FLOWING INTO TREETOPS

Canon EOS REBEL XS, Promaster 19-35 lens @ 19mm, ISO 100, f/16, 3.2 sec.

  One of the biggest lessons I have learned from great Nature Photographers like Ian Plant & Richard Bernabe is that when shooting fall color reflections, look for the reflection to take place when the sun is striking the trees and foliage on the opposite side of the river or lake but not on the water. This enhances the reflection of the foliage and also allows the blue sky to reflect on the rocks because the sun hasn't shined on them yet.
  While photographing along the Lynn Camp Prong Sunday morning in Tremont area of the Great Smoky Mountains, my friend Tim Owens and myself were determined to catch some of these type of reflections. The color was definitely there, we were just waiting for the sun to climb high enough to strike the trees just right to cast the reflections. We had been at it for about 3 hours and even though the sun was intruding in places where we wanted to get longer exposures of waterfalls, but we hadn't found that calm pool of water where the light struck it right.
  At about 11:00am we came across the spot you see in today's post.  The tree tops on the opposite side of the river were being illuminated by the sun and the reflections were reaching out to us through this small pool right by the banks. The reflections were being cast onto the water pouring over the single cascade shelf just up stream as well.
  Beings that the sun was hitting the tops of the trees there was still enough shade to allow for a long shutter speed on the cascade and some smooth water effects. The yellow and orange leaves scattered around the green, moss-covered rocks tie in with the yellow tree reflections in the water all the way back through the shot.