BURST OF FRESHNESS
One of the houndreds of places along the drive in Tremont at the Smoky Mountains.
Tremont is situated along the Middle Prong of Little River a few miles south of Townsend in Blount County, Tennessee. "Tremont" can refer to the former logging town of Tremont or the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, but it generally applies to Middle Prong's entire watershed between Miry Ridge to the east and Defeat Ridge to the west. Both of these ridges run perpendicular to the main crest of the Great Smokies, which rises several thousand feet above Tremont to the south.
This place is literally a photographer's dream as there is just so much to capture in every season throughout the year.
I used an LB neutral polarizer for this one.
Hope everyone is having a nice week.
Thanks for stopping by and looking.
Have a nice Wednesday.
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Uploaded on Nov 24, 2009
18 comments
MISTY COVE
Another site from the beautiful "Cades Cove" in The Smoky Mountains. Fog is an element that does so much for photography, it can create different moods. It can be misterious,dramatic, mellow, romantic, contemplative and the list goes on and on.
Fog is to the Smoky Mountains, as wet is to water, they just go togehter, what a great place God blessed us with.
A little history about Cades Cove:
Cades Cove was once known as "Kate's Cove" after an Indian chief's wife. The Cove drew the Cherokee Nation back again and again by its abundant wildlife and good hunting. Later, Cades Cove's wildlife drew European descent frontiersmen to make it their home. They and their offspring cleared the fertile valley floor and built farms to sustain them. The pioneer's families lived in Cades Cove for many generations before the cove became part of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Today, Cades Cove is still as full of wildlife as before but draws not hunters, but millions of Smokies visitors.
The Cove has been preserved by the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to look much the way it looked in the 1800's. Once home to a small mountain community, whose settlers came from mainly from Virginia, North Carolina and upper east Tennessee, Cades Cove is today the largest open air museum in the entire Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Cades Cove has original pioneer homesteads, barns, businesses, pasture and farmland--a fitting tribute to the hearty people who lived here in the days of yesteryear.
If you would like to know more about Cades Cove, please follow this link:
www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html
Used a 2 stop soft edge Singh Ray GND filter for this one, No blending or HDR.
Thanks for stopping by and looking, appreciate your comments.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend
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Uploaded on Nov 22, 2009
39 comments
ELY's MILL
This "old timer" is located at Ely's Mill", one of the many interesting historic places in the Smoky Mountains. This is a 1932 Dodge, which sits there and is the obejct of much attention by just about every photographer that does the "Roaring Fork" tour. As a matter of fact; Peter Lik, world renowned master photographer from Australia has a photograph of this truck as part of his 35mm collection.
A little history on the mill for everyone's information:
ELY's MILL
Established in 1925, Ely's Mill is family owned and operated. Built by Andrew Jefferson Ely, Ely's Mill now offers a unique craft and antique shop. A. J. Ely, known as "Old Man Ely," was a Yale law school graduate, a practicing Tennessee lawyer and a printer.
Disenchanted with city life after the death of his wife, he bought a 30 acre tract in an effort to live a healthy life. He preached against smoking and strong drink -- coffee, tea, alcohol -- along with the evils of various foods, including milk, salt, white bread, and "store bought" food. He advocated eating fresh vegetables, honey, bananas, buttermilk and lots of spring water. For years, the old Lines Bakery made a special bread from his flour. There was no subject he felt lukewarm about; politics, taxes, marriage, youth, religion, and other topics. It's been told that if he liked you he'd talk with your for hours, but if he didn't approve of you, he'd take the whole afternoon off just to tell you so.
Ely hired local craftsmen to build the mill and showroom to display their ware. Initially called The Water Wheel Craft Shop, the mill featured weaving and local crafts and also made solid wood furniture and sold antiques. The water wheel powered the machinery in the Furniture Shop - belt sanders - lathes, planers - by a system of pulleys and belts. The wheel itself is almost 30 feet in diameter and 8 feet wide. It was supplied with water from a race which came over the top of the buildings and begin 800 feet upstream.
As the place grew, more buildings were added: barns for livestock, sheds and chicken houses. A caretaker family lived here also to help tend the garden, keep bees and manage the animals and grounds. A hammer mill was built to crush and mix feeds. A blacksmith shop was added to repair tools and make parts. When the building was completed in the 1940's Ely's Mill had grown to almost twenty buildings.
Find this information and more at:
www.mysmokymountainvacation.com/roaringfork/elys-mill.html
As always, thanks for stopping by and looking. Appreciate your comments and critiques.
Have a nice weekend folks.
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Uploaded on Nov 14, 2009
31 comments
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Well folks, just made it back from my trip to the Smokies. As always, the Smokies are simply (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful places on earth. The beauty and a variety of scenarios this park has to offer is unparallelled. Not only are there majestic mountains, but also breathtaking scenaries in the lower altitudes. There are rivers, streams and the most fascinating historic structures which teach us much about how life was in this beautiful country of ours abut 200 years ago and, of course, a wide variety of wild life.
I got there about 1 week too late to get fall colors. I say "about 1 week late". I still found remaining segments throughout the lower altitudes of nice and intense fall colors which was nice and, in some instances, saved the day.
This scene here was captured from an overlook called "Look Rock" and it is located in the "Foothills Parkway", There is a parking lot near the over look then a hike of about 0.5 miles. Compared to other hikes in the park, this is nothing, BUT, these shots you see here were taken at sunset at a temperature of about 32 degrees, which, needless to say, for somebody from Miami, that is simply FREEZING TEMPERATURES!, but as you can see, I made it, not without freezing my bones of course!!!!.
This panorama is a result of 5 landscape style photographs assembled in CS4. Used an LB color combo filter by Singh Ray. Minor dodge & burning using different blending modes and added levels for contrast. Sharpening for the edges was done with the highpass filter.
Hope you enjoy the beauty of creation as majestically displayed in this beautiful place.
Thanks for stopping by and looking; I appreciate your comments and critiques.
Have a nice Tuesday.
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Uploaded on Nov 10, 2009
13 comments
DRAMA OF A STORM
Tought I would experimet a little with B&W conversion. This one was taken a couple of minutes after the one below (caught).
I blended 2 images in CS4 using layers, one exposure for the foreground and one for the sky. I used a Singh Ray neutral LB polarizer and a 2 stop GND filter (soft edge). Cleaned up the raw file in CS4, converted to B&W using NIK software, corrected exposure where needed, dodge & burning, and local sharpening. Hope you folks like this rendition.
Well, it's time to hit the road again, this is a long awaited trip, I'm headed to the Great Smoky Mountains with the hope of getting some beautiful and intense fall colors.
Also, I thought I'd let you know that about 3 weeks from now I will launch my new website as well as tweeter and a surprise that I will share with you all in November as well.
Thanks for looking, as always, I value your comments & critiques.
Have a nice weekend, & will see you all when I'm back from the Smokies.
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Uploaded on Oct 30, 2009
26 comments
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