Are we allowed to have a historic structure as a nemesis? Assuming that’s okay, I feel that way about the Cable house in Cades Cove.  Nothing against the structure itself – I love it – it’s just that I’ve attempted to photograph it at night multiple times, only to get clouded out every time.  On this particular occasion I had a composition in mind that would have me shooting from the field behind the house, but when I arrived (thanks to my new eBike, which is a blast to ride) I discovered that the understory has grown up so much that you can no longer see the house from the field.  Scratch that idea!  I decided to wander around and see what other compositions I could work out when I noticed that the Big Dipper was sitting perfectly above the house.  I had never attempted a night sky just to illustrate a constellation, and absent of any other idea, I decided to give it a go.   True to form, as I was setting up, I noticed clouds rolling in, and by the time I was done with taking all the shots required to make this image, I couldn’t even make out the stars anymore!

Second verse, same as the first.

Below in the Alternative Perspective section is another image I captured of the Big Dipper, this time from the Kuwohi parking area.  I had gone up there earlier in the fall to catch sunrise, but there was a cloud sitting on the mountain and I couldn’t see anything.  I decided to hang out and just see what happened, and as I was standing there, the clouds opened up a bit and suddenly I noticed that I could see the Big Dipper rising above the entry road!  As I was taking pictures a car drove through the scene, which I thought added a cool touch to the dark setting.  Much like the story above, I only had a few minutes of clarity before the sky clouded back over again.

More next week!

–Dan Thompson