Capturing Gold in the Smokies

I was going into this trip a little nervous! The last several trips have come up empty, but this one had a better feel to it! Jesica, the zoo, and myself hitched up the camper and headed to one of our favorite places on the planet, the Smokies! I love analogies and this one sums up the Smokies to me! I feel places like the Rockies are visually more striking than the Appalachian Mountains but not quite the depth. The Rockies are like watching the X games and seeing some kid do a triple backflip on a bike! It’s an instant WOW!! The Appalachians are like sitting on an old porch with a Grandpa telling some cool old story! There’s just a different level of connection. The mountains of Appalachia just really move me for whatever reason! On the way there we went through the beautiful Nantahala Gorge, over Newfound Gap, and along the Little River! We had perfect conditions! It was a little misty and cloudy making the trees look like they were plugged in! Those conditions are infinitely prettier than a clear blue sky! We got to our favorite little campground and set up the camper. It was getting late in the day but I had a little time to go check how things were up in the Tremont area! It didn’t disappoint! I had just started to head up the river when I saw a composition I liked. So I went to pull over and actually saw another spot! I found a spot about 50 yards down the road and pulled over. I decided to go to the first location first then hit the second one on the way back. As I was setting up my camera a black bear crossed the river right where I would’ve been at the second spot! Bad thing was my camera was set for landscape conditions and I had a polarizer on my lens to boot. I scrabbled through settings trying to get and image of the bear but with my wide angle lens the 350lb bear looked very tiny! I did come away with this image though! I love this yellow tree leaning over the river with beautiful fall color in the back of the image!

I got up the next morning and decided to head out for a quick trip before coming back and picking up my sidekicks! Jesica loves the coziness of hanging out with the puppies with a nice cup of coffee! I usually get to the Cove before it opens so I’m one of the first through. On this day I cut the loop a little short. I wanted to head back into Tremont because it looked so good! On my way though I had to stop at the Carter Shield cabin! I’ve got a history with this ole cabin! If you’ve followed me for a while you might have seen images of an old cabin at night! It’s the cabin that Jesica got chased out by a bunch of bats while dropping a lantern by the window! The new image of the cabin is all about the fall color! Here are some of the images I’ve collected of this old cabin!

I made my way though the Cove and was headed out to go back into the Tremont area. There was one spot that I had to stop at before that happen though! It’s a nice little spot that I’ve shot a few times and it usually delivers. I could tell the light was nice when I pulled in the lot! When I got there I noticed this nice root system along the bank that would make a very lovely foreground to add to the beautiful Laurel Creek! The tops of the trees were glowing with the nice ambient light that was hitting it! I thought it came out really good!

I made it to Tremont and man it was an image every 50 feet! I got to this one spot that I’ve been to a few times but seemed to struggle to make sense of it! I try very hard to keep the sky out of the image if possible when shooting along a river or fall. I like to have the brightest part of the image contained inside the photo. If the bright part is on the edge of the photo your eye tends to stay there. My thoughts anyway and obviously doesn’t always apply. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s not avoidable! What I love about the photo is the gnarly tree that frames it! It helps keep the eyes down in the photo. To explain my thoughts though by using this image which will in turn make you have issues it, but that’s ok. Part of this is to help those getting into photography and how to compose which is my favorite part of photography. When looking at this image pay attention to how much your eyes drift up due to the bright sky along the top. That being said, I’m happy with how this image of the old gnarly tree, Middle Prong River, and the beautiful fall color turned out!

I actually stepped back a little and found another composition! I was able to keep the sky out of this one! It ended up being one of my favorite images of the trip! While I picked on that last photo some, I’ll brag on this one! I was able to use a longer focal length which helped me take the sky out of it. I got really low which helped keep the camera down. I placed the front rock on the bottom right side for an anchor point. The eye then catches the water and follows it until the nice reflection in the pool above the fall. The large rock on left pushes the eye to the right along the river, but the color on the top adds a nice little touch. The gnarly tree is also included which points up to the nice beautiful fall color displayed along the Middle Prong River. I even like the rocks under the water in the front right! Also notice the structure of tree on the left side of the river in this image and how much it stands out compared to the photo above it .

It was time to go get Jesica and let her witness this beauty! We headed out and she mentioned the area called Roaring Fork! You drive through the hustle and bustle of Gatlinburg and find yourself in middle of the magic of the Smokies! This area is really lush and can make some very nice images. We got to this one area and scrambled down to Roaring Fork. It was misting and raining a bit again with some fog which was absolute magic! Once down there I realized that something special was going to happen! I set up on the first image and I was like I don’t know if I can get any better conditions that this! I composed and took the shot and headed up Roaring Fork a bit until I got to a location that was better than the one before! Here both of those photos in order!

We headed on down almost to the end of the Roaring Motor Trail when I noticed a location I’ve never really explored. We pulled over once again and made our way down to the creek. Once again the conditions just made every thing so much better! The color was better! The light was better! It was just a great day for photography. There were 3 small little waterfalls together. There’s another crooked tree that hangs over that adds a nice little touch.

We headed out of Roaring Fork and went up the Little River back towards our camper. We dropped of the fur babies and went back to Tremont. The conditions were still so good even though it was in the middle of the day. We had gotten a nice amount of rain over a couple days so it helped the water flow a bit. I noticed this nice little fall that was off from the normal flow of the river. I tried to frame it with another ole gnarly tree, the Middle Prong, and some more of the autumn color!

Ended up calling it a day and headed back to the camper. The sunset was not going to happen due to the weather in the area. I was fine with that because the conditions for what I was wanting to do were perfect! The next morning I went back into the Cove and again magic happened! I saw a bear tucked back in the woods so I kinda made my way safely to get some eyes on her! She was a nice size bear! I sat there for a bit and heard a noise up in the trees. She had 3 cubs up there. I was giving her space so I was not worried at all. I ended up going out into a field to see if I could get a look at the cubs in the trees. Wow was I in shock of what I was seeing! I had 3 cubs playing in trees in full color with a nice evergreen to add another element. My favorite image I got was of one of the cubs extending with his nose in the air. If you look closely you can see all 3 cubs in the image. One is not too hidden and you can barely see the other. This I think was my favorite image of the tree and possibly all year!!

While all this was going on I looked to my left and I saw my first morning rainbow that I can think of. Usually I see them after an afternoon rain shower. When I first saw it I couldn’t really figure out was happening. The bow was right along the ridge behind it. So it looked like the color on the mountain was more intense and hazy. Then the rainbow started to get a little more visible and I was turned to grab an image of that. I only had my 70-200 lens so I had to turn my camera portrait style and took several images to create a panoramic image. This ended up being a crazy hour or so!

I ended up heading back to get Jesica and go off exploring some more. It ended up not being as productive as the day before but it still was so pretty! There was a nice yellow tree that had a very cool shape to it! The rapids and pool had a unique little shape to it which added some interest. The color was reflecting in the pool which was pretty awesome! I took a few different shots of it, but I think this was my favorite of the bunch.

While the few days up in the Smokies were beautiful and ended being perfect conditions, we had to head back to reality! Our store Sunrise Grocery and Sunrise on Blue Ridge are wide open this time of year. I’m blessed with help so luckily I can have some peace out here to do this side of things. We packed up the camper, put the puppers in the back seat and headed out! I keep Jes on her toes when I’m driving in beautiful places! It’s hard to pull a camper on curvy small roads and watch your surroundings at the same time!! We were going passed the area called “The Chimneys” and I just had to squeeze our rig into a spot to grab one more image! The clouds were surrounding the mountains they call the Chimneys creating a pretty scene!

Well thanks for joining us on our trip into the beautiful Smoky Mountains! I will tack on some more photos for the trip. If you enjoyed this and you are one of the kind people who make the effort to share things please feel free to do so. Thank you and see you next time!

NOTICE THE BUCK AND THE DOE IN THE FIELD. I DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE THEM WHEN I WAS TAKING THE SHOT. THE BUCK IS ACTUALLY DECENT SIZE!

Deep into the Smokies

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