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New Years on the Alabama Gulf Coast.. Christmas on the Alabama Coast.. Old Wooden Shipwreck in Gulf Shores Alabama.. So Many Things To Video - Part 1..
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New Years on the Alabama Gulf Coast
It was New Years on the Alabama Gulf Coast and we were torn between going to Lulu's in Gulf Shores, where Wet Willie was going to be performing, or the Block Party at The Wharf in Orange Beach. We decided to go to The Wharf. The party was free and you can't beat that! It was a good way to bring in the New Year. Good music from the Tip Tops, refreshments to be had, lots of people and a great fireworks show. The fireworks came up from behind the buildings on both sides and was very loud as it echoed between them. I didn't see any little kids freaking out so I guess it wasn't too bad.
Video being my business, of course I had my camcorder and shot a little bit of footage while we were there. It turned out to be just a little over four minutes. If you would like to watch it, it can be found here: www.algulfcoastvideo.com/videos/newyears06/newyears06.htm .
I heard that it was a lot of fun at Lulu's so I hate that we missed that. To bad that you can't be two places at once. Oh well, we'll see about next year.
I'm hoping this will be a great year for everyone. Happy New Year!
Christmas on the Alabama Coast
Celebrating Christmas on the Alabama Gulf Coast is a little different than some places. Down here you do see the traditionally decorated trees and yards. But you are also likely to see some palm trees wrapped in lights as well. One big event put on by the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of commerce is the annual Night of lights.
It was held on Saturday December 2 this year. In this parade boats decked out in lights and other Christmas decorations paraded from Lulu's at Homeport Marina east down the Inter-coastal Waterway, around Bear Point and out the the bridge at Alabama Point. The judges boat anchored across from Boggy Point. After the boats passed the judges they ended the parade at Calyso Joe's in the Orange Beach Marina where the winner was announced. Of course, video being my business, I put a video of it on my web site http://www.algulfcoastvideo.com. You can access it here. Or you can go directly to it here.
For the first time there was a second boat parade. This one was sponsored be Lulu's at Homeport and the Wharf. It was the first annual Waterway Boat Parade. It ran from the Wharf out to Oyster Bay and then returned to Lulu's. I have been able to find out who the winners were, but will try to add that shortly. Of course, a video of it can also be found on the web site here. Or you can go directly to it here.
It is interesting time on the Alabama Gulf Coast. All of the crowds are gone from this summer and it is a little too early for most of the Snowbirds.
Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.
The winning boat was We Be Fish'n owned & decorated by Mike Dennis of
Trussville & Orange Beach, Alabama.
Old Wooden Shipwreck in Gulf Shores Alabama
Wooden Shipwreck in Gulf Shores Alabama
By far the video that has gotten the most attention was one made of the shipwreck that appeared a few weeks back. A storm had hit the area and the extra high surf had washed off the sand that had kept it hidden for possibly hundreds years. It was right at the waters edge about five or six miles east of Fort Morgan. It is located right behind a beach house on stilts.
Within a day or two the news of the shipwreck was going around the area. A friend of mine, Ken Cooper that owns orangebeach.ws, sent me an email saying he thought it would be something I would want to video. I couldn't get to it quick enough to suit me. My wife and I rode out Fort Morgan road having no idea where we were going. After riding out almost into the Fort itself, we turned around and went into the store at the Fort Morgan Marina. The gentleman there told us exactly how to get to it. Luckly we could drive to within, what must have been, a hundred feet of it.
I say, "Luckly" because my wife had to get back in order to go to work. There were several other vehicles parked in the area and some people walking around the wreckage. I managed to get most of the shots I wanted but planned on returning for a few more at a later time. The ship looks to be about 150 feet long and 36 feet at the widest point. It was burned at some point down to about the waterline. There are rows of metal spikes even though the wooden planks of the hull are fastened with wooden pegs.
There are lots of guesses going around about the ship and its fate. It seems to have been a schooner and may have been a blockade runner during the Civil War. There is a known shipwreck just a couple of miles west of this one, the Ivanhoe, a blockade runner that was burned by Union sailors during the Civil War.
I started capturing and editing the footage as soon as we got home. By that night I had it uploaded to the website. They next day I put a post about it on the al.com forums and from there the words spread around leading to record number of visitors to our still new site.
Before I could get back to make any more footage of the shipwreck I heard that it had already been recovered by the sand. I understand that a someone from Mobile is looking into it and is supposed to have more information about it soon. The video of it is located Here. You can access all of the videos www.algulfcoastvideo.com. 
So Many Things To Video - Part 1
Even before I arrived on the Alabama Coast I had began a list of subjects to make videos of. I had to keep several things in mind. One was that the weather was pretty hot, I wasn't in the best of shape (after many years of working in an office) and I only had so much money to spend on freebie videos before I had to get some paying work coming in. The list continued to grow after getting to the coast and it still grows every week.
I had to hold off on some subjects because of the heat and to give myself time to get into better shape. Fort Morgan and the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuse were a couple of them.
I had one video of a trip out Fort Morgan road made before I moved down. It had some wildlife, boats and ended with a spectacular sunset. It was shot during our last trip down. It is called " Take in a Sunset." I had also made arrangements to video a rental condo. That one was done soon after I arrived. It was very important to have a rental video on the website right away so that others could see what I was talking about. If anyone would like to see it, it is located here. 
Some other fairly inexpensive and easily accessed subjects were on my list and I was able to do them fairly quickly. One of them was the old Gulf State Park Resort Hotel. Like many others I thought that it was almost completely destroyed, but that wasn't the case. My feeling was that it would be a good idea to show those that couldn't see for themselves just what it looks like. One of my thoughts about this new business with it's website was to be the eyes for those that love the Alabama Gulf Coast but can't be here all of the time. Some people, on one of the Gulf Shores forums I follow, weren't too happy about my showing it. They didn't want anything that might be taken as negative to be put out. I guess they thought it might keep people from coming to the coast, give a bad picture of things. As it stands now it is supposed to be demolished starting any time now. I fully plan on getting video of that as well when it happens. I guess what I am trying to say here is that the list of things to video in this area seems to be pretty much endless. Visit the website and see all of the videos: www.algulfcoastvideo.com
The First Few Weeks
 Blogarama 
It took a couple of weeks to get settled in. There were chores that had to be done. Getting our son enrolled in school, getting internet, getting a PO box, getting business licenses for both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, business cards, magnetic signs and a host of others things that I won't bore you with. All of the time working on the website whenever I could.
One of the first places we had to eat was at our favorite, the Original Oyster House. We ate out two or three times a week in the beginning. Places like the Giggling Grouper at Bear Point Marina, Big O's, Sea 'N Suds and King Neptunes and many others. As time has gone by we have had to scale back some. The reality of starting a new business on a limited budget.
Having gotten most everything done I could then start on the Video Business. What a great business! Live in Gulf Shores and run around making videos of anything and everything.
One good thing about it is that it makes me do things that I might otherwise pass on. An example is watching the Thunder on the Gulf offshore boat race. I am not a big race fan but felt that it is such a big thing in the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area that I just had to video it. That included going to the Wharf for the dry pit. A day where you can get up close to the boats and I was able to get some really nice video. Because of the large crowds on race day we ended up having to make quite a hike to get to the beach where I could shoot the race. For those familiar with the area, we had to park in the lot at Alabama Point and walk through the heat and sand all the way out to the end of the seawalls. We had to do this carrying a good size camera bag, a large heavy duty tripod, a cooler, beach umbrella, towels and snacks. I would never have done this if I didn't feel like it was very important to get this video. For anyone who would like to see the videos they can be found at Alabama Gulf Coast Video, algulfcoastvideo.com
There have been other things that I have done like this but I'll save that for another time.
How and Why I ended up behind the camcorder on the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Blogarama
In July of 2006 my family and I moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama . I had lived here twenty something years before and had always hoped to someday end up living here again.
My wife and I had been in business for almost 14 years in the small town of Ashville, in St. Clair County, Alabama. We own a small business that publishes a weekly ad paper called The Country Bulletin. During that time I had gotten started doing digital video as a side business. Nothing I have ever done gave me as much pleasure as working with video. As the technology got better and better, both with the video and the internet, I saw that the time had come where we would start seeing a lot more streaming videos on the internet. I had been doing the website for our business for about 8 years. The idea came to me that I could put my interest in video and the internet together and start a new business. The best part was that I felt like the Alabama Gulf Coast would be a great place to run the new business.
The idea was to start a website that had videos about all kinds of things on the Alabama Gulf Coast. I would shoot videos of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan, Bon Secour and the surrounding areas. These videos could be watched by anyone online anywhere in the country or the world for free. Hopefully owners of rental property or property for sale would be willing to pay a reasonable amount to have a video tour of their property made. When I talk about a video I mean one that is shot with a 3 chip digital camcorder, edited with titles, captions, music and transitions. A video is as close as we can get to seeing something in person without actually being there. All kinds of other businesses could have a commercial or webmercial so almost any business would be a potential customer. Some people might wonder why anyone would click on a commercial. But if you think about it, if you are a tourist interested in finding a restaurant or going on a dolphin cruise, wouldn’t you want to see a video of your choices? For the business owner, these are commercials that are available 24/7 and only to those that want them. By my making the videos and hosting them on my website no extra space would be required by the customer. It is a fairly easy matter to also add some code to any other website they may use to have the video also show up there. Of course having the equipment and knowledge I can continue to do wedding and other videos that would be put on DVD.
So we left our daughter to run the old business and made the plunge. That is how we came to live in Gulf Shores and how I happened to end up behind the camcorder on the Alabama Gulf Coast! That resulted in our new website: Alabama Gulf Coast Video.
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