2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

I felt like the obsessive fictional hero as I somewhat frantically drove around the four square miles or so of roads that surrounded the thirty-three newly constructed windmills outside the small Kansas town of Marienthal. However, instead of battling the windmills in a more chivalrous endeavor, I was dealing with something much more fleeting and obscure, the light.

After driving over four hours straight west into the vast, barren, brown land known as western Kansas and only being a few handfuls of miles from the Colorado border I was banking deeply on the fact that the sky would open up and give me one of her more fantastic sunsets to work with. After all, the sole reason I came all this way was to make a pictorial type photo, beautiful in its nature, of the windmills for the upcoming cover for one of the four sections of The Hutchinson News' yearly progress section.

When the light started to fade I knew it would either be a great sunset or there wouldn't be one at all. Clouds had started to roll in which is actually a great thing since clouds make the sky more dynamic and actually enhance the colors of the sunset. But, with those benefits also comes a huge downside, clouds can completely kill a sunset by blocking out the light. At the beginning it was great, the sun was parting the clouds and creating beautiful shades of color on the clouds and reflecting off the large reflective bases of the windmills.



I became worried though just as the sun was starting to get into it's peak position it was matted out by the clouds. I waited and waited but nothing changed the sun just stuck to the back of a huge set of clouds concealing all the light except for a few shades of not so fantastic grey. Just as I was about to call it a day she broke through right at the horizon line and lit up the entire cloud mass that used to be blocking here.

It worked out for some wonderful pictures and a great trip.

Thanks for looking.
-Brad Vest








After about 20 minutes of nothing but grey, the sun appeared again and gave a wonderful show of color for about ten minutes before continuing on to other parts of the western hemisphere.


This is the photo we chose to run for the cover of the wind progress section. It was so great to see the way we used the photos for the covers of each section. We went big! Each section front was just a photo, no text, no graphics, just a giant photo welcoming readers into the section.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Stork and Owl, Tv on the Radio

2009_01_28_A hound's handshake

2009_01_28_A hound's handshake

If you've been keeping up with this blog you know how attached I am to animals, especially dogs. I just can't get enough. One of the best parts about wandering around everywhere for assignments is that it's not a rarity to see a lot of animals, birds, deer, and especially dogs. It's great to run into dogs because I've always had a dog around my entire life and while out doing internships like this it stinks to be away from my dogs at home, Maize and Holly.


Oh hello there. It was muddy outside, whatever though, jump on me all you want.

The other day way out on the west side of Kansas, about 30 minutes from the Colorado border. While shooting art for a story The Hutchinson News is writing about the new wind farm going up I ran into the a very cool dog whose owner lives very close to the windmills. While the writer interviewed the man to get his opinions on the wind farm, the money it brings to town, and such, I politely excused myself to wander around his property and take photos on the wind turbines to show the proximity of them to his property. Ahem, hang out with the cool dog.


He was sorta scared of my camera, I assume he has never seen one before. The initial fright turned to curiosity though.

I did take some pictures, but there really wasn't a great angle to capture the wind turbines and his property. I ended up just hanging out with the awesome dog that he had adopted from the pound as a puppy a year or so earlier. I love big dogs, and this dog was large. Most likely a cross between a golden retriever and a german shepherd if I had to guess.

The hound was really energetic and loved jumping up to my chest to be pet on the head. He also did this hilarious thing when I stopped petting him or when I was walking around to get better shots.... he'd latch onto my hands with a very gentle chomp. Just enough to hold on to as if saying, 'let me walk with you' or 'start petting me again please'.


Hand Shake.


Hand smell.


Gentle hand chomp.

What a great day.

Best,
Brad Vest



Overexposed the first frame since I was still set for indoor exposures. I think this turned out really cool though. That's a reflection of me in his eye.

Listening to: Campus, Vampire Weekend

01_08_2008_running from the sun_bv

--01_08_2008_running from the sun_bv--

It's always fun to drive west into the sunset, but the rest on the eyes coming back east isn't anything to complain about either.


Two days in the books and two more to go. After close to 1,300 miles (would have been a couple hundred less if there were no flooding) I have just under a thousand left. Something like 946 or so. After the minor setback of Wednesday I made up some time today as I made my way through Salt Lake City and out onto I 80. With only a few more mountains left before the boredom of Nebraska sets in I spent a lot of today enjoying the sights and trying to make a few pictures.

641 mi – about 9 hours

The sun was hiding a lot of the day behind a blanket of clouds, but when it came out it made for some spectacular light. Between those brief moments of light I played around with the clouds and the mostly backlit conditions.

Here are some scenic shots along the route. Enjoy the clouds and mountains.

Thanks for looking,

Brad Vest

Listening to: Kids, MGMT

Utah, beautiful.


Devil's Slide.


25 MeH, Devil's slide.


The Great Salt Lake. My brother Jake, and I looked for this lake at 2am or so on our first road trip west. We were heading for San Francisco pulling an all night drive when we saw the exit sign for the lake overlook. We smelled fish and were wandering around a salt flat when some guy drove up on a motorcycle and told us we were about a mile away from water since the lake had receded so much.




A little peek from behind the mountains.


Rest stop.


Not that you can see to well, but there is a giant field of windmills. Awesome.


Seeing how many dead animals I've encountered along the road so far, after the sun goes down I usually find a fast semi and hide behind it as to not take any direct impacts from deer or elk.