Mendota Hills

Following Flower Power by Russ Widstrand, herewith Wind Power.  These windmill farms are sprouting all over the mid-west like flowers in springtime, this one amidst the fields of farms near Mendotta Hills, Illinois.  One of the farmers told me that the leases the wind farmers pay him exceed the money he’d earn growing crops, so his land is now doubly profitable in terms of dollars per acre. The big question for me today was Which image do I play?  We’d been having a brief behind-the-scenes discussion recently and one of the other participants mentioned that he attempts to play the game defensively.  It was kind of funny because I’d recently been thinking exactly the same thing. Playing defensively, of course, is useless but that doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about it.  Good example:  Jay posted a picture of soldiers’ boots the other day, got me thinking about pulling an image from my files of soldiers on patrol dating back to my time as a war correspondent.  But I was also thinking that it’s time to pitch my sneakers into the trash despite the fact that they’re comfortable and have become my favorite footwear, so I photographed them here in my studio.  Unfortunately for the sneakers, the game took another turn and so that image will have to wait for another day.