The Halleluja Trail…
A In August of 2008 I was asked by the folks of the magazine “American Heritage” to spend two days traveling through Alabama photographing the churches along the hallelujah trail. Having never heard of this trail and with the excitement of a two day travel assignment I couldnt wait to get on the road. The hallelujah trail consist of thirty-two churches throughout north Alabama that are all at least 100 years old, are still in their original site, and are still holding services. The trail winds its way through sixteen counties in the northern part of Alabama. My assignment was to shoot as many churches as I could in a two day period. I started by getting a map of the trail and charting the best route to shoot with the most interesting of the churches as well as the most I could photograph in two day’s of drive time. It was a challenge but I was able to shoot twelve churches in the two day period. It so happened this was the week after hurricane Gustav blew through and I did not realize until around 6:30 PM how hard it was going to be to get a room for the night due to all the evacuee’s. I was in the town of Decatur and literally went to every hotel in the town no one had a room. I was ready to sleep in my car (although not happy about it) I was tired needed a shower, it was hot and I walked up to the counter of this last hotel. There was a young and handsome man sitting behind the desk, I askedfor a room, he replies “I am sorry miss but we are full”. I smiled and said you know I have heard through some music friends of mine that most hotels always keep a few extra rooms open for special reasons. I would be really grateful if you could check and see if there might be one available, I dont care what it cost, I have been working on assignment all day and really don’t feel safe sleeping in a strange town alone in my car with all my gear. Would you please scheck for me, otherwise I need to ask for permission to park in your parking lot and sleep. With a smile he went to the computer typed in a few lines and said….ok miss I think I have one left. I relieved and slept well.
As I was driving from one town to the other I came across this really old run down row of apartments (shown above) in the town of Courtland. I drove by them 3 times scared to get out because there was a little store with a lot of rough characters hanging out about 2 blocks up the road. On the third pass I had to stop, I was fast, I was able to park where I could stand right outside my car door and shoot. It took all of 3 minutes and I was in my truck, doors locked driving away.
As always these random shots while shooting an assignment often get lost in the mix. I recently came across these and wanted to mess with them a little. Here are a few more from the halleluja trail assignment…