BEAR CROSSING

ISO 100, f/20, 8 seconds, 19mm

  Took a day of vacation from work today to meet my friend John Deas and his wife Lynn and hike to Abraham's Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
  The hike was amazing. 5 miles round trip up and down the mountain sides and along Abraham's Creek. As moderately difficult as the hike is there are tons of people who make the rocky trek to a gorgeous waterfall.
  About 1/2 way along the trail, we were just talking away while I was watching the ground to avoid rocks and roots in the trail. I happened to just pick up my head and about 25 feet in front of me was a Black Bear munching on something in one of the dead tree trunks in the brush. We all stopped and started backing up carefully and in a minute or two the bear just wondered away and we continued on.
  This was the first time I had ever come face-to-face with a Black Bear on foot. It was scary, exhilarating, and cool all at the same time. The bear acted like he didn't even notice us and didn't have a care as to what was going on.
  After we arrived at Abraham's Falls, I waded into the creek to catch a couple of compositions and then worked my way up close to the falls where John was.
  As I was leaving I noticed these yellow leaves swirling in an eddy between these rocks and knew I had to get that shot.  I took two exposures, one for the eddy swirl and another for the waterfall that was overexposed in the eddy swirl shot. I then combined them in Photoshop Elements. 

TELLICO SUNRISE PANORAMA

ISO 100, f/20, 1/3 second, 19mm

 Sometimes you just get lucky.
  This morning, once again after I dropped off my daughter at school, I was nearly out of gas in my Jeep and was frantically trying to get somewhere that I could capture an epic sunrise that was happening right in front of me.
  I pulled into the Rocky Top station in Vonore and pumped a quick $30 of gas into my truck and then quickly drove down Highway 360 to a spot that I have taken shots from several times. When I arrived there, I noticed fall colors starting to push through on some of the trees across the lake from me. The fog was creeping along the water and the sky was split in two with some white, streaking clouds to the left and spotty, magenta & yellow hued clouds to the right. It was one of the most epic sunrises I have ever seen right before the sun rose up.
  I bracketed 5 shots in a 3 step panorama and then processed in Photomatix Essentials and then stitched together in Photoshop Elements. Some minor tweaking in Lightroom and viola!

TOP OF THE WORLD

ISO 100, f/20, 1/4 second, 35mm

  Tim Owens, Alex Banakas, and I made an early morning trek to Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this morning for sunrise. We made the trip with the hope that we would see some early morning fog or an epic color sunrise. Unfortunately, there was no fog on the mountains and virtually no clouds in the sky but that didn't stop us from capturing some beautiful color from the tallest peak in the Smokies.

CHILHOWEE RED

ISO 100, f/20, 1/12 Second, 19mm

  Drove down Highway 129 (The Dragon as it is commonly known) towards Chilhowee Dam on Friday evening hoping to see some early signs of fall color.
  Even though there were scatterings of yellows and reds in places there just wasn't enough to make for a grand reflection in the river, which is what I was after. I did find this neat little maple tree that was turning red already. The leaves were being wonderfully back lit by the evening sun.

FRIENDSHIP CHURCH - BLUE HOUR

ISO 100, f/20, 60 seconds, 20mm

  On my way home from umpiring a middle school softball game this evening I couldn't help stopping by this church to take some blue hour shots. I have been wanting to photograph Friendship Baptist Church for a long time now but have never passed by it when the light was right.
  Tonight there weren't any clouds in the sky and that almost stopped me from pulling in. The light striking the church from a street light, however, quickly changed my mind.
  As I was shooting I noticed the moon hovering to the south and shining bright and had to take an angle with it in the shot. It barely fit into the frame and still allowed me to use the sunburst from the parking lot light right over the corner of the church as well. It wasn't until I started processing the image that I noticed the sunburst off of the moon as well.Bonus!
  I did get some traffic lights of the passing by cars in the shot which I would have liked not to have included but couldn't successfully crop them out.

CADES COVE GOLDENROD

ISO 100, f/20, 1/5 second, 19mm

  Goldenrod runs rampant throughout Cades Cove. It looks more like a weed than a wildflower but is really quite beautiful when it grows in large masses like it does here.
  This shot was taken in between Sparks and Hyatt Lanes on the front part of the Scenic Loop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The misty fog laying in front of the mountains just made us have to stop and shoot this vista. The Goldenrod made for a nice foreground.

DEFIANCE

ISO 100, f/20, 2 Seconds, 19mm

  To me, there is no better place to capture the beauty of fall than The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Even though we are just starting to notice some color changes in the trees, the ground is loaded with it. Predominately yellows taking over the late blooming wildflowers with some purples mixed in accenting them throughout Cades Cove.
 It was an absolutely gorgeous scene yesterday even though there was very little sunlight at all.
  This particular photo caught my eye as we were driving along the Loop Road. I noticed what is a drainage ditch that was filled with these yellow weeds and a large amount of Black-Eyed Susans. The ditch curved along with the edge of the tree line and seemed to point right at this small tree that stood out away, almost defiantly, from the rest of the forest line.
  The only out of the ordinary processing I did on this was apply the Dreamland Effect from OnOne's Perfect Effects 3 Free to soften and darken the forest line and background behind the defiant tree.