Several cold nights along a body of water in the mountains cause some wonderfully beautiful layers of ice to form. This was shot early in the morning in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at a temperature hovering around zero. The repeated curving lines in the ice help add a rhythm to the photograph.LynnFreeny.com
I am alway thinking of different angles and ways of looking at things. I think eye level is boring for most photographs. Why? Because most people spend the majority of their lives viewing the world eye level. That is why I enjoy aerial views of subjects. It is about as far away from eye level as you can get. This is a view of the Great Smoky Mountains surrounding Chilhowee Lake in the early morning hours giving a surreal color pallet along with fog. LynnFreeny.com
Reflections are one of those elements that most people ignore. As a photographer, reflections are great for adding interest to your images. In this image I pulled up in a parking space and I noticed this great reflection. Keep in mind when shooting reflection it is best to use a f-stop of 16 or 22 to get as much depth of field as possible. Why? Because your field of focus can go from close up to infinity. LynnFreeny.com
I was up on Cadillac Mountain in Maine waiting for the sun to raise when I noticed some interesting ice patterns on the ground. The temperature was close to zero with a very strong wind that was hard to ignore(serious wind chill). Because of the melting and refreezing , layers of ice formed around these small pieces of grass. What normally would have been a small puddle of water was now beautiful patterns of ice thanks to the freezing weather. LynnFreeny.com
I went to swim practice tonight to capture some images for my files. Swimming is my favorite sport to photograph. Why? Because there is fast movement, reflections from the water and unexpected stop action results, swimming is great fun to shoot. There are a few things to keep in mind when covering swimming with your camera. A 80 to 200mm telephoto zoom helps you get close without getting wet. Using a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster will help you stop the action.In this image my shutter speed was 1/250 with the zoom lens set at 200mm. LynnFreeny.com
When cold air mixes with warm air at sunset the sky becomes a beautiful array of colors and shapes. This also means a possibility of very strong storms. In this image of the mixing of warm and cold air I found out later their was a tornado warning. Be careful!LynnFreeny.com
Cades Cove is one of my favorite places. When it snows in the Cove it becomes a wonderful place to photograph. This is a Cantilevered Barn found mostly in the East Tennessee area.LynnFreeny.com 
Snow in the Great Smoky Mountains makes winter temperatures more bearable. Snow can change a colorless landscape into a winter wonderland. By using a large format camera I was able to capture as much detail as possible.LynnFreeny.com
I like to use a 50mm 1.4 lens for portraits because of its large lens opening . In this image I am shooting at f-stop 1.4 which creates a very shallow depth of field. LynnFreeny.com
Shadows can be one the most interesting elements when included in a photograph. Many times people do not seem to see shadows. Evidence of this shows up in paintings done by amateurs. Without shadows objects look flat. In this image the bikes are somewhat boring but because of the shadow I was blown away by the subject. LynnFreeny.com
The icy river in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a wonderful subject for photography. By using a tripod with a large format camera was able to capture detail and motion. A long exposure of 1 second helped show the movement of the water. The large format helped with the fine detail.LynnFreeny.com
In the winter waterfalls freeze and melt and refreeze. This natural cycle can repeat itself many times to form some of the most beautiful but natural ice forms. I like to think of them as a kind of abstract sculpture. In this image in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park the deep blue winter sky reflects off the ice.LynnFreeny.com
It has to be very cold for several days to cause a waterfall to freeze. This image is a closeup of a frozen waterfall. As I was looking for interesting details in the ice, I noticed as I moved at different angles the colorful reflections varied in intensity. I spent 30 minutes just searching for that angle that would reflect the most color from the surrounding environment. LynnFreeny.com
I was photographing a concert at a church when I noticed the glow of the evening light through the windows. A good rule of thumb is to always look around for things of interest when you have a camera, even on assignment. These images that I take for myself are usually my favorite.LynnFreeny.com
When I am in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park one of my favorite places to be is along a stream. In this case the temperature was close to zero causing ice patterns to form over the moving water. These abstract lines and curves were paper thin. As the sun rose and lit the delicate surface of the ice, the beautiful design quickly disappeared into the moving water of the stream. The dominant blue tint was caused because the ice was in the shade.LynnFreeny.com
Time of day can make or break an image. In this case the time was evening and the cloud cover was beginning to break up. With the help of Adobe Photoshop I saved the red channel and discard the green and blue channels. This is the same as using a no. 25 red filter with black and white film. LynnFreeny.com
This portrait was taken before the wedding. I wanted to capture the expression that reveals the feeling a groom has before the wedding. In this case confidence seem to be reflected in his expression. The evening light helps add a warm tone to the image. By using a 50 mm lens at f-1.4, I was able to put the the background out of focus. His position to the far left helps make the composition more dynamic. LynnFreeny.com
This is a stop action sports image. But it also shows a small amount of motion blur in the swimmer. The cropping and an unlevel camera angle add tension and force the viewer to look toward the right hand corner at the swimmer. Yes is is OK to hold the camera in an unlevel position.LynnFreeny.com
Shadows are always under rated. Driving on a back road I saw this tree in the snow. I thought the shadow looked like the roots of the tree. The results can be amazing when shadows are added to a composition.LynnFreeny.com
As I walked with Charlie my dog this morning I captured an interesting sky. I moved to an angle so the trees would be in the lower right side of the composition. This helped balance the image with the trees pointing toward the sky. The repeated shapes of the smaller clouds in the upper part of the sky gave a rhythm to the image. LynnFreeny.com
I was standing next to a small stream in Cades Cove in 15 degree weather looking for an interesting subject. Along the stream I found this tiny plant that had caught some of the recent snow fall. I used a telephoto lens with an extension tube attached to my camera. With a sturdy tripod, I positioned the camera so the small stream in the shadow would help define the snow covered plant. I determined my exposure using the sunny 16 rule which states that on a sunny day your exposure will be f- 16 with a shutter speed that matches your ISO. Because I was using an extension tube I had to add one stop more to the exposure.LynnFreeny.com
Having a camera while riding in a car can be fun. I took this image while passing a car on the interstate. I was not driving but riding. I used the watercolor filter in Adobe Photoshop to give the image more texture and color saturation. I used a fast shutter speed of 1/500 to freeze the car's movement. I simplified the composition by cropping in tight with a telephoto lens. Remember you do no have to show everything. In fact when composing a photograph only include what is interesting.LynnFreeny.com
This image is an example of my favorite winter weather in the mountains. It is the day after a snow storm. The sky is clear, the air is cool, and the sun is warm. Using the 25 red filter with black and white film I was able to darken the blue sky. The size of the moon was made visible with the aid of a telephoto lens. This is Chimney Tops in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is very steep trail in the summer and a very slippery and dangerous trail after a winter snow.LynnFreeny.com
Winter is always interesting in the Southern Appalachians. From frozen fog to heavy snow storms the world of dense green vegetation of summer seems so far away. When shooting snow remember that all light meters are calibrated to 18% gray. What that means is the meter in your camera tries to give you an exposure that is mid gray. Snow in the mountains is beautiful because of the bright white color it has. Gray snow is kind of like gray teeth. It is not very attractive. I always tell my photography students that they are much smarter than their high tech matrix light meters. With all of this said the best way to capture white snow with your camera is to expose your film 1 stop more than the meter suggest. LynnFreeny.com
