Hollidaysburg Summer View #14894

The Story

This modern Hollidaysburg PA city view has a view all the way back to Altoona and the landscape of the bordering Allegheny Mountains. In the foreground, all the main parts of this old town can be seen. The courthouse steeple is in the middle of the picture and other prominent landmarks can be seen too. The railroad area is the original canal basin from the 1830s and a few of the buildings lining that street are from that era as well.  Back in the canal heyday, Hollidaysburg was an important stop for freight and passengers going across Pennsylvania. Hollidaysburg was one of the first towns in the area with a long and interesting history. Today, it is the seat of Blair County.

Taken from Chimney Rocks overlook high above the edge of town, it was a grand summer day to be out with the camera shooting. High above, fair weather clouds made dappling light on the landscape below with the mountains of the Allegheny Front in the distance. It was the peak of high summer scenery in a lush green and blue mountain landscape.

Nowadays, any town can be photographed in a similar way using a drone to get the needed elevation. Hollidaysburg is very unusual with the heights of Chimney Rocks right beside town that most other places don’t have for a view like this one. In fact, you can see those high rocks above from any place in town.

Creating This Hollidaysburg Summer View

I set up the tripod with a panoramic bracket, made the camera settings, and waited for a large enough sunny patch to cover the entire town. Seven consecutive photographs were quickly made from left to right in sequence before the light changed, which were later stitched together in the computer. This picture is the product of modern digital photography. Much older multi-image panoramas were physically connected together and then re-photographed, or less often, a panoramic film camera was used.

Through time, many pictures have been taken from Chimney Rocks overlook since the beginning of photography. It’s a very natural place to photograph from with that high natural viewpoint. Panoramas were even created early on with glass wet plate negatives, probably done by photographers working from a horse-drawn wagon that went up onto the heights. Interestingly, I’ve seen a few of those old Hollidaysburg PA panoramas that were done before the Civil War.

Another nice view of this town taken from Chimney Rocks in winter snow and sunshine is Hollidaysburg Long View #13589. It shows another beautiful day on the edge of the Alleghenies. This Hollidaysburg PA city view is available as a panorama on canvas or metal as 12×36 or 20×60 for home or office.

Location: Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks