Against the Wind

[Mongo]

This is a very typical scene from the Australian outback farming regions. The struggle of the windmill against the wind is symbolic of the struggle of farmers in those regions to survive against the harshest possible conditions of drought and flood.

Nikon 801 and Fuji colour slide film, 20mm f3.5 Ai-s f8 set at hyper focal distance. The colour conversion to mono rendered the extremely deep indigo blue sky (typical of this region) as black and the clouds as violent brush strokes gouging the air. Of course, some toning added over the whole image

[MFloyd]

Waw 👍🏻

[Jakov Minić]

What an image.
The sky and the moving windmill make it super good.
Come to think of it, I would probably crop out the ground all together

[Thomas G]

Like the mood and the motion. Nice transfer supporting it.

[Akira]

Spectacular image.  Looks like as if you used a red filter on a B&W film.

[Ron Scubadiver]

Yes!

[Anirban Halder]

Very fine and moody image mongo. I can even smell the wind (figuratively).

[Peter Connan]

It is clear that Mongo has been a great photographer for a very long time!

[Mongo]

A very big thanks to everyone for looking in and for your extremely kind comments.

Some specific replies:-

......
Come to think of it, I would probably crop out the ground all together

Thank you Jakov and for your suggestion. Mongo will try some versions of your suggestion although they may end up a little square in shape and hopefully will hold the context. Appreciate the suggestion and worth a try

Spectacular image.  Looks like as if you used a red filter on a B&W film.

thanks Akira. It can certainly give that impression  on conversion. 9 times out 10, you  would not even bother with a polariser in these areas due to the natural intensity of the colour in the sky; particularly when using a wide angle lens.

[Les Olson]

Very fine. 

I would like to see the windmill straightened, and I disagree with Jakov's suggestion of cropping out more of the ground - on the contrary, I think the image would have more impact with more ground, because the isolation of the windmill in the vastness of the land is, for me, a key element of the struggle you refer to - but I guess that is a European vs Australian thing. 

If the intention is to create an impression of struggle, the image would have more impact reversed so the windmill is on the right.

[Mongo]

Les, thanks for your in depth comments. Quite intrigued with your idea of reversing the windmill and can now appreciate the basis for your suggestion. It most, but far from all, societies write from left to right, it may be more natural to visualise movement (of the wind in this case) in that direction also. Mongo tried that but very surprisingly found, that for whatever reason, it was not as effective as the original.

From memory, the background/horizon had a small slope to it as depicted in the image. trying to straighten the windmill also did not seem to accord with the background and the more Mongo looks at the windmill, he is pretty convinced that it was built with a deliberate bias towards the direction of the prevailing winds in that area. In hindsight, that would make some sense as it would give the windmill greater strength and longevity in that particular location.

Agree with not removing some of the foreground. Mongo found that it does make the image lose some context

Very much appreciate your time, effort and experience with your suggestions.

Again, thanks to all for your comments.