Hi everyone-

Today's were also shot at GSMNP in October. They are taken from the Clingmans Dome area. This is a cool spot to go as it might be the highest point in the park that you can reach easily. You drive most of the way and then walk the last half mile or so.

It is quite a walk though on a paved path pretty much uphill. The elevation gain is pretty good. I don't know what it was but judging by the people in various states of respiratory distress its a couple of hundred feet.

The area offers some great views and even though these were shot a few hours before sunset you can begin to see how this park got its name. I really enjoyed looking at the layers and layers of mountains you can see from this point.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Last month we spent a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains and though we didn't do the park justice we got to travel around a see a good portion of it. At least to get the lay of the land and get some better intel for future trips.

Even though it was not an intense photo trip I was able to come away with a few images that I really like. Today's is one of those images.

I am not sure exactly what it is about this one that makes me like it but it keeps coming back as one of my favorites. I don't even know what kind of tree this is but I really liked the red berries against the deep blue sky.

Hi everyone-

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Our's was very nice. We got to spend a few days with my family and a few with Tonya's.

Not often do we get to see everyone in the same four day off cycle from my job at the fire department. We got to have some great food, played some games, shot some pictures and just hung out and had a great time.

We got to check out the new kids movie Planet 51. It was pretty cool. The basic story is an "alien", a US Astronaut, invades a society on another planet.

It's a funny concept. The inhabitants of "Planet 51" are by our standards what you would think of as aliens. And they are living in a world based on 1950's USA. Then an alien, our astronaut, lands in their town.

If you have kids, it's worth checking out. Also I am really looking forward to seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox. Another animated movie that looks like it will be great.

Today's image was shot in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I had seen this tree a few times and put it in the back of my mind to shoot in the morning. As luck would have it I was back in this area on a foggy morning and it was perfect for creating a cool image, or at least trying to.

I adjusted the exposure and then adjusted the tone a bit with one of my favorite actions. After that I added and blended 5 texture layers. What you see is the result.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Recently I traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time. My experience was a bit different than I am used to. Thousands of people, traffic jams and areas that were closed at which you had to wait in long lines until they opened.

One of those areas was Cades Cove. On the morning this image was taken the Cove drive was closed longer than its normal over night hours due to fog. So we waited at the gate for about 45 minutes in a line of well over 100 cars. Not the nature experience I was hoping for here.

That being said there were little pockets of natures beauty there just waiting to be found. If you ventured just off the road often times something beautiful was waiting to be seen.

On this particular day the delay in opening the road allowed for me to pass through the area where this images was shot about an hour later than I would have. In the end It was one of my favorites from the day.

I am currently working on a larger panorama of several images stitched together from this same spot. I hope to have it done soon.

Have a great day!

Hi everyone-

Today's images were shot in Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few weeks ago. One of them is an HDR image and the result of combining six different exposures. The other is a single exposure with a good deal of photoshop work to it.

Can you tell the difference? Let me know which one is which.

That being said both of these images had a ton of photoshop work done to them after they were brought to the same spot. Meaning once I did the HDR and got the two images looking roughly the same exposure wise there was a ton of additional work done. That included, local contrast increases, selective color adjustments, adding a glow, curves adjustments, color saturation adjustments and a few others steps that I know I did can cant seem to remember what they were...

Anyway I hope you have a great day!





****UPDATE****

Hi everyone-

So in the comments Nick, Barry and Jan responded to my question and one of them is correct. That would be Barry. He surmised the second image was the true HDR image and he was right.

This image was shot at 6 different exposures and combines in Photomatix and then further processed in photoshop to create the final look. Here are the 6 images used to create the HDR:

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The next image is the sooc image that i worked on in photoshop to give it a n HDR look.