Tag: landscapes

The Smokies- Back of Beyond

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“The dreamy, blue haze that ever hovers over the mountains softens all outlines, lends a mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles off while those farther removed grow more and more intangible, until finally the skyline blends with the sky itself.” Horace Kephart


It is becoming an annual tradition now, where Cathie and I head to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. In 2018, we went twice. I wrote about the first trip, from April, but didn’t get a chance to write about the Thanksgiving excursion. Having just come back from there now, I have decided to just write a little about the park, not necessarily what I have done there, but the experience of being there.

It’s one of the few places where you can be in a heavy, tourist area like Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, but a short drive later, you are off the grid. Twenty minutes out of these heavily populated areas, you have no cellular signal. And while it is the most heavily visited parks, outpacing all of the others by quite a substantial margin each year, you can find yourself away from others. As primarily a landscape and nature photographer, hopefully it’s not hard to understand why I’m drawn to this place. After all, the park owes its existence to photographers.

I had the chance to see the park in late fall, over Thanksgiving last year. There were a few days where there was a heavy frost in the valleys. The park still held tremendous beauty, even if a little stark, with winter about to set in.

Prior to November, my trips had been in spring, although they were after the wildflowers had bloomed. This time, we planned our trip to be closer to bloom. The forests and valleys were awakening, we had timed our trip well this time. The day I arrived was quite rainy, and the rain continued the first full day in the park last Monday. As a result, the streams, rivers and waterfalls were raging. This offered us a myriad of photo opportunities during the week, which we took full advantage of.

Mostly, this past week was about detaching from day-to-day life. I didn’t come back with a tremendous amount of photos. I tried to make the photos count, though. And I also wanted to just be in the moment. Hearing the streams running. Walking out onto the balcony of our cabin with a cup of coffee in the morning, with the only sounds being birds chirping and wind blowing in the trees. It was sublime. It was a fantastic week, as was the week we spent there in November. And while I might not be able to return to the Smokies this year, I will be back, to the back of beyond.

First Road Trip for 2018- Finale

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The day started with a drive on Newfound Gap Road, which traverses the highest parts of the park, and ends in North Carolina. Along the way is Clingman’s Dome, the highest peak in the park. The hike to the observation tower is not a long hike, but, the trail is very steep, it is ranked as one of the more strenuous hikes in the park. Knowing that, we all decided to stay by the parking lot, which still offers some fantastic views of the mountains. Among the cars parked were several Minis, they were either on their to or from a rally. One of the Minis caught my eye- I am a huge Jeremy Clarkson fan, and the owner of the car turned it into a Clarkson/Top Gear tribute. I had to get some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a picnic lunch on the way to North Carolina, and continued on to the old Mingus Mill, which is near the Oconluftee Visitor’s Center (the North Carolina side of the park).

After stopping at the center, we headed back, and stopped at a turnoff overlooking the Oconoluftee River. We got some long exposures of the rushing water, and then continued back toward the NW end of the park where we were staying. We made another stop at Tremont, and by the time we were done there, it was dinner time.

 

 

 

 

We drove into Gatlinburg and had dinner at Bones BBQ Joint, it was a great last meal of the trip. Afterward, we went to the Ole Smoky Distillery and had a moonshine tasting. I bought some to bring back, it was really good!

 

 

 

 

 

Thus ended our spring excursion to the Smokies. As always, a fantastic time, with great people to share the experience with. Cathie and I will be returning to the Smokies in November. Before then, other adventures await, it will be a great summer!

First Road Trip for 2018, Part 4

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The adventure continued on Tuesday, May 1. We got up extremely early in order to catch sunrise from the location we had scouted on the Foothills Parkway. We arrived just as dawn was breaking. The valley below the overlook had a farm with some cows grazing, and due to the temperature, there was a mist hugging the valley floor. It was serene. As the sun cleared the mountains on the horizon, I was able to catch the sunburst over the valley (the featured photo). While the sky itself was not overly dramatic, it was still a great sunrise. We spent the better par of an hour there, then, headed back to cabin for breakfast.

At the start of the trip, I mentioned to Cathie that I really needed to get a haircut. I didn’t have the chance to do it before I left. My day job had been extremely hectic that week, and, Saturdays are my normal haircut day. But, we were in Kentucky on that past Saturday. Cathie thought this whole thing was strange, but, hair doesn’t cut itself. And, I’m all about supporting local businesses. After breakfast, I called the place I chose, and made my appointment, and Joe also took advantage and scheduled an appointment as well.

As our appointments were at 12:30, we decided to kill some time and played a round of miniature golf. On my trip to visit Cathie last August, we played a LOT of miniature golf. We also were battling some very harsh mid-day light, so, we had to find other ways to occupy ourselves. As much as sunny days are nice, and they are, for photography, they do not work well. After the first round of golf, we got lunch, then went for our haircuts. Cathie was still bemused by this whole thing, and got some photos of Joe and I as we were getting our haircuts.

Afterward, we played another round of golf, and the second course was much more fun than the first one. By the end of that round, we had gotten to later afternoon, the light was starting to improve, so we went to Roaring Fork Nature Motor Trail. There are some great hikes to waterfalls, but we didn’t have the time to do either one, so we drove the loop road until we got toward the end. There is an excellent roadside stream among some large rock formations, and the water was running strong. I navigated through the stream, trying not to hurt myself on the very slippery rocks, and set up for a couple of long exposures in the middle of the stream. Whatever it takes to get the shot!

We spent well over an hour and a half there, and the light was starting to fade. Since the light was no longer ideal, we did not stop at the old mill at the end of the motor trail. Instead, we headed back to the cabin, had dinner and relaxed a little. And we thought we were prepared for what awaited us the next day.

First Road Trip for 2018, Part 3

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Monday, April 30, was my 50th birthday. Spending my birthday with my two favorite people is what this was all about. We had breakfast at the cabin, and then ventured into the park. Whether it was too warm, or we arrived too late, the Cades Cove area was not blanketed in its usual morning fog. And there was not much going on around the loop road, so we ended up stopping only at the Cable Grist Mill. I had the chance to finally use the new Lee neutral density filters there, getting some long exposures of the turning water wheel. We then stopped at the souvenir shop, and since I needed a hat, I bought a Smokies trucker cap (two of them, I couldn’t decide on one or the other), plus a few other items. We had lunch, and then scouted the Foothills Parkway for sunrise locations. On the way back into Townsend, we stopped at a country store, where Cathie found a table that she fell in love with. The table was a bear holding up the glass table top. It was hand carved, really well done, but, was quite expensive.

These mid-day diversions became a necessity for most of the trip. Although the weather was spectacular, there were little to no clouds during that week. This makes more for some very harsh light, particularly from mid-morning to late afternoon. Whether you’re shooting in the visible light spectrum, or infrared, that harsh light from the sun directly overhead does not result in the best photographs.

Once we finished at the store, we headed back into the park, and went to one of my favorite roadside rivers, on the road to Cades Cove. We stopped there for close to an hour, and because there are tall hills on both sides of the road, the sun was blocked, giving us some more even light. I utilized the filters again, getting some long exposures of the raging waters (the featured image at the top of this post was taken there). When we finished, our original plan was to head back in the direction we came. But, traffic was backed up all the way to our spot, due to road resurfacing near Tremont. Knowing how far that road was, we decided to head back to Cades Cove and then take the Rich Mountain Road, and head back to Pigeon Forge that way for dinner. It turned out to be a happy detour. First, at Sparks Lane, there was a large group of horses grazing, and walking right up the fence to check out us crazy humans. I was able to get some photos after I was freed from Cathie’s car. For some reason, Cathie decided to park right next to the only road sign on Sparks Lane, blocking me so that I could not open the door. After about 10-15 minutes of her merrily photographing the horses for herself, she realized I had not gotten out of the car. That’s when I pointed out where she had parked. Thanks, Cathie, lol! Once I was able to start getting some photos, the first of a few weird occurrences happened with my workhorse Nikon D800. As I was rapidly firing, the viewfinder suddenly went dark, and the metering was not working. Even after turning the camera off and on, taking out the battery and putting it back in, it was only when I had changed lenses that it started working ok. I went back to the lens I was using, and it seemed to be working fine again. This happened a few other times on this trip. I’m still researching what the issue could be. 

We continued on to Rich Mountain Road, and on the drive up the hill, we came across a bear. It was the first one I had seen in the park in my two trips. I was on the wrong side of the car to get any kind of decent shot. At one point, I had gotten out to try to retrieve my camera from the trunk, but this got the bear’s attention. To be safe, and to not encourage her to approach closer, I got back in the car. Cathie got several photos, that was good enough for both of us. Finally, we headed out to get dinner. I chose Bennett’s Barbecue Pit for dinner, we ate there the last time. The food is excellent, as was the beer, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly after a great first full day in the park.

River Of Ice

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Living in Chicago, and being a photographer, I have a serious love/hate relationship with winter. When the icy winds blow from the north, sweeping down with it the polar air, there are not enough layers to wear to really protect you from it. Snow piles up, usually with some ice mixed in, making walking and driving treacherous. But, at the same time, winter has a beauty all its own. That’s where the “love” kicks in for me. Snaking through the loop, the frozen river adds a textural element that is a sight to behold, especially as evening descends. The frozen river shimmers as the street lights turn on, turning “blue hour” into a rare jewel of gold and turquoise.

The last two winters have been unusually mild, and neither the lake nor the river held ice for very long, if at all. I wasn’t complaining, but, as a result, I did not get out to do much winter photography. Since Christmas, we have been in the grips of the arctic air again. The river started freezing over, and I have been waiting for the ice to cover most of the main branch of the river. Usually, only the main branch freezes, the south and north branches have stronger currents which do not allow for much ice formation. But, this arctic air has been so cold that the ice has now spread into both branches.

Some friends of mine and I decided we needed to pounce on this opportunity. This past Wednesday evening, and yesterday, we ventured downtown to explore the icy river. Wednesday’s excursion centered around the DuSable Bridge, and the river walk just to the west and east of the bridge. We had to go out in short stints, the wind chills rapidly dropped down into sub-zero temperatures after the sun set.

Yesterday, we met up further west near Wolf Point, where the river branches to the north and south. We captured sunset, blue hour, the night reflections, and made a circuit to the Kinzie Street Bridge, and finishing on the river side of the Merchandise Mart.

Winter photography is special in many ways. If you take the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your photography gear, you will capture something incredible.