Meet Eric Forrest, Commercial Photographer, Engineer, and University Lecturer. Eric was inspired to start capturing Huntsville's growth through the lens. His favorite times of day are sunrise and sunsets. And with a new year rising with new beginnings, we wanted to learn more about the man behind the social handle @hsvphoto.
How long have you lived in Huntsville? Transferred from Boston 10 years ago.
What drew you to photography? I started as a PAPA-razzi , photographing my family and it grew from there.
What do you love about photographing Huntsville? Huntsville is growing so fast. The city is constantly evolving with new sites, corners and scenes. With the demise of print journalism, there is not a curated repository to visually capture the story. My daughter, suggested Instagram as a place where you could go to document first-hand the change. That is what I have done in over 5000 posts at IG @hsvphoto over four years.
What do you love about landscapes in the South? In the south we lack the grand vistas, but I have noticed that our meteorology allows us to have the most gorgeous skies to frame our landscapes. Huntsville is starting to form a cityscape … you will see me climbing the top of the New City Hall parking lot to frame big spring park, with VBC and the Saturn V.
What is your favorite photo from this past year? I have two favorites.
1. Total Solar Eclipse: You don’t get a good chance to practice. You might remember along the path, clouds were predicted… so I didn’t know where I was going to be until five hours before totality. I drove from Huntsville to Arkansas that morning.
2. Super Moon Over Huntsville. In Huntsville we had three months in a row where the large super moon was close to the Saturn V rocket at sunset. Each time out I met fellow photographers trying to align the moon with the rocket. It takes some planning to know exactly where to stand to make a visually compelling photograph.
Goals for next year? When @hsvphoto started out, I made lots of imagery of local musicians and artists and offered it to them for free – just so that they had professional. The COVID pandemic stopped our efforts. I would like to resume our efforts next year.
Any bucket list projects? Our Bucket List of photographing all Major League Baseball parks continues with the Oakland A’s relocating to Sacramento. Our Bucket List of photographing all National Parks continues too, after visiting eight last year, for a total of 37 of 63.
Tell people how they can follow your work. People needing help with photography questions can contact me through Instagram at @hsvphoto. Photography is assessable to all.