The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, so we’ve asked Pro Shots photographer Roger Canada to show us the 5 top photo spots and give us tips on how to capture stunning photos.
Roger will be hosting a Fall Color photo workshop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from October 30–31. For more information, please visit his website http://rogercanada.smugmug.com/
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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is full of wonderful natural places that offer a lifetime’s worth of photographic challenges and opportunities. I have been photographing the Smokies for over 15 years—often visiting 20 to 30 times a year—and I am still inspired by the year-round beauty that these mountains offer. If you’re planning a trip to the Smokies, I highly recommend bringing your camera and visiting the five great destinations I’ve detailed below. Whether you’re a novice shutterbug or a seasoned pro, the five photo spots should fill your memory cards (or your film pouch) with some real keepers!
By Webshots Pro Shots Photographer Roger Canada
1. Cades Cove
Cades Cove is one of the most-visited areas of the park. The Cove is an 11-mile, one way&endash;loop road that offers something for everyone. The park officials open the gate to the loop road at sunrise, so get there early if you want to have the best light and miss the crowds. From mid-May through mid-September the loop road is closed to cars on Wednesdays and Saturdays until 10 a.m. to allow bicyclists and runners an open road without the worry of automobile traffic. Try to avoid one of these days if you plan on seeing all five sights in one day.
There is often low-hanging fog in the Cove, which can reveal beautiful shafts of early morning sunlight as it dissipates. Combine this beautiful light with a backdrop surrounded by mountains, and you have the makings for wonderful landscape photography. If you opt to photograph a big scenic, try to put something of interest in the foreground, such as an interesting-looking tree or wildflowers. The view looking down Sparks lane is an iconic image of the Smokies. This is a beautiful morning shot and is hard to resist. Try using a polarizing filter for this side-lit shot to remove the glare and make your colors pop.
The Cove is also one of the best places in the park to view wildlife. White-tailed deer, black bears and wild turkeys are most active early in the morning, offering a terrific time for wildlife-photo opportunities. Be sure to bring a telephoto lens with you so you can capture that nine-point buck! You’ll get better wildlife photos by using a long telephoto lens as it lets you fill your frame with the subject and blur out distracting backgrounds. Also, the wildlife your photographing will be much more relaxed without crowds of people pressing in close with their cameras and forcing them to leave a good breakfast spot.
You can find a number of historic sites that have been beautifully restored in the Cove, including churches, old cemeteries, cabins and a grist mill. Be sure to stop at the Visitor Center about halfway around the loop road, where you’ll find a homestead complete with a working grist mill and other historic outbuildings. Don’t miss Tipton Place, which showcases a replica cantilever barn on the left, and Carter Shields Cabin, which is nestled beautifully in the woods.
You can easily spend all day in Cades Cove, so if you want to see more of the park, try to keep your visit here to three or four hours. If you start here at 7 a.m., try to leave by 10 or 10:30 a.m.
2. Little River Road
Little River Road follows the Little River, which is actually one of the larger rivers in the Smokies, and it’s certainly one of the most-scenic drives in the park. There are numerous pull-offs for stopping and photographing along the 17-mile stretch that leads to the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Be sure to look for Meigs Falls—this scene requires a moderate telephoto lens for best results as it’s very difficult to cross the river for a closer view.
Overcast skies are usually optimal for taming the contrast between bright, reflective water and dark, moss-covered rocks. If the sun is shining brightly, look for smaller shaded scenes, such as a cascade with autumn leaves on a nearby rock or a grouping of cardinal flowers in spring. If you must shoot a river scene in bright sunlight, try your hand at HDR, a digital technique that Pro Shots photographer Kevin McNeal explained in his blog post, Can HDR Really Help My Photography?
It’s easy to spend all day on this 17-mile road (this is a recurring theme in the Smokies!), so try to keep your time to two hours on this part of your journey. This drive usually takes around 45 minutes to an hour if you don’t make any stops, so you’ll want to keep that in mind since our next destination is best photographed around 1 or 2 p.m.
3. Campbell Overlook
When you reach the end of Little River Road, turn right onto Newfound Gap Road and look for two large turnouts on your left. Both turnouts offer wonderful views of Mount Le Conte and the hardwood forest below. This scene works well with a polarizer in the early afternoon since the sun rises behind the mountain, leaving it in shadow for most of the morning. This is a classic Smoky mountains vista that is particularly stunning when the fall colors are blazing against a blue sky and puffy clouds. Photographic vistas in the middle of the day usually don’t work, but with the right conditions this scene will provide a photo that you’ll want to frame and hang on your wall!
4. Roaring Fork
It’s time to head back down the mountain to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which is just outside of Gatlinburg. This is a beautiful six mile&endash;loop road filled with lush forest, streams, waterfalls and nineteenth-Century homesteads that you won’t want to miss, including the Bud Ogle Farm. The road is closed in winter, so you may want to try Greenbrier or Elkmont as alternative destinations during that season.
In spring, the dogwood trees and wildflowers are in bloom, and the damp forest atmosphere provides lush mosses around the brooks and streams. Use your polarizing filter, and keep your scene in the shade to get the most vibrant colors. The last half of the Motor Trail is probably the best as it offers a small tub mill and more glimpses of old farm life in the mountains.
The last stop is a trickling waterfall called the Place of a Thousand Drips. Depending on recent precipitation, this can be flowing beautifully. Use a tripod and a moderate zoom lens to isolate sections of the waterfall for blurred water effects. Try to time your exit to give yourself about an hour to reach your final hot spot for the day. Pay attention to the weather report for actual sunset time and try to be there an hour before.
5. Morton Overlook
Morton Overlook is the place for the classic Smokies sunset shot. The overlook is a small turnout that can get crowded in the summer months, so get there early and stake out your spot. The sun will be setting in your frame from June through August. If you are visiting in fall, try Clingman’s Dome, but be sure to give yourself about another 45 minutes to get there.
To set up your sunset shot, use a tripod and a moderate to long telephoto zoom to vary your compositions. Include the sun in your shot when it is almost ready to disappear, and avoid looking directly at it for any length of time, especially through your camera lens. Try using the cloudy setting on your digital camera or use a warming filter on your film camera to make the most of the warm sunset light. You won’t need a polarizer since it doesn’t have much effect when you are shooting straight into the sun.
Take in a wide view if the clouds are dynamic, and try using a graduated neutral density filter if you have one. This filter helps keep the detail in the sky as well as the mountains. An alternative is to combine exposures digitally later on the computer. You can expose once for the sky and once for the mountains, then combine the two images in a software program or try the HDR technique mentioned above.
Finally, be sure to stay after the sun has set behind the ridges. Some of the very best colors and light happen after sunset, when everyone has packed up and headed back down the mountain.
Tips for the Road
1. Be sure to pack plenty of food and more water than you think you’ll need to get you through the day. Once you’ve staked your spot for the sunset shot, you can enjoy a sandwich while you wait for the big show.
2. Watch the weather, and don’t be discouraged by occasional showers or sprinkles. More often than not your patience will be rewarded with some of the best skies and light after clearing storms or rain showers. This is especially true in the morning or evening, when the sun breaks through low on the horizon and dark clouds linger above that, making for truly dramatic images. Outstanding photos can also be had during bad weather—just keep your camera dry, and don’t go out in electrical storms with a tripod!
3. Wear seasonally appropriate clothing, and bring layers as temperatures can really drop in the mountains, especially as you go up in altitude or as the sun goes down. Comfortable footwear for light hiking is a must, and it’s best if they’re waterproof, breathable and broken in. Now is not the time to break in a new pair of shoes—your comfort will greatly aid the enjoyment of your day.
! The sun’s warm rays and bright light sparks new life and the earth abounds with abundance. What better time to get close to the earth and explore the view from below? Whether you’re looking at new life in the garden, a creative portrait shot or the view of a city street, the low down angle of the “worm’s eye view” is sure to give you a new perspective in this week’s challenge!
