Windmill Fields along North Indian Canyon Drive

Author's Comments

The first time I drove out to the pass at dawn, I pulled off Indian Canyon and just sat in the car for a while, watching the blades turn against the still-dark face of San Jacinto. There is something almost meditative about this landscape, and I think it has to do with scale. The turbines are enormous up close and miniature from a distance, and depending on where you stand along Indian Canyon Drive, you are working with a completely different photograph. Late afternoon in winter is when this place gives its best light. The sun drops behind San Jacinto and the eastern slopes go into deep shadow while the turbines on the valley floor still catch warm light, and for maybe twenty minutes you get this layered separation that a midday visit will never show you. The blades read as clean white geometry against the blue-gray of the mountains. The repetition does the compositional work for you. I usually shoot wide first, then switch to a long lens and start compressing rows of turbines against each other until the image flattens into pattern. That compression is the photograph I keep coming back for. The frontage road along the I-10 puts you at a different angle and is worth the detour, especially if the wind is blowing hard enough that the blades are all turning in unison. Come with patience for the light and a willingness to drive the same stretch of road three or four times. The compositions are not obvious until you have looked at them from several positions, and the best ones tend to reveal themselves on the way back.

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