Fall in the Smokys 3

We have now left Tennessee and i must admit i am glad to be out of the hustle and bustle of the place, I think it will be sometime before i return, Its great for deer and wild turkeys and the landscapes are excellent but its so bloody frustrating that i wonder if its worth the increase in blood pressure,I did my last day in the tremont area and the road from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove, Its 20 miles of pure magic, You follow a stream the whole way and its full of bends,rocky areas and flat calm areas, I wanted to get some reflections or to be more specific colourful reflections so i needed calm water with fall colours in the distance to 'colour' the water, I must admit i am really enjoying doing some landscapes, Its certainly different to the wildlife and you can take you time and work an area so its very relaxing-dare i say easier-well you still need a good eye for composition and maybe thats why it takes me some time to get the best from an area. I found a couple of nice areas and set to work, the first area gave great coloured water from the tree folage and the second was a waterfall with a great rock that gave an eddy effect where the water went around and around, The eddy was full of foam so i threw some leaves into the foam to try and give some swirls from a long exposure, I would have liked to get in and get rid of the foam but as i nearly killed myself climbing down to the river i didnt want to drown trying to improve the image, I enjoyed the day and got some results and at the end of the day thats what its all about, I have been photographing for many years now and its great to have a calm and enjoyable day, This trip is all about landscapes and if i can get some wildlife in it so more the better but the Fall colours are the main concern and its sometimes difficult to change my mind to not let the wildlife get in the way, I have enjoyed shooting with the D3s, D300 and D7000 but at the end of the day the D3s is king and always my first choice, Its such a complete package from ergonomics to image quality, I love to work with it, The D300 is very similar in ergonomics and the D7000 well its just different, It seems very competant and the IQ is very good but its just too small for the kit i use, Stick it on a 200-400 or 600 amd it just looks wrong, I think even with a battery grip it still wont balance a big lens properly, Saying that its going to stay and will have a purpose in my kit bag, As a walk around camera with a wide angle it will take some beating, I used it tonight to get some landscapes with the Smoky Mountains and a bright moon rising and it worked very well, So we are now in Boone NC named after Scotsman Daniel Boone, Its somewhere i would not recommend staying as its a something and nothing place and the Scottish Inn is well worth a miss-its a shit whole and not worth the cost, Its an expensive area-much more than Tennessee, I would recommend staying up the road in Blowing Rock which is very nice more expensive but very nice, The Blue Ridge Parkway here is beautiful and the drive from roaring rock to Grandfather Mountain is stunning, I have to say the North Carolina side of the Smokys are more beautiful than the Tennessee side and has a lot more waterfalls to boot!! 

 

Fall in the Smokys

The weather here in the Mountains has been beautiful, 75 degrees and blue skies, Infact its been a bit too good, Not long after the sun rises the light goes very contrasty, I spent the first day looking around and visiting old haunts, One thing that is very noticeable is that the colours are much much better than last year, A couple of areas are stunning and the colours have peaked in some areas and will be peaking over the next week or so in others, The tops of the smokys are just about done and 1/3 to 2/3 up are at their best as well as around the streams, Another thing is that the rivers are very low and areas where i shot last year are not worth the effort this year, However there are still hundreds of lovely stream areas that really are worth some time and effort to get the best from, I decided to go to Cades Cove late yesterday (Sunday) morning after visiting the tremont area, I thought that the masses would have been and gone but i was wrong, 11am and there was still over 1/2 mile of traffic waiting to get into the place and it would take 2-3 hours to get around the 11 mile circuit-no way, The traffic around the area at the weekend can only be described as HELL and you would be mad to even consider trying to get in, Even if you did photography would be very difficult as every Tom Dick and Harry wants to shoot the same deer as you and will chase them off, I headed up to Clingmans dome for the sunset along with about 20 other photographers and about 500 other people-its a busy place, One thing i noted that out of about 20 photographers only 3 has Canon gear and i was Minolta,The balance being Nikon, I went to Cades today (Monday) and arrived at 6.02am, I was car number 4 and by the time the gate opened at 7.45 there were hundreds of cars waiting, It wasnt long before i came across a group of about 8 bucks locking antlers, I really should have carried on as the light was crap but i stopped and tried to get some shots as did another dozen photographers, I used the D3s as i was shooting at ISO 1600 but the bucks soon moved off and that left me in the middle of the pack, I left the Cove and headed back to Tremont to get some landscapes and found a couple of beautiful areas and spent a couple of hours alone there, To help combat the light i tried to shoot in shady areas and also used a poloriser and even a 10 stop Lee filter which gave me a shutter speed of over 2 minutes, I am back at Cades Cove early tomorrow and then back to do more landscapes, As a note i used the D7000 100% on day one and today i used the D3s as it suited the photography better,

Clingmans Dome with the D7000,70-200 and a 3 and 2 stop Lee Filters ND Grad

Tremont area with Nikon D3s

As above but with the 10 stop

The images are processed on my laptop so may be slightly off

Dave

Smoky Mountains Days 1+2

We are in Tennessee with one of Marian's nieces so Photography is on a when and can basis, We arrived Friday afternoon and after following a thousand hot rods towards Pigeon Forge we dropped our bags off and ask what was going on-seems that this weekend is THE BIG car event of the year here and the world and its wife/sister (same person) is here so it takes 30mins to get 2 miles-nice, We went down to Cades Cove, The jewel of the Smokeys, Unfortunately for some reason the meadows are uncut and the wildlife is very difficult to see, We ended the afternoon with 4 deer and 6 turkeys-i get more in my garden and to cap it off they now open at 10am on Saturday and Wednesday which is crap as the light is very harsh by then and any mist will have burnt off, I made a decision to get up early and head into the mountains to a place called Clingmans Dome which is the high point and gives great views of the sunrise and sets, I arrived early and it was still dark with stars in the sky but a distant glow meant that i wouldn't have to wait too long for the sky to lighten, I got the tripod and camera gear out then realised that i had left the ND grads in the motel so i would take some images and have to HDR them, There were already 3 photographers there and as soon as the sky started to get light a photo workshop arrived and for some reason decided that they would all stand around-ME, i got my shots and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and left, During the day i enjoyed looking at all the shiny cars and really should have taken a camera but i will be back in a couple of weeks and decided to just have a lazy family day, Back to shoot the sunset tonight and then leave early tomorrow to go to the NC side of the mountains for a day.I quickly put 5 frames together with Photomatix but it doesn't seem to like to mist so will have to reprocess it when i get home but it gives you the idea

HDR Image

Standard Processing

Dave