Over the years of messing with photography, I have found that I often get ideas in my head for pictures, and then those ideas rarely pan out the way I want them to. Case in point, this week's picture… or rather the picture I was imagining when I stumbled on the scene above. Let me explain.
Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville has a host of pretty trails, which is really impressive given how close it is to downtown Knoxville. One of those trails, the Boardwalk Trail, has this really neat section of trail which is a literal boardwalk bolted to the side of a cliff which hangs out over the Tennessee River. Cool stuff on its own, but I personally like this area a lot because I used to wakeboard on the Tennessee River in my younger years, and I have lots of fun memories buzzing past the boardwalk on the water. I had never actually been down the trail though, until about a month ago.
After finally walking the trail, I decided it would be a great spot to shoot the sunrise with all the fall colors. My intent was to get the boardwalk in the shot with the trees across the river in their full glory. Well, wouldn't you know it, the first morning I showed up for the sunrise, the whole area was completely socked in with fog from the river. My idea was a total bust (though I did get some other shots of that boardwalk which I'll share later). BUT, as the golden light of the morning starting working its way through the trees and illuminating the fog, the trail behind me really turned mystical looking.
In photography, and in life, sometimes we just have to abandon our ideas, and go with whatever we've been given.
–Dan Thompson