Great Smoky Mountains Winter Shoot

Sometimes the best-laid plans can go astray but that doesn’t mean one can’t make lemonade from lemons and often, that is what good photography comes down to. I wanted to photograph the Great Smoky Mountains in full winter mode with snow at Cades Cove and along the major stream areas knowing full well that in winter some of the best ‘hot spots’ like Clingmans Dome, are closed, and for good reason. Anyway, since I know my target areas are in the lower regions of the park I had waited for a cold front to move in along with a forecast of snow. When these conditions presented themselves I quickly packed my gear and headed down. Well, I certainly got the cold with low temps in the single digits for three days with the highs never moving above freezing until noon on my third and last day of shooting. It was so cold that frost from my breath constantly accumulated around my ballhead and camera brackets. If I rubbed it off and then blew on my head I could watch it frost up again instantly but my RRS BH-55 ballhead never failed me. Sadly, the frost I wanted like hoar frost, snowy dusting and/or icy glaze on tree branches that I planned to shoot just did not happen. At least not until the day after I returned. So what to do?

I used some quality time to work out some good compositions of the buildings, inside and out, in Cades Cove and the Bud Ogle cabins near Roaring Fork (which is closed in winter) in preparation for my April photography workshop, and scout with my compass for some good winter sunrise compositions which worked out very well. Two of the three mornings were clear and I was able to capture about six different sunrise scenes from Foothills Pkwy and Newfound Gap that just do not work in the spring when I typically go.

All in all the trip was successful but of course would have been even better with at least a few hours of snow. The park itself was not crowded and serious photographers were nowhere to be found. I say serious since I tend to judge not by what camera or lens someone is using but by what type of tripod they have. After three days in the park I only saw two other tripods and they were the $69 Best Buy type. I came close to a killer shot of a deer with a full rack and after 15 minutes of gaining confidence with my subject and moving closer with my long lens set up, a tourist drove up, stopped to see what I was doing and scared him away. Rats!!!!

In closing I must say that unless you live reasonably close, winter is not a good time to visit the Smokies. Under these conditions the park looks ‘naked’ and in many places just ugly. With snow, flowers and/or foliage, the park is dressed up and bursting with life and beauty. In spring and fall just driving around it seems everywhere you look there is something worth looking at. In the winter, beauty is certainly there but unlike other seasons it is not a ubiquitous experience. But at least you are not driving 5 mph stuck in back of sloooow moving vehicles. All in all, I am pleased I made the trip and I know if I did not it would haunt me until I visited this special place on a future winter trip. I hope you check out some of my favorite captures from my winter shoot here.

NYC at Sunset - View from the Top of the Rock

This is my first blog post anywhere so I thought I would begin by discussing my last shoot of 2008, NYC at Sunset from the Top of the Rock. The Top of the Rock is the tallest building located at 30 Rockefeller Center in NYC. Although I was born and raised in NYC this was my first trip to the top and I must say, the view is spectacular. I had literally planned this shoot for months. My plan was to wait until the conditions where just right and I am proud to say that I nailed it by getting exactly what I had previsualized prior to my trip. The more you know what you and your camera can do, the more you will be able to capture the picture that you first saw in your mind.

The planning for this trip included time of day, time of year and weather. I wanted to shoot sunset and that means being at my location at least 30 minutes prior to sunset. The time of year was important since that dictates the position of the sun in the composition. In six months the sun would be too far to the right to be placed in a well-balanced composition - in this case, I wanted it in the 1/3 position. Lastly is the weather. Obviously I needed a day when it is not overcast and not too cold. The strong winds at the top along with freezing temperatures makes it difficult to handhold (no tripods allowed) for sharp shots in good light and I had to also be able to handle low light since I shot until about an hour after sunset.

My equipment included a Nikon D300, fisheye lens (perfect tool for this vantage point), 17-55 f/2.8 and 85mm f/1.4, all carried in my Lowepro Nova 3 shoulder bag. In addition to the 180 degree field of view provided by fisheye lens, I used a small aperture, f/19, to create a sunstar to add sparkle to the fireball, else it will only be just a small orange bright spot. I used my fisheye lens the most to capture the big picture, particularly sunset looking north towards Central Park, and to capture a south view sunset series of four captures at 30 minutes before sunset, sunset, and both 40 and 50 minutes after sunset. This series of currently shown as a slideshow on my homepage with many of the captures in the NYC gallery on my website and larger versions on my pbase TOR gallery which include shooting info below each image and shots of Rockefeller Center at Christmas from fround level. All images were shot handhheld and some where captured as handheld HDR’s by shooting bracketed exposures with a fast burst rate. Some of the sunset captures were blends of two exposures - the best exposure for the sky and the best of the earth. As the light got low the exposure range could be captured in a single image but the conditions were still brutal. The last shot of the sunset series, 50 minutes past sunset, was shot at f/4 and ISO 1600 and only ¼ sec, so good technique was critical to the end result.

I am proud of the results and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments to my fist blog are certainly welcome.