I am modeling the N&W in October, 1955. I am using the Pocahantos Division that ran from Bluefield to Williamson, WV as my prototype. I am not what one would call an artist. So, I am looking for a photo backdrop that could pass for the fall mountain colors of the Appalachian mountains. Any ideas? It is not likely that I will be making the trip myself anytime soon to attempt to photograph the area and print up a backdrop myself. Help, please.
Craig North Carolina
Got some what the same issue myself (New River Gorge area) and I'm looking into the LARC Products CDs - actually have volumes 1-3 on order. Another option that might be useful is Backdrop Warehouse.
However, the New River Gorge topography is a bit different than one's expectations. The mountains are all roughly the same height and the depth of the gorge is such that you can't really see too much 'depth' beyond the mountains right on your shoulder (so to speak).
Charles
Check Backdrop Warehouse -- they have a very large selection of photo backdrops.
http://backdropwarehouse.com/help.htm
Craig,
Easiest but expensive is to try Backdrop Warehouse or one of the other custom photo backdrop companies. I had about 24 ft of prefab backdrop and was quite happy with it. I know the hill scenes I used were from that area but my time of year was summer. There are probably fall scenes as well. Hope that helps. J.R.
Since you are in October and not November you could get by with summer scenes. Generally it was late October early November before most of the trees started turning color which was followed by leaves dropping in mid to late November.
The easy way for me to remember this was the hunting seasons. Squirrel season started in mid October and the trees were heavily covered in leaves and not in the color phase yet. Deer season was the week of thanksgiving and the following week, and many times there was no snow yet. The interesting thing about the month of October in the mountain state is the major changes in very short time spans.
What I am trying to get at is this month and location gives you a great deal of options with regard to your scenery. So you can easily justify what ever you want to do. If say you are picking October for certain types of equipment and can not find fall "colors" in your back drops it could be early October. If on the other hand you just want the colors of the season you will be ok as well just realize it will limit you to a very specific time window if you decide to change later.