bIRmingham

Several locations in Birmingham, Alabama lend themselves to study by the infrared Mojo Eye. While I occasionally visualize scenes in IR, some surfaces such as metal always surprise me.

(Flash version here.)

Sloss Furnaces

A nice slice of iron and steelmaking history. Also a good place for a haunted house. The Sloss Furnaces website will tell you more. If you are interested in smithing and other metal arts, you'll find this especially interesting.

Southside

Downtown peering through a hole in the Red Mountain kudzu monster forest near Vulcan. I used to live in one of the apartments on the right in 1983. Great view, steep steps, cold in winter due to tiny electric wall heaters, which did a fine job of heating the walls.

Instructions for growing kudzu in the South: 1) Obtain cutting. 2) Place cutting on ground. 3) Run like hell.

Vulcan Restoration

Birmingham's beloved and yugly god-mascot Vulcan, during its re-erection on top of Red Mountain in 2003. The park is open as of Spring 2004, and one can take an elevator to the top of the base for a great view of downtown. Taking this picture earned me a short, ugly visit from the contractor's security officer, who insisted that I leave even though I was on, well, the side of the road, not the site itself. Photography in public is no longer something people can take for granted; the new national zeal for secrecy has filtered down to the corporate sector and raising a camera without permission can get your a$$ kicked.