Don Quixote cows

With what's happening in Japan so far to the fore of everybody's consciousness at the moment, and in light of all the talk about the benefits or otherwise of nuclear power I thought it might be a good time to post an energy picture!

Of course with the usual Paul Dymond twist. You see north Queensland is home to the state's largest wind farm, just a couple of hours west in the small town of Ravenshoe.

I've driven past Windy Hill quite a few times but had never really thought about how I wanted to photograph it. And then it kind of clicked. I remember reading somewhere that one of the arguments that opponents to the farm used was that it would upset the cows and they would hate the things. Here was my angle.

I'd seen plenty of pictures of the windmills themselves - in sunny weather, cloudy weather, atmospheric stormy weather. But I'd never seen any pictures with the cows in them. Come to think of it, every time I'd been past, the cows were nowhere to be seen.

So one day when I was driving past and noticed a herd of cows all milling around near the base of the giant turbines I knew this was the shot I wanted. I put on a wide-angle lens so I could have the cows big in the foreground with lots of green grass, and still have the windmills visible in the background kind of blending in (if you can possibly blend a big white spaceship into the natural environment!).

I have to say, the cows seemed more perturbed by me than they did by the wind turbines. Not that I'm an expert or anything but they seemed as contented as any cows I've ever seen before. Just saying...