Fall Leaves in Little River Great Smoky Mountain National Park Tennessee

Fall has started in the Smoky Mountains. Looking in the rivers on the forrest floor and on the high ridges are where I find something interesting to capture with my camera. In my Photography class at Pellissippi my lecture covered what I call the "Triangle of Understanding ". This is where you juggle three setting on your camera,  f-stop (aperture lens opening), shutter speed ( fast or slow) and ISO ( light sensitivity). Setting your camera on M ( Manual or Mature) is better than A ( Auto or amateur) will improve your success in you images. I have been doing photography as a professional my hold adult life. If you want  to as good as a professional you need to know how and why the "Triangle of Understanding" works. This understanding is more important than high end camera equipment!

Early Morning in Knoxville

If you want to capture great moments it may be as simple as getting up earlier than most people get up. This was taken just before sunrise. I was blessed with some clouds reflecting the morn light as the sun was jut beginning to come up. The light meter on your camera is not as smart as you are. What I mean if you shoot this on auto exposure you would have missed capturing this beautiful light. The only way to shoot dinamic light is to shoot on manual. Do not be afraid. Be brave and start shooting in MANUAL ! You will love your images more and other people will love your images more and……...

My Advance Photography Class I teach at Pellissippi State Nature Field Trip

It is so much fun to take students out into location to capture images as they learn more about photography. I have alway thought that the best way to become a better photographer is practice, practice, practice. Photography is like math in that if you do not do it often you forget how to do it. In the field many of my students have more questions than they have in class because they are actively in the process of photography. The is nothing better than getting out there to improve your skills as a photography.  Link to photography classes at Pellissippi Photography Class  or for private trips e-mail me 

Strom Over Orlando Florida

Light is photography and photography is light. Think about it without light there is no photography in the normal way we see with our own eyes.
The biggest storms come at night in the summer. It is so much easier to capture lightening at night that during the day.
I got this shot from the top floor of the Peabody Hotel. I placed my lens against a large window in the hallway so I would not take a picture of myself. The camera was placed on a tripod so I could take long exposures. The best way to take images of lightening is to let the lightening do all the hard work. The way I shot the photo was by setting the camera on Bulb for my shutter speed. I know you have always heard lightening does not strike in the same place. Not true. After a few strike you should point your camera in the  direction of the strikes.  Focus you camera for infinity then just hold your shutter open and wait for the lightening to do it's thing. Remember set your camera on M for mature or manual. Use you digital camera to determine the correct exposure. I shot this with a film camera so I had to shoot a roll to get the exposure right.

Foggy Morning at Cades Cove

Sometimes or most of the time timing is everything in photography. In the case of this image it was really no acident that I happened to be in Cades Cove with fog. I got there early in the morning before first light and waited until the sun came up. It is almost high preasure photography when you see mornings like this. You just want to go go and then some with this kind of light! One of the most important thing to do in this type of light is to use you Mature setting on your camera which is M for manual. The camera's auto settings will give you very disappointing result. So remember you know what you want you image to look like and know the camera can not read your mind. I shot this with my    Pentax 6 x 7 on fujichrome 50 ISO film.

Rain Cades Cove Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The good thing about water is it reflect objects in its environment. This small creek in Cades Cove is surrounded by trees that are at peak autumn color creating this wonderful warm palette. The rings form as the rain comes down. Using a shutter speed of 1/125 I was about to stop the rippling action of the water. I like to use a golf umbrella with the camera mounted on a tripod. I can stay dry along with my camera until the rain blows side ways and I guess it is time to seek shelter when that happens.  

Cade Cove Great Smoky Mountains National Park

One of my favorite places on earth is Cades Cove. This over loved area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park always has great opportunity for interesting subjects to photograph if you can aviod the crowds of people and photographers. I shot this in the early morning hours after a light frost. This was shot old school with a Canon SLR using the legendary Kodachrome 25 film. I used a tripod with a 200mm telephoto fixed lens. The only way to get the correct exposure on a subject like this is to shoot on manual. The camera set on auto with light this dynamic will cause you to miss a great shot. I have classes I teach at a local College in Tennessee that I cover my 30 plus years of experience as a professional photographer. Here is a link if you would be interested in my classes pstcc.com or call the office at 865-539-7167.  

Red Barn Blount Country Tennessee

As I was driving home from work I saw a thunder storm starting to form. The clouds were so big as I was driving I was looking for a good view to take. There it was the old barn that was dwarfed by the clouds. I used a 200mm lens to bring the cloud in close to the barn. With Photoshop I made the image black and White keeping only the red of the barn in the image.

Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park

Cadillac Mountain is the highest point along the North Atlantic and the first place to see the sun rise in the United States. I had to leave about 4:00 am from Rockport so I could arrive on top of the mountain at first light. It was in November and on very cold wind was coming off the Atlantic. I set my tripod up in the dark and waited for the sun to raise. Being there to capture the first light was the most important factor in making this a successful image.  

Rain Drops Cades Cove

I shot this photo in a steady rain in Cades Cove. I used a large golf umbrell with my camera mounted on my Bogen tripod. I had to shoot several images in order to get the right amount of ripple action that created an interesting pattern. It is also important to get an angle that produced bright spots that shows the circular action of the rain drops. Setting my custom white balance was important because of the cold color balance from a rainy day.

Cascades Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I used a very sturdy tripod to get this photo of a water fall in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. f-22 at 1/2 second on Fujjchrome 50 with a Mamiya 2 1/4 square twin lens using a 50 mm lens.  It was a great camera that had interchangable lens. It was a poor mans Hasselblad and worked great in my college days. When photographing water  and waterfalls a shutter speed of 1/30 or less will show the movement of the water giving a more natural look. Cloudy days are best for water fall photography in the Smoky Mountains. The sun becomes a large light source on a cloudy day so that a much more even light that produces less dark shadows giving more detail even in the middle of the day. On cloudy days I alway set my custom white balances using a white card. The white balance correction helps separate the colors prevents the low color effect you get on cloudy days. 

Buck in Sunrise Cades Cove

The best time to shoot is early morning at first light or late evening at last light. I drove in the fog and dark from my house all the way to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I waited in the dark on the gate to be open into Cades Cove loop road. The Park Service opens the gate as soon the sun starts to rise. The gate was open to a magical sunrise through a thick fog. What a wonderful place to have a camera!! I stop at an area with trees in an open field. I started shooting the sunrise through the trees when suddenly a buck top the hill coming full speed toward me. The deer was startled as much as I was. I had the camera mounted to my tripod so all I had to do was focus on the deer instead of the distance trees. Alway get to your location in the dark before first light.

Foothills Parkway Overlook

This image was taken from Foothills Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains. Using my Bogen 3221 tripod with my 6x7 Pentax Camera with the morris locked up to prevent any camera shake I captured the morning fog that had settled in the valley below in Townsend Tennessee. I used a 60mm fixed lens with Fujjchrome 50 transparence film (yes film "old school"). Early morning is always a great time to shoot if you like good saturation and dynamic light that creates shadows that gives the image a more three-dimensional look. Many times people sleep late or eat a big breakfast before they go out to shoot. By the time they get out it is too late because the sun is higher in the sky causing the light to be flatter which produce low saturation and an overall average and boring photo. Getting to places at first light will improve your landscape 100%!

Aerial Great Smoky Mountains

I shot this image early in the morning at about 6am. Fog was in the valley and the sun was just beginning to light the sky with warm tones. The best light for outdoor photography is morning or evening or first light and last light. The sun being lower in the sky creates warm tones along with light that produces more color saturation. The light is much more exciting because we only see it for a few fleeting moments a day. For best results when shooting outside would be to get to your destination before sun rise then shoot until sun get high in the sky take a good nap then get up and shoot 1 hour before the sun sets. The times will vary with the time of year so find out what time sun set and sun rise is and plan it that way.

Sunset on Mt. LeConte

I guess you could say Mt. LeConte is my favorite hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That could be a problem because I think it is everybodies favorite too. One summer I hike it 13 time then jogged up it once with just a water bottle shorts and t-shirt along with a head lamp for the return down in the dark. I have also photographs a wedding at LeConte. This image was taken with my 6x7 Pentax on Fujichrome  50 film. With this low ISO film I used a tripod and locked my mirror up so I would get a sharp image.

Frozen Fog Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The interesting thing about a very cold winter in the Smoky Mountains is the possibility of fog freezing on the trees. It usually happens in the morning hours so getting up early is required. I love morning light so that is not a problem for me. Notice the fog did not cover all of the trees because the wind moves the fog randomly. In the mountains the wind can be very unpredictable. I shoot it with my 4x5 Golan camera using Fuji chrome 50 sheet film.  

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Little River in Black and White

This photo was taken with my 6x7 Pentax using a tripod. Fuji chrome 50 film was used with a 50mm lens set at f-22 with a exposure of 2 seconds. With this camera I always had to lock up the mirror in order to keep the image sharp. I scanned the transparence then used photoshop to convert the image to a black and white by using only the green channel. I then converted the image back to RGB so I could add a warm red tint to the image. The 6 x 7 format made it possible to go very large on prints. This image was displayed at Deer Park Inn for about a year and was sold at galleries in Asheville North Carolina.

Reflections in Downtown Maryville

This photo was made during the Basic Photography class I teach at Pellissippi. We had an urban field trip in downtown Maryville working on night photography skills . I used a tripod with a 1.3 second exposure f-25 ISO 3200.

Shadows on University of Tennessee Campus Knoxville

Reflections on University of Tennessee Knoxville Campus

Chattanooga At Night

Chattanooga Warm Evening Light

Leaves Traveling Down a Small Water Fall in Knoxville Tennessee

Red Barn and Thunderheads Blount County Tennessee

Looking Out My Wind Shield a Jet Flies Up

Sitting in The Middle of The Street University of Tennessee

Sunrise University of Tennessee

Water Drops From Rain On Car Window

I used extension tubes on my normal lens to capture the macro world on my window.

Sunset in Shopping Center Parking Lot Maryville Tennessee

Heavy Frost in Cades Cove

Snowy Bridge at Night To University Commons Knoxville Tennessee

Shadows and Street Lights Knoxville Tennessee

Sun Sphere and Convention Center at Night Knoxville Tennessee