I had business over in Nashville at the Grand Old Opry recently. In visiting with the staff, the flooding last year reached the 2nd floor. Unbelievable…however it took them only 6 months to be back in business.

Being so close to the Smokey Mountains, I decided to head that way for a couple of days, knowing full well that the colors had not reached their peak. I still had fun photographing landscape and nature images, which is a break from my sports, action and event photography. Now I need to spend some time in post processing…I seem to enjoy photographing more than the post processing, how about you?

Cable Mill in Cades Cove

There were some great winding roads with some awesome colors, but…the traffic as many of you know was brutal. I wanted so badly to plant my tripod straddling the double yellow line and take some landscape photographs, however I wouldn’t be here writing this blog. I was still tempted, so this was the best I could do without a tripod, and very quickly at that. The birch trees had vibrant yellows at this elevation.

The Smokey Mountains are a magical place, and it draws 7+ Million visitors each year, but it is tough on photographers and LEAVE LOOKERS!

Waterfalls were crowded at all times of day. However, got this flower in front of the waterfall for a different effect. 30mm, F4, ISO 800, Shutter 1/100 which allowed me to capture the flower that was blowing, and yet show the waterfall more smoothly.