Many photography books advise you to carefully compose a scene in your mind, and then carry out that vision with your equipment. However, I don’t do it that way! When I go out looking for stunning Smoky Mountains photos and hope to find a candidate to add to my Gallery, I’m usually gathering hundreds of…
Smoky Mountains photos need not always be in color, as these three vistas illustrate. The photo above is the classic shot from Mortons Overlook near the top of Newfound Gap Rd. Looking down the valley back towards Gatlinburg, with the Chimneys visible in the upper left. A nice mist rising up the hillsides. The photo…
I’ve been neglecting the blog lately. It’s the busiest time of year … something like a marathon run for Sarah and me. This is the month that draws by far the most visitors to the Smokies. For us it means our Gallery is open seven days a week, while we also have a booth seven…
Some of the best Smoky Mountains photos of deer and bear that I have seen are those of photographer Brian Shults. I’d been wanting to meet up with Brian to get some tips on wildlife photography, which is a specialty requiring a whole different strategy than what I’m used to. But even though we both…
In the middle of a hot summer, I can get restless, and feeling a bit confined within the boundaries of “normal” images. I start to think “outside the camera.” For example, a few weeks ago I wrote a post about camera movement during long exposures to create photographic Impressionism. Today’s Smoky Mountains photos have a…
Today’s photography tip is about impressionism and experimentation. I’ve tried Impressionism in my Smoky Mountains photography before, as in Smoky Mountains Monet. All of the photos here were taken with the camera hand-held, with no special Photoshop filters added and no manipulation in a Paint program. All of these effects were created by experimenting with…
Celebrating a fine Friday morning with a few thoughts gleaned from poet Wendell Berry: I come into the peace of wild things … for a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. We pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What…
Photographs like you’ve never seen before! That’s quite a claim. Many visitors to my Gatlinburg Gallery near the Smoky Mountains, or who come into my booth at an art fair, exclaim something like “Oh my gosh! These look three-dimensional! They jump off the page. It’s like being right there!” I create images that are meant…
The Sky Lift in downtown Gatlinburg (near stoplight #8) offers great opportunities for dramatic Smoky Mountains photos. The ride itself is a fun activity, but the vistas of the mountains and the town of Gatlinburg are fabulous! The photos above and below are examples of what you can see from a chair on the Sky…
One of my favorite places in the Smoky Mountains opens today after the annual winter closure. The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a goldmine for pictures. Pioneer homesteads, amazing moss-covered boulders, waterfalls, and trails. On a typical year, I will go around the Roaring Fork a dozen or fifteen times, watching the seasons change along…
I’ve been working on a couple of poster designs for the coming year. Have never done a poster before … since there will be a print run of 1000 copies, I’ll start with just these two. Of course the actual posters won’t have the white border like these blog images. What do you think? I’d…
Happy Friday everyone! I recently took a break from our craft fair and stopped in at the Gatlinburg Festival of Trees, at the Mills Center just after Thanksgiving. In the picture above you might be able to see my reflection in the ornament, with the trees all around me. Very M.C. Escher, isn’t it? In…
It’s Friday in Gatlinburg once again, and you know what that means. (enter the word “Friday” in the search box to the right if you’re new around here) I love this time of year. I think of it as “echoes of autumn.” The trees are nearly bare, but still there are a few leaves hanging…
Are we tired of these glorious autumn scenes? It will soon be over, but for now the feast for the eyes continues! This one is along the Little River in the Great Smoky Mountains, between Metcalf Bottoms and Tremont. And from the same area, the pleasing reflections below. If you grow weary of driving the…
Can’t get enough of the autumn roads in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The above scene was along the Roaring Fork Motor Trail just outside Gatlinburg. The one below is along the Little River Road between the Sugarlands Visitor Center and Cades Cove, just past the Laurel Falls parking area. I love the way…
This picture holds a special place in my heart. In 2002 I began to think about Smoky Mountain photography as a serious endeavor, and Twin Boulders was one of the very first images that I printed in a large size. I was very proud of it — the flowing water was captured just right, and…
The Smoky Mountain area is not known for its covered bridges. This one was built fairly recently. The bridge spans the Little Pigeon River just downstream from where it runs out of the Park in the Greenbrier section. It’s a nice, peaceful spot for swimming or fishing. You can find it by taking the road…
I take a lot of photographs log cabins for resort rental companies. And I’ve seen every cute little thing related to bears in these cabins. Many of them are a tacky dis on the proud and mighty black bear. But I like the one pictured above. The cheerful bear holding out the acorn lamp to…
The guinea hens above were relaxing on a bridge just outside the Big Creek entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I stopped to take their picture, and listening to their distinctive guinea hen cackling, I remembered raising some of these crazy birds back in the 1970s. I had a farm in West Virginia,…
Here’s a tip for those hot summer days touring around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: the best lemonade is over in Mt. Sterling near the entrance to the Big Creek section of the Park. It’s a bit of an effort to get to this lemonade stand, but it could be worth it, especially if…
If you are ever traveling on NC Route 284 between Cosby, TN, and the Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains, you might find yourself in need of a rest stop. Now this is a fine gravel highway with some excellent gift shops along the way (see below). If you watch for the sign pointing…
“The year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn; Morning’s at seven; The hill-side’s dew-pearled; The lark’s on the wing; The snail’s on the thorn; God’s in his Heaven— All’s right with the world!” Robert Browning
I think fog gets a bad name. It’s typically about what fog can obscure: living life in a fog, the fog of war, the fog of depression. Well, like our neighbor over in the mountains of western North Carolina, Carl Sandburg, I think fog has delightful qualities. For example, in the picture above, a dash…
Perhaps the last decent snowfall of the winter this week created a winter dreamscape up in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These pictures tell the whole story. Click on the first one to bring up a larger slide show, then put your mouse over the image to go forward or…
Another light snowstorm through most of the day yesterday, but not enough to close the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I drove up into the Greenbrier section and found a winter fairyland. So beautiful and dreamlike … I’ll have some more images soon from my roamings, but first a few abstract treatments….
The finishing touches are done, the sign put up, and the welcome mat put down. The William Britten Gallery of Smoky Mountain images is officially open at the new, expanded location. The gallery is located on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg TN. Look for me in the Morning Mist…
Another dusting of snow last night, but finally some sunshine today revealed the full majesty of Mt. LeConte, one of the highest peakes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at 6593 feet. This is the view Sarah and I see every day from our little cabin in the Glades near Gatlinburg. Mt. LeConte has…
Happy New Year! Another season begins along the Arts and Crafts Loop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, near the Smoky Mountains. And there are lots of changes in store for the William Britten Gallery of Smoky Mountain photographs. The gallery is moving to a new location, just a few doors down in the same Morning Mist Village…
Christmas is over, but this time of year Gatlinburg, TN is aglow with thousands of lights. I like to venture out into the cold nighttime with my camera and try different techniques to get unique photos. Sometimes I just point the camera and shake it all around. You’d be surprised at the beauty that can…
I’ve always been fascinated with the concepts of time and place. For example, the Smoky Mountains have been unchanging for centuries, but in my photography gallery here in Gatlinburg, I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about families returning to the Smokies every year for decades! Families have grown through many generations while…
I live in Gatlinburg TN, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smokies are a very spiritual place, and I attempt to capture some of that spirit in each of my photographs.
If you are in Gatlinburg, please stop in at my gallery .
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