• landscape,  National Parks,  quotes,  river,  Smoky Mountains National Park

    The Earth is a Gift

    August 12, 2022
    Fall colors on Roaring Fork River in October of 2003

    “Our elders say that ceremony is the way we can remember to remember. In the dance of the giveaway, remember that the earth is a gift that we must pass on, just as it came to us. When we forget, the dances we’ll need will be for mourning. For the passing of polar bears, the silence of cranes, for the death of rivers and the memory of snow.”

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    This quote reminded me of my visit to the Roaring Fork River back in 2003. I went up there with a fellow photographer to share expenses and have my first visit to the Smoky Mountains. It was also my first year with my first digital camera, a Nikon D100. I was very impressed with the beauty of this area. Someday I would like to make a return visit.

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  • landscape,  mountains,  National Parks,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Sunrise at Foothills Parkway

    November 14, 2019

    Sunrise on Foothills Parkway in the Smoky Mountains

    In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy skips and dances down a yellow brick road in hopes of finding the Wizard of Oz who will help her return home to Kansas. Traveling that yellow brick road lead her to new horizons, discovering her gifts of wisdom, courage, and love. I like to think of Dorothy’s yellow brick road as a metaphor of our spiritual journey to new horizons.

    Some of us live in the shadow of an illusionary self, a false-self that alienates us from reality, much of this world and a Creator. We can be blind to the possibility of the horizons yet to be discovered, paralyzed with fear, failing to venture forward on our yellow brick road and discover our gifts of wisdom, courage, and love, which I choose to call our true-self.

    “May we seek this inward path to encounter the true-self, the essence of who we are, and allow ourselves to be embraced by love.”

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  • landscape,  mountains,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Something from the Past

    August 7, 2019

    This is another HDR image from a trip back in 2003 to the Great Smoky Mountains. It is a sunset image taken on the Foothills Parkway. This image is a merging of three images exposed plus and minus 2/3 stop. I took it prior to any knowledge of HDR. My reason for the multiple exposures was to make sure I had a good exposure. It was taken with my first DSLR, a Nikon D100 and the Nikon 80-400mm lens. It wasn’t a day or two later that I dropped that lens and destroyed it. I pretty much bent it in the middle. Lesson learned was to make sure the camera and lens are securely fastened to your tripod before picking up your tripod. I ended up shooting the rest of the trip with one lens, a Sigma 24-85mm f2.8-4.0 lens.

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  • landscape,  mountains,  Smoky Mountains National Park

    And That’s Your Picture

    November 13, 2012

    Foothills Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains

    “As the saying goes, we see in terms of our education. We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect. And indeed it is socially useful that we agree on the function of objects. But, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs. Move on objects with your eye straight on, to the left, around on the right. Watch them grow large as you approach, group and regroup as you shift your position. Relationships gradually emerge and sometimes assert themeselves with finality. And that’s your picture.” – Aaron Siskind, The Art of Photography

    It can be difficult to find new perspectives when capturing images from those popular locations people flock to like this image taken on the Foothills Parkway in the Smoky Mountains. People will sometimes be elbow to elbow as the sun begins to rise. The morning this image was taken a photography workshop was in progress so we had about a dozen photographers with tripods. So I moved away from the crowd looking for another angle and used a Nikon 80-400mm lens to bring the scene in closer and remove distracting objects. This is my picture.

    Not sure if it was that evening or the next that I dropped and destroyed that lens. Still makes my stomach turn. 🙁

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  • landscape,  mountains,  National Parks,  Smoky Mountains National Park

    You Had Muir

    December 14, 2011

    The Great Smoky Mountains

    Perhaps the greatest tribute ever given to Muir took place in a private conversion between two great contemporary mountaineers. Galen Rowell once asked Rheinhold Messner why the greatest mountains and valleys of the Alps are so highly developed, why they have hotels, funicular railways, and veritable cities washing up against sites that, in America, are maintained relatively unencumbered by development. Messner explained the difference in three words. He said, “You had Muir.”

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  • landscape,  Smoky Mountains National Park,  sunrises

    Smoky Mountains Revisited

    March 17, 2011

    Sunrise

    This is an image taken back in 2003 on Foothills Parkway during a week long trip to Smoky Mountains. It was my first experience visiting the park. I loved the park and am surprised I’ve not returned. It was a memorable trip in that I dropped and broke a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens so I spent the last three days shooting with my longest focal length of 85mm.

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