while driving 75 mph. All in all, we captured a fair amount of classic, Americana style mills. Some were a bit more difficult to get to, but we managed.

On the left is our finished product. This is someone's backyard.

Wind Power

You see these white behemoths while driving out to Palm Springs, or in recent movies depicting a desert drive to Vegas.

Recently, I decided to get a close up look at these "green power" mills and was surprised to see how large they really are. The larger mills, as pictured, are over 20 stories tall and have blades that reach over 150 feet! And there are hundreds of them. It's like a forest of windmills in the desert. In some ways they are an eyesore--at best they are interesting to look at. But as the pressure mounts to produce more clean power, I'm afraid more and more of these windmills will pop up. Here's the good news: One of these wind mills can produce enough electricity in one hour to power up an average home for one month. Not bad….