This past weekend I had the pleasure of being in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to do two book signing events at Sugarlands and Cades Cove Visitor Centers. It is always fun to be down there and meet folks coming into the park and get reactions to the book first hand. I have some great notes from a few of those who have taken the book home and written me about how much they love the book. I am always humbled by their notes. This past weekend I also ended up giving some advice on where to go to shoot the sunset in the park to three gentlemen who had come for the weekend to shoot some images. I mentioned that on this night they could go up to Clingmans Dome and get two very different shots, one of the full moon rising in the east and then turn to the west and photograph the ridges of mountains in the sunset. I confessed I was going to try and head someplace else to shoot the full moon rising, since I had shot it from Clingmans Dome before – and I showed them the pages in the book. But I confessed if it didn’t work I might see them up there.

Well, as it turns out, the location I thought might work looked a bit to far to the southeast and ridges blocked where the moon was going to come up at 81º in the east. So I eventually headed up to Clingmans Dome and ran into these gents and we all ended up shooting together, along with the dozens of others up there that cold, cold evening. I was too late for the moon rise, but got there to shoot the end of the sunset. It is always fun to see how you can have 4-5 folks within feet of each other and we all get different results and see the shots differently. It was also fun to give them some advice on the techniques I use to achieve some of the my images and how late into the darkness I end up shooting, usually being the last to leave an area in total darkness.

All three it turns out have studio’s down south but don’t do nature photography. I got a nice note back from one of them who is the photographer for the woman’s roller derby team in Atlanta – who knew they still had roller derby? He’s got some nice shots of them. Ironically, none of them bought the book – what’s up with that? – but we all had a great time anyway! In his note he said they all decided to come back often to shoot in the park, so maybe the next time I’m there over Halloween weekend I’ll run into them again.

To see more from this hour of shooting on Clingmans Dome use this link: Clingmans Dome Sunset

Cheers!

Richard

Late last week a spring snow storm dropped 12” – 17” on Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a rare event, especially in the last few years. As part of my next book project I have been sorting through 30 years of photographs from the park and have found myself woefully lacking winter shots. So with the snow totals looking good, but the temperatures expected to rise back into the 50’s and 60’s, I called my friend who happens to have access to a plane and we took off 24 hours later, on Saturday morning to head down to the snow. This seemed a bit crazy to most around here, since Chicago has been inundated with snow this winter, but it had to be done for the book.

We took off about 6:15am on Saturday morning and flew down the lakefront past Chicago. In the morning light the city looked great from the air and I snapped a few shots as we went by. The remainder of the flight was a beautiful blue sky smooth ride at 9500’. We arrived at the Gatlinburg airport at 10 or so and after picking up the rental car and a bit to eat we were in the park by 11:30. On the drive up the mountains I started to get concerned because I had yet to see any snow! Were had it all gone? The weather reports had said there was even 5” on the ground in Gatlinburg, but it was not here now! I could not even see it on the edges of the cliffs. The farther up we went the more concerned I was that the trip had been for nothing! But then we reached the altitude where the base of the snow started. At the first creek with snow we pulled over and I began to shoot. It was almost like being in overdrive as I pointed the lens everywhere in a mad rush to get images. Predictably, these first shots were not very thoughtful. But after getting this first stop out of the way I began to settle down and really start to see images. As the snow depth increased, so did my concentration. It takes time and an openness to what is presented in front of you to find the images which will tell a story, make people want to linger over them. You can not be a bull in a china shop and just snap away if you want them to be interesting. You must slow down and see.

I worked streams with their snow covered rocks, hillsides with the pines covered with snow, small detail scenes of snow clinging to rocks, and icicles hanging from the cliffs. The biggest problem was it was a blue sky day – making it very sunny with the light casting shadows and making the images full of contrast. Not the best, but it worked and as the sun began to settle into the west the ridges blocked the light and gave me the perfect mix of soft light.  

Because we had only one day, and maybe a few hours in the morning, we could not spend any time hiking into some of my favorite places, but stayed near the main road. We saw a lot of folks building snowmen, even putting them around the antennas on their cars so they drove with small snowmen on their windshields. By evening I went to a few of the overlooks which give you those sweeping look up the valleys. Winter is the best time for those long views of the mountains as the clear air enables you to see much further than in the summer. By now there was also a steady stream of overcast clouds moving in, making a sunset either one of those things that will not happen, or will be stunning. I shot at one overlook and then just before sunset went to the most famous overlook for sunset in the park, Morton Overlook. As I pulled in no one else was there. Guess they all figured nothing would happen this evening. I knew enough to hang out and wait, with the camera setup. This brought a few people to pull off the road, some getting out and looking and then going on, some staying. And then, right on queue and as I thought it just might, the sun went below the bottoms of the clouds and lit up the undersides of the clouds in a spectacular sunset. Now cars were pulling off the road in great numbers! I kept shooting while people talked to me. The show would not last more than a few minutes and I had work to do. Within five minutes the sun was gone and the clouds returned to a dark gray. The day was over. It was time to think about the morning shots over dinner.

Unfortunately, the weather back in Chicago looked like it would deteriorate early in the day Sunday, instead of staying nice until Monday. After much consternation, we agreed we needed to leave at dawn to get in before the weather in Chicago made it impossible for us to get back in the next three days. It would have been nice to have more time, but in the roughly 9 hours on the ground I was able to get enough I hope to fill out the book with the winter shots I so needed.  To see the entire selection of the trip use this link to see my quick gallery of images: www.mackphoto.com/blog/SmokiesWinter/

We’ll soon have a selection of these images for sale online in the Quiet Light Publishing Gallery, http://www.quietlightpublishing.com/shop/Gallery.htm were we already have images from this upcoming book and from the Lewis & Clark Trail American landscapes book.

So, in the meantime Sam and I will head of to Zion and Bryce and have a great time, using the old equipment – my Canon 1Ds which I’ve used for the last 4 years. We will try to post some images from the road, but figure that may be impossible to do as there will be limited Internet connections. We’ll have an update when we return at least.

On to the roadways of America…

Richard.

In the newsletter I talked about how we now have many images online in the Gallery section, both from the Lewis & Clark Trail AMERICAN LANDSCAPES book and one I am currently working on based on 30 years of photography in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can view the images online at our Gallery – www.quietlightpublishing.com/shop/Gallery.htm.

I also have several Triptych’s available. It is a format which is very interesting to produce, because it takes some time to find three images which are great together. But the results are a very stunning pieces. They’ve been placed in homes, offices and public spaces all over. It is always a thrill to see them displayed somewhere.I hope you’ll enjoy the eNewsletter and check out our Gallery Pages!

Peace,
Richard