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| The grand vistas of Great Smoky National Park illustrate both names "smoky and great! " |
blinded by the light ... a great Smoky preview
Great Smoky National Park is a diverse and very different experience from the places of the Southwest that are familiar in my region. A number of things contribute to this but none so much as the lush and dense forest and flowing water that this landscape presents.
Fall color is a time not to be missed in this area. Our fall color workshop will take place this year in October and a scout expedition this past week was both a delight and a great spring outing.
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| The Big Cove area was alive with new growth |
Coming from the drought stricken western past of the nation and being dropped into the green of spring in this are was blinding! The quality of light in every situation, especially by subdued reflective light, was everywhere. Even in the muted deep forest it was hard not to be blinded by the light!
In general, the Smokies' wide diversity of flowering plants and trees makes for a colorful spring, summer, and fall. The spring bloom starts in the valleys around April and works upward to the peaks through July, while the changing colors of the foliage start on the peaks as early as mid-August and works downward to the valley into October. Northern and southern vegetation meet here. You can walk through valleys where you'll see deciduous forests common to Georgia and then walk up to ridge lines above 6,000 feet where evergreen forests typical of Maine grow!
The weather provides many opportunities as well. Late spring and early fall bring mild days and cool nights, with temperatures in the low 70s during the day and mid-40s at night. Summers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park are warm and humid. At lower elevations, high temperatures range from 55°F to 90°F. At higher elevations, high temperatures are in the low 50s to the mid-60s. Winter is often cold, dropping below zero at higher elevations, and occasionally snowy.
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| Waterfalls in spring ©Tim Bloomquist |
A bear in Cades Cove ©Tim Bloomquist |
Smoky Sunset ©Tim Bloomquist |
I've visited and photographed the park in many seasons. Winter brings light snow mostly and bare trees. The vistas put on a show in low light and the days are short and mild. Spring sees the waterfalls, rivers and creeks at full flow and brings wildflowers galore. Summer brings more people and hot, humid conditions but the forests always seem to cool the spirit and heat up the photographic action!
The Great Smoky Mountains are the highest peaks in the Appalachian mountain range, yet they are rounder and lower in elevation than younger mountain chains such as the Rocky Mountains. This range began almost 1 billion years ago.
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| Sidelight is filtered in this image from the Blue Ridge Parkway |
An ancient sea flooded what is now the eastern United States, submerging the remnants of an old mountain range. The sea slowly deposited layers and layers of sediment onto the ocean floor. The intense pressure of thousands of feet of sediment compressed these layers into metamorphic rock. Almost 300 million years ago, the sea added yet another layer of limestone sediment that was composed of fossilized marine animals and shells. The stage was set for the formation of the Appalachian Mountains. The idea is to get all of this in your viewfinder!
But it's the fall and all the potential that it brings to the park that was in our thoughts as Tim Bloomquist and I traveled traversed the park from Tennessee on the west to North Carolina in the east. We crisscrossed the park many times as we also did the appalachian Trail that divides the park, and the states, in some places. This is a great place at anytime! That's a given, but to anticipate a workshop, is a completely different animal.
Location, location, location! True in business and in life. In photography it can be everything as well. The logistics are very important. How to make the most of the time allowable and to be in the right position to take advantage of a given situation is sometimes very difficult to judge. Being "on" the landscape is different than being "in" the landscape. Different times of year bring different light and a different landscape to capture. There are times when you need shade and times when only direct sunlight will make an image. Looking into a sunset can produce spectacular images. Looking away can made quite moody scenes. Finding a place that will allow both is ideal but not always practical. And .. where to put a break in the day, food and where to stay! What to suggest for equipment and how to travel with it. In the end, it's always a compromise. How much compromising and how much can easily be done was what knowledge we were after! And a few images too!
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| The quiet of first light on the parkway |
Waterfalls are hidden treasures | the haze that gives the park its name |
The stillness of pre-dawn is much in evidence in the image on the left. A well worn path was unsightly and was masked with the use of both Singh-Ray's "soft Ray" filter and 3 stop reversed grad ND. Canon 1Ds MKll and 24-70 2.8L. In the image below the detail became the subject for the same scene. The same reverse ND was harder to hide and I moved the filter quickly during the long exposure created by the use of the Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter. Canon 1Ds MKll 20 MM 2.8
The center image above is a 4 frame composite stitch. I had broken my MKll earlier and borrowed Tim's 1D for a couple of frames here. Usually I would use my Hassleblad X-Pan in this situation but It was not with me for our scout trip. The composite compresses the falls and leaves doubt as to perspective. The hope is to get another go at this one in the fall.
In short, this one was a free lunch! We came for the place, not to capture images. Not this time anyway! We were there in preparation and anticipation. We allowed enough time to look, and while we looked to pave a path to October, we shot what we could as well. After all, it is almost impossible for me to think images and not make them!
As mentioned, it was green, green and still greener everywhere. We had Wild flowers in some locations and we did see a couple of bears along the way but what struck me was the reflected light of the forests, and of course the vistas!
In the top image made at Water Rock Knob just outside the national park on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the serene quiet of the smokies is captured along with the glow. This idyllic setting speaks volumes of this area.
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| Can't see the forest for the trees? Not a problem in the smokies |
One can go from practically Washington DC through Shenandoah National Park and into Great Smoky doing pull out after pull out and seeing vista after vista and never leave the paved road! Certainly not my idea of how to photograph landscape but done by many with a great deal of success. It's hard not to be taken by the easy access that the roads allow along the ridges and I don't think you can pass them up. We certainly did not! Sunrises and sunsets from these locations were a joy. There will be many on our fall workshop as well.
A short walk from any road will bring you to a waterfall. A hike will take you to another and if you are willing to do the thousands of miles of trails in the area there are spectacular waterfalls, cascades, creeks and rivers to be found. Our plans are to photograph as many as possible in the fall!
In October our hopes are for reds, reds and more reds to go with the "blinded by the light" greens and everything in between! The peopled part of the park bring the hand of man and its history. The cabins, farms and homes that are left add much to the flavor and feel or these mountains. Photographing brings back a time that is gone, and if all goes well, a time that is here and now!
We hope to see y'all in the fall at Great Smoky!
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