The photo above was taken at the Saville Dam which contains the water that makes up the Barkhamsted Reservoir.  I've driven by this stone structure a few times and wanted to photograph it but it never worked out for various reasons:  the lighting was bad, it was raining or snowing or I didn't have my camera with me at the time.  I made a few attempts at sunrise and sunset but the skies were always bland and unspectacular...but I never gave up! 

One late afternoon, the weatherman reported that several clusters of unsettled weather from different directions were expected to converge and I figured this might be the perfect time to revisit the dam again.  As I set up my camera equipment, the wind picked up and all sorts of clouds formed in the sky creating a turbulent and surreal backdrop that kept changing by the minute.  I began to hear rumbles of thunder in the distance so that was my cue to get the shot and get out of there...pronto!

I knew literally nothing about the dam or reservoir but after some quick research here are a few fun and interesting facts.  Named after its chief engineer Caleb Mills Saville, construction of the dam began in 1936 and was completed in 1940 at a total cost of $10M.  It wasn't until 1948 that the reservoir was filled to capacity, a whopping 36.8 billion gallons of water!  The dam has a total height of 135ft a length of 1950ft and is the primary water source for Hartford, Connecticut.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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