Rio Vista Wind Farm at dawn

A couple of weeks back I headed out to a windfarm I work at for some night shots. None of those really worked (hazy sky and very bright moon) but we hung around until dawn and rattled off a few more shots. For anyone who cares, these are Vestas V90 3MW towers. They are notable as being the biggest in the US, and the best performing V90s anywhere.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

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Cool shots!! I can't decide which i like better, both are very cool. How big are those things? I have seen them from a distance but never up close.

Nice shots, Marcus.
I visit the Rio Vista wind farm area often. I have hundreds of shots from around there.
I had no idea your job took you into the wind turbine areas.
Lucky for you!
I am working on a series with old windmills and new wind turbines together in the shots, and there are some good ones in that area.

dphillips81 wrote in post #3045470
Cool shots!! I can't decide which i like better, both are very cool. How big are those things? I have seen them from a distance but never up close.

These are on 90-meter (295 feet) towers. The blades themselves are 45-meter (147 feet) each. They are the first 90-meter towers used in the US, and we have another 21 being installed this year. In about 3 years time an additional batch will be coming in that will probably be in 120-meter towers. Can't wait to see them, standing at the base of one of these is cool enough as it is.

Oh, to put those dimensions in perspective a little, the towers are as tall as an American Football field is long.

SWPhotoImaging wrote in post #3045642
Nice shots, Marcus.
I visit the Rio Vista wind farm area often. I have hundreds of shots from around there.
I had no idea your job took you into the wind turbine areas.
Lucky for you!
I am working on a series with old windmills and new wind turbines together in the shots, and there are some good ones in that area.

There are going to be some more opportunities as well, there are a few older wind pumps in operation right near where we will be putting the new towers. If we ever have an open day and get to bring people along with us you'll be the first to know.

Unfortunately I currently have 7 staples in my head due to working down there. We were setting fences around the wetlands areas in preparation for the new construction. The wind took my hardhat off and as I bent forward to grab it the post driver caught, tipped forward, and hit me on the top of my head. Not to badly fortunately, I didn't get concussed or anything, but man do you loose a lot of blood from head injuries.

Citizensmith wrote in post #3045689
These are on 90-meter (295 feet) towers. The blades themselves are 45-meter (147 feet) each. They are the first 90-meter towers used in the US, and we have another 21 being installed this year. In about 3 years time an additional batch will be coming in that will probably be in 120-meter towers. Can't wait to see them, standing at the base of one of these is cool enough as it is.

Oh, to put those dimensions in perspective a little, the towers are as tall as an American Football field is long.

Wow, i knew that they were pretty good sized, but didn't think that they were that big. I bet that standing at the base of one of those would be pretty cool, and i can't imagine what the even bigger ones would be like.

Some of the peak winds in that area are at night, between around 2.00AM and dawn if remember it right. When I took these photos we'd arrived around 5.30AM so it was really windy and dark because of the clouds blocking out most of the stars. Standing at the base of these towers with 14 ton blades wooshing past 150 feet above you is cool during the day, on a dark night it was really awesome.

Figured I'd link in a few more.

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Oh, man. These are great shots. Every one! We have some of these near here, but I can't get to them to get the shots I want. You're very fortunate. Thanks for sharing.
~marty

I can attest, those blades are friggin huge. I used to work at Whole Foods Market back in the day, and a lot of hoopla was made about buying wind energy for the stores, to the point that they actually closed most of the parking lot to haul a single blade in on an over-length flatbed. Lost a couple of trees in the process, and the thing sort of completely took over.

Another nice set, Marcus!

Sorry to hear about your head. Is the post driver ok?

I was shooting an old aeromotor windmill with several of these in the background when the farmer lady wandered over to chat over the fence with me about them. She said the revenue from the land lease agreements is a welcome thing, given the dry season the local wheat farmers are having. Sounds like, for the most part it's a win-win situation for everyone.

Great Shots Marcus! I'm going to have to go visit the wind farm here in Colorado one of these days soon!

KAC

forgive me for the lame question, what kind os lens did you use? was it a wide angle lens?
im sorry. im new at this, so im slowly learning.
They really are beautiful shots, thank you for sharing them!
shannon

shannyD wrote in post #3509580
forgive me for the lame question, what kind os lens did you use? was it a wide angle lens?
im sorry. im new at this, so im slowly learning.
They really are beautiful shots, thank you for sharing them!
shannon

Thanks for the compliment, and its not a lame question. . Most were taken with a 17-40 on a 300D. I also took a few, including the one with 9 towers on a gray pink sky, with a 70-200 f/4. All were tripod mounted.

Shutter speed was varied to control how much blade movement I got. The shots were all taken between 5.45 and 6.45am, although most of the earler ones didn't work out too well.

To be honest I actually messed up exposure on a bunch of the first ones. When its dark out the screen seems very bright so it looked like they were actually overexposing when they weren't. I really couldn't see what I was doing and discovering the flash light I'd been smart enough to bring didn't work (wasn't smart enough to check that) made changing lenses entertaining.

they are still impressive, and thank you for showing them