About a month ago I said that I was finished with my fall images – well, turns out I lied.  🙂  There were two black and white images that I captured last fall that I really liked, but frankly I didn’t want to take up real estate on the blog for black and white, when I had so much color to share.  I typically try to come up with themes that I explore for several weeks, and these pictures just didn’t seem to fit.  So… I’m just going to share them now.

I’ve learned over the years that when something catches your eye, you stop.  I have driven past many a beautiful scene in pursuit of something else I had on my mind, which then never panned out.  After hearing my friend Bill Lea say “chase the light, not the scene”, I think it has finally sunk in.  If you see it, shoot it.  Well, the scene above is one such example.  Earlier in the fall Clingmans Dome got some snow that hung around for a few days after the road had been cleared, so I was driving around to see what I could see.  There is one parking lot along the road that has this epic looking tree at the corner of it, the one pictured above, but I had just never been able to find a good angle for it.  Well on this particular morning as I was driving by, I glanced over and saw the light from the rising sun beaming in from the side.  I pulled in the parking lot and jumped out to grab some photos.  The scene was just gorgeous and I stayed and worked on it for at least ten minutes anyway, shooting the tree and the light from as many different angles as I could think of.  In the end, I really liked the one I’ve shared above.  The light coming in from the side just really illuminated the old, withered trunk in a way that I just love.

More next week!

–Dan Thompson