Travel On the Road - Shots from the Car

We had a really long winter, but it melted away in the last two weeks. I mowed the lawn for the first time on Sunday.

Hang in there, it will pass! Sooner or later.
 
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I had to take a drive downstate this morning to our State Capitol, Lansing. The route south takes me through the middle of the state, which is mostly flat farmland. Over the past few years the landscape has been, in my opinion, destroyed by the continuous installation of these hideous windmills. The image doesn't give you a sense as to just how big and hideous these things are. They line both sides of the highway as far as the eye can see in all directions. Not for 5 miles, or 10, but at least 100 miles of my trip today. Probably more if I didn't have to turn around and come back. It is infuriating. These things interrupt bird migratory patterns, kill birds with bird strikes, frighten away all types of other wildlife, are noisy and, are just plain hideous. I took this shot driving down the highway by just pointing my camera out the driver's window and pressing the shutter button while I focused on the road ahead and driving. I shot a few. Most were out of focus, poorly framed, uninteresting images. This one stood out for a few reasons. One, it was in focus, two, I somehow managed to catch the windmills in the rear view mirror and that was relatively in focus, and three, something is going on in the sky. There is a contrail below the clouds that seems to lead to what appears to be a hole in the cloud deck at he top center of the frame. A couple of things here. The image is much brighter than it actually was in real life. My camera almost seems to see in the dark with that 2.8@ 24mm. (plus, I brought up the shadows in post) As I said, my eyes were looking down the road at traffic while I shot this and other attempts. I can't say which shot but at some point during these few seconds I thought I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. I originally chalked it up to headlights bouncing of something. It was literally a microsecond. After looking at this shot I began to wonder if a micro meteorite had punched through the clouds. I did a quick google search to see if anything had popped up online but came up empty.

Oh well. Maybe it was just leftover from an airplane that has passed through before I got down there. Or maybe, we had a visitor from another solar system wondering what the hell those hideous things all over the Mid-Michigan landscape are.
 
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I had to take a drive downstate this morning to our State Capitol, Lansing. The route south takes me through the middle of the state, which is mostly flat farmland. Over the past few years the landscape has been, in my opinion, destroyed by the continuous installation of these hideous windmills. The image doesn't give you a sense as to just how big and hideous these things are. They line both sides of the highway as far as the eye can see in all directions. Not for 5 miles, or 10, but at least 100 miles of my trip today. Probably more if I didn't have to turn around and come back. It is infuriating. These things interrupt bird migratory patterns, kill birds with bird strikes, frighten away all types of other wildlife, are noisy and, are just plain hideous. I took this shot driving down the highway by just pointing my camera out the driver's window and pressing the shutter button while I focused on the road ahead and driving. I shot a few. Most were out of focus, poorly framed, uninteresting images. This one stood out for a few reasons. One, it was in focus, two, I somehow managed to catch the windmills in the rear view mirror and that was relatively in focus, and three, something is going on in the sky. There is a contrail below the clouds that seems to lead to what appears to be a hole in the cloud deck at he top center of the frame. A couple of things here. The image is much brighter than it actually was in real life. My camera almost seems to see in the dark with that 2.8@ 24mm. (plus, I brought up the shadows in post) As I said, my eyes were looking down the road at traffic while I shot this and other attempts. I can't say which shot but at some point during these few seconds I thought I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye. I originally chalked it up to headlights bouncing of something. It was literally a microsecond. After looking at this shot I began to wonder if a micro meteorite had punched through the clouds. I did a quick google search to see if anything had popped up online but came up empty.

Oh well. Maybe it was just leftover from an airplane that has passed through before I got down there. Or maybe, we had a visitor from another solar system wondering what the hell those hideous things all over the Mid-Michigan landscape are.
In order to preserve the environment, we are destroying it.
Fairly typical human behaviour IME.

I completely agree with your sentiments, Will.
Many examples here, too.
 
We have the same thing going on here, although I don't recall any of the many wind farms being 100 miles long. But you can hardly get away from at least one of them being visible somewhere nearby. We are relatively remote so nobody cares but the limited number of locals who have to put up with the sights and sounds. It is difficult to work against the deep pockets of corporations looking to be ever greener (that would be American currency not the environment).

As for the contrail I'd go with the aliens theory, lol.
 
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Taking my new Sony 20mm 1.8 for a test spin on my route this morning. Through the windshield before sun-up @ about 64mph, as handheld as I could manage at the time. It's a little weird driving while framing the road in the camera's rear display. I was the only idiot up at that hour so there was zero traffic, as you can see. Also, this particular stretch of straight road has been relatively free of deer or other critters in prior transits, even without the extra pressure from day road workers and their hazard barrels along the shoulder.
 
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