Smoky Mountains

Center of the Universe, a photo by corinne.schwarz on Flickr.

We went down to Pigeon Forge, TN last week. We stayed in a cabin for a few days. My son had a ball with the bumper boats and other touristy things in town, and I enjoyed going through the National Forest.

Usually I can see something, know what I want to capture with my camera, and get it. It wasn't like that when I was in the mountains. It was so beautiful and the scale was so grand, that nothing I did could accurately capture the wonder of the nature that was before me.

The next valley was always more beautiful than the last, each mountain was so much more grand than the one before.

At one point I had pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture of a mountain. I thought, "It's going to be so easy to get a great shot, since it's so incredibly beautiful". But, like I mentioned earlier, it wasn't as easy as I expected.

The place where I stopped was at the foot of the mountain. Two huge peaks towered above me. I had to turn my head to the side to take it all in... such a huge expanse of beauty.

And the best picture I got didn't even do it half the justice it deserved.



I was excited to find a wonderful waterfall just off the road. I've always liked the water shots with long exposures, which make the water look soft. I've only done it a few times, and this waterfall was a great opportunity to give it another go.

I had to use my tripod, of course. I hate using my tripod, but that's neither here nor there. I used my wide angle lens, which i don't have an ND filter for, but since it was getting a little late in the day, and I was in the forest, I figured it was still 'do able'.

The shots are "alright". Maybe if I had taken them a year ago, I would have been super proud, but at this point, they were kinda... blah.

There's just too much going on, too many rocks and not enough fall. Yet another glorious example of nature that was impossible for me to catch with my camera. The falls were actually very spectacular. The gentle slope downward was amazing, and the green moss was beautiful. But I couldn't do it justice.



Well, time to plan another trip to the Smokies!