An invitation to have a look around...


grande man

grande man

Bonafied Grande Nut
...the modern day version of a true (former) iron, steel, mining and railroad town, once the hope of the New South.

This is a bit OT, but what the heck, this is the ANPL. I shot this image last Saturday night from a spot on Red Mountain known as Grace's Gap. This overlook is on Birmingham's new Red Mountain Park. The camera was about 4.5 miles from the city center and 8.5 miles from the airport in the background. The panorama has 19 base images and was shot with a super telephoto lens.

I hope someone here enjoys it. Please view it full size by clicking the image when the page opens.

(dial up destruction);)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/4041097619_2814fe994b_o.jpg
 
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That is one beautiful pic!! Sheeeesh---now you got me wondering how I'm doing this here!! It is a great inventory tool to get building inspiration:D
 
Dang, Eric, that would make a heck of a backdrop for an urban railroad. I didn't realize the view was so good from up there. When do you expect the park will officially be open?
 
UP2CSX said:
Dang, Eric, that would make a heck of a backdrop for an urban railroad. I didn't realize the view was so good from up there. When do you expect the park will officially be open?
Click to expand...

Ditto, Great modern day Back drop!:eek: Man, thats good!
 
Jim, the opening is still a good way off. There is much to do (and much has been done)! There is a tidal wave of public support. We are doing public and private tours to help hold folks over until we can get the park open on a daily basis.
 
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photo

Very nice shot. Now how do you get it large enough to use as a backdrop? Being from the west coast and having never seen that area other than the airport, isn't there a lot of history concerning red mt. during the civil war?
 
Eric - that's absolutely one of your best photos ever! Is it actually a collection of shots 'stitched' together?
 
Eric, let me know when you are next going tours. I'd love to come up and see whay you've been doing. I'm glad to hear about all the public support and check out the web site regularly. It seems like you've at least escaped the fallout from all the financial problems facing Jefferson County.

Mike, it's actually full size already. It's just that your browser reduces the picture so it can be displayed in a single window. You can download the picture and adjust the size in any photo editing program. However, it is Eric's copyrighted photo, so you should get his permission to use it. He's generally a pretty nice guy about things. :)

There's not much Civil War history associated with the area. Birmingham is the only major Southern city that wasn't established until after the Civil War. There was some steel making on a small scale during the Civil War but places like Tuscaloosa and Selma were major arms producing centers so they were the real targets for Federal forces. Almost all of the steel and coke making activity started after 1870, and eventually grew large enough to make Birmingham the "Pittsburgh of the South". Eric is the real expert about the area so he can correct any worng information I may have given.
 
I have a photo stitching program that came with my wife's new canon camera. I have played with it a little and it seems to do a really good job as long as the photos are the same size. Canon Zoom Browser EX is the name of it.
 
My thanks to everyone for their comments.

Josh, the pano was done in Adobe Photoshop. The main issue is careful shooting. The camera was tripod mounted, leveled and the 19 base images had to be shot quickly due to the rapidly changing light. This shot also required several hours of post work to really refine. Most of that was due to the slow processing speed due to the file sizes.

The prints of this will be 18 x 120", mounted. The print file is a 145 mb TIFF. The Photoshop base file (psd) is 300 mb!

I am hoping that this image will be a hot seller around town... ;)
 
red mtn.

Jim
I knew I had read something about Red mtn and the civil war. It was for the iron ore. The south used it for the making of guns and all other weapons. And of coarse the RR.
 
leesheridan said:
Jim
I knew I had read something about Red mtn and the civil war. It was for the iron ore. The south used it for the making of guns and all other weapons. And of coarse the RR.
Click to expand...

Red Mountin's first commercial mine, Eureka 1, (now part of Red Mtn Park) dates to the Fall of 1863. It fed the Oxmoor furnace. Early in 1864, the Helen Bess mine was opened to supply the Irondale furnace.

Prior to those dates, brown ore (limonite) was the ore of choice at older ironworks like Briarfield and Tannehill. Red Mountain ore is hematite.

Th Eureka 1 and Helen Bess ore was used for Confederate war production.
 
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