Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 24mm, 1/250 sec, f/9.5, ISO 64.
During my most recent stay in Huntsville, Alabama, I took a morning and drove down to Birmingham to photograph the long-closed Sloss Furnaces. (Unlike the English city, this one is pronounced BURR-ming-HAM, not BURR-ming-um.) The Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark is a wonderful place to photograph. While you can’t climb on (most) things, the decommissioned industrial site is preserved and open to the public for free, so there is no need to act like a YouTuber and crawl under gaps in chain-link fences.
I was there on a sunny morning, so there were lots of deep shadows to work with. In the image above, the silvery water tower stands out boldly against the deep blue sky, and the entire scene is framed by the dark shadowed structures on three sides. The next image has much lower contrast because—other than a few small spots—it is all in the shade and being lit by indirect light bouncing off other structures. The color palette is wonderful here, especially with the cold blue reflections of the sky that contrast with the warm oranges and reds and yellows.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, 1/125 sec, f/9.5, ISO 500.
This next image is higher contrast, with the structure almost silhouetted against the sky. Despite looking at the shadowed side, the section to the left of the ladder almost glows, albeit dimly, from the light bouncing onto it. As with the previous image, the sky is also reflecting here and lights up an otherwise dark area of the image with a nice blue sheen. This image is quite graphic and the camera position puts the ladder right where it needs to be: not touching the sky on either side.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 82mm, 1/90 sec, f/9.5, ISO 64.
The various rusty tanks make wonderful backdrops for silhouettes, too:
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, 1/12000 sec, f/4.0, ISO 500.
This is the lowest-contrast image in the set, with no strong shadows at all. It has a fun combination of shapes: arcs and triangles and the one dark circle.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, 1/45 sec, f/4.0, ISO 64.
This image has a lot of energy, with deep shadows throughout and a strong diagonal that looks like a cannon.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 79mm, 1/125 sec, f/9.5, ISO 64.
Of the eight images in todays post, this is the only one taken indoors. There is no meaningful lighting other than what little is coming through various windows, but it is enough to provide lots of reflections that give shape and contour to the metal surfaces. The fact that the overhead crane is angled to the side gives it some interesting tension, too.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 46mm, 0.7 sec, f/9.5, ISO 64.
All of the previous images were, in their way, beautiful. This image isn’t, but does a great job of presenting a once-mighty symbol of industry as nothing more than a melancholy memory. The weeds and grasses seem every bit as dead as the facility behind it. Normally I would clean up (or avoid) little bits poking in from the sides and corners, but I think the general unkemptness works perfectly here.
Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 37mm, 1/180 sec, f/9.5, ISO 64.
I absolutely loved this place and will do my best to go back every time I am in Alabama. I’m hoping that next time it will be cloudy or rainy, because that would give everything a very different look. Whatever the weather, though, I feel like I have barely started with this place. If you are ever in the area, it is very much worth exploring. And it’s free.
4 responses to “More than Dross”
Interesting exploration of this old industrial site, Jim! Would work great with film, I think!
Thank you, Astrid! You would enjoy photographing there. I am sure there are lots of multiple-exposure possibilities for you! Personally, I don’t much care for the practicalities (or perhaps I should say impracticalities) of using film—regardless of the result—but I’m happy to arrange a trip there so you can give it a try!
Great set of pics. I especially like Closed and Latent – powerful silhouette and angles, as you say.
Potential is striking, too. (Just a thought: would the wheel benefit from a tiny bit more space to the right if there is any “spare” tank to keep the background consistent?)
The set reminds us of how attractive rust can be. Thanks.
Glad you like them, Rob!
I 100% agree about the wheel in Potential needing a little more space from the edge. Unfortunately, any further to the right goes off the edge of the tank behind it and you get a strip of sky down the edge; in fact, there was a very thin sliver of sky in the upper right corner that I had to clone out, so there really wasn’t any room to frame further to the right. The other solution would be to step slightly to the right to change the perspective, in which case parallax would do the work, moving the wheel left relative to the tank behind it. But I was hemmed in there, too, because there was a yellow ladder and some cables hiding just behind the edge of the left-hand tank, so moving to the right exposed a bunch of other stuff I didn’t want. And, as it was, I had to clone a few bits of that out, too, that barely peeked around the edge. Bottom line, I was really threading the needle. The only thing I am unsure of is whether I could have backed up a little, which might have worked. I was already at the longest focal length I had with me, so I would have had to crop it down, but that might have been a worthwhile trade.
As is often the case, it can be a real puzzle!