Happy Easter everyone! This week’s Picture of the Week admittedly has nothing to do with Easter, though had I planned this a little better I guess I could have at least featured one of the churches I photographed over the winter. Oh well, next time! I do hope you had a nice Easter celebration though, and had the opportunity to spend time with friends and family, remembering the reason for the holiday.
Over the past couple of years I’ve been trying to cover more of the Smokies with my photography, and particularly my night photography. As part of that effort, I visited the Roaring Fork Motor Trail area a number of times this past winter. The Bud Ogle cabin, featured in this week’s Picture of the Week, I’d seen a few times before, but several of the other spots I’ll be sharing in the coming weeks I had never visited – and saw them for the first time in the dark! That area of the park is extremely pretty, and I look forward to going back and seeing it in different seasons.
That part of the park, however, is basically in Gatlinburg, which means the light pollution situation there is far worse than in Cades Cove, which itself has light pollution issues. When I setup the shot, I used the normal exposure time that I would in Cades Cove, and was shocked at how bright it was! It basically looked like broad daylight! I adjusted substantially and got the look I was after. In a sense, though, it was helpful because it gave the foregrounds from there a look, almost like moon light. Definitely easier to get foreground details! Not so great for getting a quality sky though!
More next week!
–Dan Thompson