The workshop ended today with a morning shoot at an overlook off of the Foothills Parkway.  The morning sunrise turned out to be spectacular as groups of clouds on the horizon interacted with the sun rays.

After sunrise, we finished up the workshop at a nearby stream to work on water images.

It was a great workshop with a great group of folks.  If you are interested in taking a photography workshop, I highly recommend signing up for a Tony Sweet workshop (but fair warning, they fill up fast).  Tony and Susan both provide outstanding instruction in the classroom and particularly out in the field. Thanks Tony and Susan!

Before heading out to make the long drive home to northern VA, I drove to the Tremont area of the park looking for some more streams and hoping to find some nice moss covered rocks to photograph.  The water level was fairly low and I was able to get out in the middle of the water for the images below. (More images from GSMNP can be found at this link.)

The group hit the road early for the hour and a half drive to Newfound Gap and the Oconaluftee overlook to arrive before sunrise.  Below are two images from an overlook as early morning light first hits the mountainside.

In the late afternoon we headed back into Cades Cove to photograph more of the cabins and barns that are scattered throughout the area. (Thanks to Tony for tips on setting up this composition.)

As I was photographing the shot above, a young Black Bear appeared from out of the nearby woods. I grabbed my 200mm-400mm lens to get a closeup shot but soon the bear was running for its life as a group of tourists started to pursue it.

The workshop headed to another set of buildings that offered some interesting perspectives, such as the fence line and the green of late summer in the image below.

A nearby barn interior was a good candidate for an exposure fusion image, pulling together seven different exposures to capture the interior woodwork of the barn.

Day two of the workshop put us out into the field on a bright sunny morning in Lea Valley and a chance to work on landscape images.  There are a couple of things you count on in the Smoky Mountains, seeing White-tailed Deer and morning fog, which gives the Smokies its name.

We also had an opportunity to do some macro work in the field. Numerous spider webs covered in dew drops provided up-close subject material.

Next we headed for some of the 19th-century structures built by early settlers in this region that are maintained by the Park Service as a glimpse of early mountain life.  The wood in these buildings have a great graphic quality (despite the graffiti of hundreds of previous visitors).

The cabins and outbuildings offer numerous subject material to photograph.  Many in the workshop practiced HDR (high dynamic range) photography with these subjects.  I photographed the oxen-yoke hanging in a barn using the available light.

Today was my first day of shooting with the Tony Sweet workshop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There were ten of us in the workshop along with instructors Tony and Susan Milestone.  It was a great start to the next four days of photography in this outstanding location. The early morning rays of light filter through the fog and trees in the scene above within the Cades Cove area of the park.

We arrived early at the Cades Cove entrance in order to get in line waiting for the gate to open so that we could get set-up before the crowds arrived to take this classic Smokies image of Sparks Lane.

Before the sun was able to burn off the morning fog, we stopped along the road to photograph this lone tree, a favorite subject of many photographers here.  My composition below took advantage of a cloud stream passing by that seemed to connect directly to the tree.

Later in the day, we headed to the Greenbrier area of the park to work on some images of mountain streams.  The lighting conditions were good for catching the reflection of color on the water.

I alternated between working on wide angle shots of the water and more narrow scenes to concentrate on the flow of the water over the rocks that many people refer to as ‘moon rocks’.

The workshop concentrated on compositional themes and components.  Below is an image looking downstream as the flow of water makes a graceful S-curve pattern.  This was a great first day of the workshop…. looking forward to the next three days.

The lazy days of summer are here and the morning at Huntley Meadows seemed almost desolate.  There were very few signs of activity in the park but there was a nice  reflection of color in the water from the late summer trees.

The most visible wildlife at the park were the numerous painted turtles catching some sun on just about every surface sitting out of the water.  In fact, some of the rest stops didn’t have room for one more.

There were a couple of birds here and there, including a small group of Least Sandpipers, which I hadn’t observed before at the park this year.  They were taking advantage of the low water level to peck through the mud which is usually underwater.

About the only creatures which were still active were the remaining dragonflies.  They have been one of my favorite subjects to photograph this year, so I have one more portrait of the colorful Blue Dasher.

The weather forecast calls for a great weekend, so I got an early start this morning in order to arrive at Great Falls park before sunrise. This allowed even lighting before the sun rose above the tree line.  Once the sunlight hits the water, it becomes very contrasty and harder to achieve the ‘cotton candy’ look of the water.

The water flow of the Potomac was on the low side today which allowed access to other positions along the river for different compositions.  The photograph below shows the river just upstream from the larger falls that are seen from the observation platforms at the park.