The windmills of Kinderdijk - constructed during the middle of the 18th century - are a UNESCO World Heritage site. They were used for drying out the surrounding swampland to make it accessible for farming. Nowadays, they are a popular sight and a beautiful photo motif.

With a little bit of luck and the right timing you may be able to photograph the windmills enshrouded in mist and warmly lit by the low morning sun. When I visited Kinderdijk for the first time in late 2018, I was quite disappointed because the scenery I was looking at had little in common with the beautiful images I had seen online. On this grey and overcast winter afternoon, I waited in vain for better conditions and was surprised to find out that the windmills are not illuminated during the night. Once again my high expectations weren`t fulfilled, accordingly I called the resulting image “High Expectations”.

Don’t get me wrong: Even in bad weather and bad light conditions the sight is absolutely stunning, but the missing illumination bothered me. I was absolutely sure I had seen night images of Kinderdijk with brightly lit windmills. Searching the web, I learned about the Illumination Week that takes place once a year and I promised myself to come back for this special event in the upcoming fall of 2019.

Parking: Coming from “West Kinderdijk” street, turn into “Molenkade”, where you will find enough space to park your car (P1). Although driving further on to the parking lot (P2) - located at the main area of interest - is clearly prohibited, some people ignore the signs to skip the short walk of 1 kilometre.

Windmills: I recommend you use P1, because otherwise you will miss some nice opportunities for photographing mills No. 1-3 along “Molenkade” which runs in a north-eastern direction. Windmills No. 4-7 are less exposed, and I didn’t visit No. 18 and No. 19 at all. My personal highlight is the view of mills No. 13-17.

Spots: To get a good picture of mills No. 13-17 you can try out the spots S1-S3, which I highlighted in the accompanying map. You will realize that the perspective distribution of the nicely lined up windmills will change according to your choice of location. If you follow the south-eastern path after crossing the wooden bridge (S1), you will find various possibilities to get single shots of mills No. 13 - No. 17.

After my bad experiences with popular locations, I expected to find the area around the spot S2 heavily packed with photographers when I arrived around 6:00 pm. Much to my surprise this wasn’t the case, so I had plenty of time to test out various compositions for the overview, as well as for single mill images.

I found out that I wouldn’t be able to shoot the row of windmills (No. 13-17) in a western direction from a viewpoint east of mill No. 17 to include a sunset background. On the one hand I wasn’t able to find a vantage point with an unobstructed view of this group of mills, on the other hand I didn’t like the appearance of the rather modern looking building in the background.

You will find consecutively numbered mini jetties at regular intervals along the reed-flanked path between the waters (opposite of the mills No.13-17), each offering a perfect view of the oppositely located windmill. With my mobile I took some quick shots of each mill with its according jetty number - for reference purposes later in the night.

At some point I was sure about my favorite choice for a solo windmill image, so I headed back to spot S2 around 7:30 pm to be able to photograph the row of windmills during the blue hour.

In the meantime that small area had gotten way more crowded than 1,5 hours before and photographers as well as tourists were trying not to miss the beginning of the illumination and they continued to pour in from every direction. I was very lucky to still be able to claim a decent standpoint for my tripod that was almost identical to the one I used in 2018.

Just 15 minutes later, some photographers had to content themselves with the second row to set up their cameras.

Afterwards I photographed an alternative view of the row of windmills right from the wooden bridge (S1) and tried to get some images of mills No. 1-3 on route back to my car, but since it was very dark already the pictures I took didn’t convince me anymore. On the one hand the contrast between the dark shadows and the brightly lit mills was too high, and on the other hand the low hanging, light-polluted clouds got a brownish color which I find to be rather unattractive.

Expecting a 2,5 hour drive, I started my way back home at around 11 pm, but somehow I managed to get completely lost due to a full closure of a motorway. At some point I got so frustrated that I fed my navigation system with the closest border town I knew and ultimately arrived at 3 am - leaving me with only 2 hours of sleep before I had to be back at work at 6 am. Despite of the way my trip to the Netherlands ended, I was extremely happy to have made it to Kinderdijk Illumination Week: The new image “Repetitive” is much more to my liking than “High expectations” that I took in 2018.

Illumination Week 2020

The 48th edition of Illumination Week will take place from Monday 7 to Saturday 12, September 2020 and the windmills will be illuminated from 08:00 to 10:30 pm. You DON’T have to purchase a ticket to get access to the area for photography, but there will be many more things going on during this week - click here for more information.

Sunset or sunrise?

Sadly enough the windmills are not illuminated at all during the year and even throughout Illumination Week 2020 the lights will be on for only 2,5 hours in the evening. So you won’t be able to get a sunrise shot with lit windmills.

Best time of day for photography

In my opinion the best time to capture a great image of the illuminated mills is the blue hour when the remaining light in the sky has a similar brightness as the artificial light on the windmills. Be on location early nonetheless, otherwise it will be hard to find a free vantage point with a good view.

Lens & tripod

All of the images of Illumination Week 2019 I have shown here were captured using a focal length between 34-70 mm, so you should get along very well with a standard 24-70 lens. Due to the need for longer exposure times in the increasing darkness a tripod is a must-have.

ND-Filter

On both of my visits the water was quite choppy because of the rather strong winds. To smooth out the water and to get a better reflection I recommend to drag the exposure time by using a ND-Filter. The exposure time for the image “Repetitive” was 30 seconds.

The wooden bridge (S1)

The wooden bridge at S1 is arguably one of the most popular and beautiful vantage points for capturing the famous row of windmills, but not suited for long exposure photography: Every time someone crosses the bridge it starts to vibrate, hence blurring your image.

I hope my blog entry was useful for getting a deeper insight into this beautiful location and the details about the upcoming Illumination Week. Good luck with your images!

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