Smokies Spring Day 6: More of the Same

Earlier posts in this series:

Back Story Day 1 Day 2  Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Day 6 was the second to last full day of this trip and, I’m sure it will shock those of you have kept up with the narrative during the months it’s taken me to bring this chronicle close to its conclusion, that the weather was (all together now) sunny and breezy. (Spoiler alert: this will finally change for most of Day 7, so stay tuned for that).

At this point, I was just about out of things to scout, so instead I took the opportunity, first thing in the morning, to make good on one of the earlier scouting sessions. I’m referring to the Day 4 foray up the Porters Creek Trail. The light during that session had been, predictably, terrible, but I had spotted a very promising location on my return to the trailhead.

As I noted in my earlier description:

Complaints notwithstanding, on the way back, feeling extraordinarily discouraged, I stumbled across a scene that stopped me in my tracks. It was in atrocious light and definitely not worth photographing at the time, but, I reasoned, in even light, it would make a wonderful image. I actually took the time to set up at this location, just to figure out how much of the background would be in the frame and estimate how early I would have to get there in the morning to be able to photograph the entire scene in even light assuming–as was being forecast–that I would have a string of sunny days ahead of me.

Here I was, two days later, facing another one of those sunny days. It was absolutely cloudless that morning, so rather than straggle up to an overlook on the Newfound Gap Road, I made the relatively short drive to the Porters Creek staging area in Greenbrier, in the gray light of dawn. I was the first vehicle in the lot and double-timed it up the trail to the spot I’d identified on Day 4. I figured that I’d have, at most, 45 minutes after sunrise before direct sun would begin to encroach on the location. Due to the nature of subject matter, I also needed dead calm conditions to execute the focus stack I’d need to realize the image I’d scouted out and, fortunately, it was windless that morning. But I didn’t think the calm conditions would last long.

When I reached the spot, I leveraged what I had learned during the scouting session and, as a result, it took less time to set up than otherwise would have been the case, since I knew exactly where I wanted to place the tripod, which lens to use, the exact focal length needed, and so forth. I still had to fine tune the image, level the camera, establish the exposure, find the nearest point of critical focus to begin the stacking process and make sure that the conditions remained calm, so there was still a bit of time required to finish the process off. Vertical and horizontal images were made.

Porters Creek, Greenbrier, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Porters Creek, Greenbrier, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

It’s a good thing I’d arrived so early. As I was wrapping up at this spot, I noticed that the slope to my right was already taking on direct sun. The area I’d been photographing would be hit with hot spots within 10 minutes time.

As long as I was there, I decided to explore other spots along the creek before they, too, lost the even light. Before the area had become broadly impacted, I managed to find a couple of spots I liked.

Porters Creek, Greenbrier, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Porters Creek, Greenbrier, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

And that was the end of image-making until late in the afternoon, when areas along the Little River Road began to sink back into the even light of open shade.

Little River Black & White, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

I had decided that I wanted to pay one more visit to Whiteoak Sink, which I had explored for the first time on Day 2. Before hitting the trail, early in the evening, I made a couple of stops along the road to explore and photograph a couple of scenes.

Spring Forest, Little River Road, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Laurel Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Finally, I made my way to the trailhead and hiked into Whiteoak Sink. The flowers had declined a bit, in spots, since my time there four days previous, but there were still clusters of nice specimens, and I focused my attention on the intimate scenes.

Trillium Intimate, Whiteoak Sink, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Trillium Intimate, Whiteoak Sink, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Blue Phlox Intimate, Whiteoak Sink, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

The sun had sunk behind the ridge skirting the west edge of the Sink when I started heading back to the trail. I had one more day left in the Smokies and, finally, a good portion of it would not be spent in sunny, windy conditions.