In April of every year the Smoky Mountains are showered with dogwood blooms like a late spring snowstorm. Everywhere you go … up in the Greenbrier, along the Little River or the lower elevations of the Newfound Gap Road … in Elkmont and Tremont … the dogwoods sprinkle their blooms like white notes on the…
Excitement builds for the first craft fair of the season at the Convention Center here in Gatlinburg. The Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community puts on this show every year during Easter week. This year the fair starts Wednesday, April 20 and goes through Saturday, April 23rd, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm daily. For…
Spruce Flat Falls is one of the hidden gems of the Smoky Mountains. The hike is about a mile each way, not too rugged but with a bit of a climb. The trail passes through a thicket of Mountain Laurel, which will be in bloom the first week or two in May. It’s also a…
Jim Thompson was a founding member of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club and a prominent Knoxville photographer during the 1920s to 1940s. Along with his friend and fellow hiker, Dutch Roth, Thompson created a large body of images from the early days of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I will be posting images from…
Greenbrier Autumn Watercolor is another new one from the 2010 fall season. It’s a triptych, or three vertical panels that create a horizontal scene. I’ve been wanting to do a triptych, and this autumn panoramic was the perfect opportunity. The scene is in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was taken…
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…
Continuing the autumn road theme. The Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is such a calm, cozy, and welcoming place. After the road turns to gravel, and you turn left over the bridges, the way leads up towards the Ramsey Cascades Trailhead. In winter this is a bleak and beautiful place; in…
False Foxglove (Aureolaria laevigata) is an early autumn wildflower that blooms in September. It seems to be especially attractive to bumble bees, and on early morning walks there is always a loud buzzing as I pass by the cheerful bright yellow foxgloves. The bumble bees will stuff themselves way down inside the blossom, like the…
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…
Today we are miles away in Maine, down at the bottom of the Pemaquid Peninsula. I’ve been to the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point many times. In fact, for many years lighthouses were my special interest in photography. Way back in 1993 I launched Lighthouse Getaway, which was among the first 25,000 websites in existence on…
Albert “Dutch” Roth lived from 1890 to 1974, and left an astonishing collection of amateur photographs which document the early years of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Roth’s photos and journal of his hiking adventures offer a rare and intimate view of the Smokies from the 1920s through the 1950s. Up to 1958 Dutch had…
The photograph above is the Green Headed, or Cutleaf Coneflower. It blooms all along the roadside in the middle of summer up near Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . Here’s a fun photo tip for taking a picture like the one above. One of my favorite techniques is to take the photo…
Philosophical Friday here again, and Friday the 13th no less. These pictures of the marvelous old pickup truck resting in glorious decay illustrate the idea that beauty and ugliness do not lie at opposite ends of a spectrum. Rather, there seems to be a circular relationship, where if you start out at beautiful and head…
The Large Leaf Set returned this week to the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg. Each of the 4 leaves are printed, mounted on a 3/4″ thick board, and given a coating on the surface that protects and enhances the images. The individual boards measure 16×24″ and the entire set is over 3 feet by 4…
Where does a Smoky Mountain resident go to get miles away? To the beach! The picture above is one of those soft pastel dawns near the ocean. You can almost feel the moist salt breeze. In the distance is the Myrtle Beach skyline, taken from my 11th floor condo balcony, 10 miles to the south…
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 Cades Cove Loop Road was recently repaved. It’s a smooth ride now, a beautiful country road! Worth the weeks of waiting while to loop was closed. The loop is closed on Wednesday and Saturday mornings until 10:00 from early May until late September to allow bicycles and walkers access to the loop without cars….
It’s a blue-sky morning, clouds floating by. The Smoky Mountains are shimmering in the distance. Two cheerful rockers wait for you on the deck. Take a few moments, sit down, take it all in. It’s a good day for a hike or a good day to wander the shops on Glades Rd. Please stop in…
Turk’s Cap Lily (Lilium superbum) is a large wildflower that grows to 3 to 8 feet tall. It blooms July to September, and loves the roadside at higher elevations. Look for it along the Clingman’s Dome Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display…
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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