This may sound kind of funny, but I have spent an unusually large amount of time on the Foothills Parkway. If you’ve been following along with this blog for any amount of time, you’ll have seen a good number of images from the Parkway, and probably recognize the name from all those posts. What you wouldn’t know necessarily though, is I used to go rock climbing up there a LOT in my younger years – I even remember the first time I went up there. My brother drove me up there when I was just a little kid (he must have been still in high school as it was in his Volkswagen Rabbit) and I remember being completely awe-struck with the view. So between my climbing years, and now my photography years, I’ve gone up there many, many times. So of course, then, when I think of iconic spots in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Foothills Parkway would be top of mind! 🙂
If you caught my fall color series, you may remember seeing the scene above, except for that image I shot it from the other side, looking back toward where the camera was facing for this week’s Picture of the Week. I was out exploring the picnic area, trying to find a nice road scene for my night sky series here, when I happened to spot this scene on the way back. Orion was conveniently rising above the bridge as I was walking out, so I set it up and shot it.
This particular scene was shot at 35mm, which is why the objects in the sky feel so big. Bernard’s Loop (the C-shape in the sky) is absolutely humongous, so even at 35mm it feels really big in the sky. To light the foreground I used small LED panels, which you can see glowing at the base of the bridge supports.
More next week!
–Dan Thompson