A Serendipitous Encounter at Kinderdijk Windmills

You see, it wasn’t in my plan to make a pit stop at the Kinderdijk windmills, yet as fate would have it, there I was, standing in the coolness of an early spring afternoon that only the Netherlands can serve up. Greg, Sis, Dave, and I had our sights set on Bruges, but the allure of this UNESCO World Heritage site was irresistible, especially for a band of friends and a photographer with an itchy shutter finger. The date was April 29, 2017—a day that’ll live fondly in my memory.

Loaded with my trusty Sony DSLR a99ii, I couldn’t pass up the serendipitous chance to capture the timeless beauty of Kinderdijk’s windmills. The light was just right; the sun played hide and seek amidst the clouds, affording us these punchy yet diffused rays that fell upon the windmills’ broad struts.

With the reflection on the water mirroring the sky’s whimsical brush strokes and the windmills standing as proud sentinels of heritage, every frame I captured felt like a dutiful nod to the generations that had relied on these engineering marvels. I could understand the upbeat appreciation mentioned on the Kinderdijk website—I was living it, breathing it, through the viewfinder of my camera.

Though time wasn’t our ally that day, and we had to press on to Belgium, I felt immense gratitude for this unplanned detour. These photographs would bring awe to friends and co-workers alike, not just because of their composed beauty, but because they symbolized an unexpected encounter with history’s silent and graceful dancers—the ever-turning windmills of Kinderdijk.