We had been planning this trip for quite some time now.

5 photographers, 5 cameras, and unlimited possibilities to capture fall foliage at its finest, in the Great Smokey Mountains.

We headed to the Tennessee side of the mountain range for this trip, and majority of the time was spend at Cades Cove which is part of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  This area is the most highly toured and traveled in the entire system, so get there early!

Lucky for us the weather held up and we ended up having an amazing scene to capture everywhere we looked.  This old mill was the perfect contrast to the vibrant fall hues that covered every inch of the Park.

Fall continues to be a photographer’s favorite season with its vivid and rich colors that seem to bring any scene, even an old mill in a soggy, decaying, forest to dazzling life.

Next autumn be sure to check out The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, or any other parks in your area, and capture the colors before it’s too late!

Way up on the North Carolina side of the well known, Blue Ridge Parkway, is the charming and quant town of Brevard, North Carolina. The town is full of small, locally, owned shops that make one feel like they are taking a trip back to “the good ol’ days.”  Nostalgia is flowing through the air here.
Naturally, this nostalgic breeze leads locals and tourists up the hill, shall we say.  Here, in the heart of the Parkway one can capture the essence of nature, and that is exactly what I planned to do.  Luckily, I had my hiking boots on! We traveled deep into to forest and what we found, can only be described as a Mecca for the outdoor lover.
The trees here in North Carolina, especially those that inhibit the Parkway, are known for their verdant and lavish colors, which are known to assault ones senses with their richness.  Your eyes are naturally drawn to every fiber of chlorophyll that is fleeing these trees’ leaves.  It was honestly a simple and convenient backdrop to anything, and finding one of the many bodies of water, especially this waterfall here, was just whipped cream on old timepiece of apple pie.
We went on a beautiful, crisp, fall day, and stumbled upon a group of kayakers.  To some photographers, they could have been impeded on their ideal backdrop, but for me, they were just characters in the natural moment I was trying to immortalize.
Of course, when you are going out into a public location you run the risk of running into people who are also there to enjoy the beauty that you are soaking up as well.  Don’t always try to avoid these people, just simply add them to their natural environment, and you’ll be capturing a real moment in what life is really like.  And life here, in Brevard, is 100% Americana, kayakers and all.

Babcock Mill

It is the time of year for that one special hunt …… the hunt for fall colors. As the season changes from summer to fall most photographers start the ritual of trying to get those great fall colors.  It is easy to get a picture of leaves changing but I was out for more than color. After seeing picture of a mill in West Virginia at Babcock State Park, I knew that was where I should begin my hunt.

I left Stokesdale, North Carolina at 5 am on a Saturday and drove to the mill.  It took about 4 hours. We were told that the best light this time of year was about 9 am, but it would not have mattered on an overcast and dreary day like this.

What could we do? We did what any other photographer would do! We took some photographs of the colors which were almost at their peak. But without the sun’s natural light to make leaves pop, and a bald white sky you do the best you can. The overcast sky created a large soft box which gave us nice even light without hot spots or hard shadows, but it does tend to mute the colors some what.  But with a little help from Photoshop we were able to get extremely similar results.  We spent the rest of the day driving around New River Gorge looking for other opportunities with mixed results.

Grandveiw WV