Winter Snowfall

Mother Nature has not been kind to the lower Midwest, the south and most of the eastern United States this week. Wednesday came with a sheet of ice to all of middle Tennessee. The temperatures climbed above freezing very very early Thursday so the ice melted quickly. Late Thursday evening rain began followed by snow in the wee hours of Friday morning. I awoke to find four inches of snow. As the day wore on, Winter Storm Jonas dumped nine inches of snow in northeast Nashville, specifically Hendersonville, and almost as much south of the city. Southern Kentucky received a foot of snow in some parts.

Stepping out on the patio to capture this image, reminded me of just how cold it is. While I have to dig out my car today or tomorrow, I am not looking forward to it. The temperatures are in the twenties with wind chill in the upper teens. Notice the pine cones hanging from the tree? All of the fir trees have tons of pine trees hanging down from them around my place. So beautiful. Take care if you are in the path of Jonas. Stay warm, stay safe. ENJOY!

Photographer's Note: My blog was remodeled earlier in the week. One wrong key stroke and my layout and template was gone forever. I thought I had a backup copy, but I could not find it. Things are more or less back to normal, give or take. Back up your template by saving the HTML code under Template. All you need do is go inside the template HTML and copy and paste it to a word file. Since I know some CSS code I was able to recreate the template for the most part. Back soon.

GSMNP, Shrouded in Fog

There is always more to photograph than there is time to do so when you spend any amount of time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a virtual wonderland of rivers, streams, forests, woods, mountains, valleys and let's not forget the history that is found here. When you take 500 images over the course of four days and slowly cull through them to see just what you have captured, you never know what will be peering back at you.

When I happened upon this image, I decided it has to be one of my favorites from my trek to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. No doubt there are people who believe rain and fog won't net them much on a photography trip. I beg to differ. A foggy mountainside can be stunning to me and when you add yellow Fall leaves with the dark green Fir trees, I declare a winner. I love to capture photos that have natural lines such as the one I shot here of the ridge line. It takes your eye right up to the top left of the photo. I did photograph some Fall color and some water images while on my trek and will post those soon. Back very soon. ENJOY!

Fir Trees

On my last visit to Bernheim, with the sun hanging low in the sky, I stepped off the beaten path and walked under the canopy of this clump of fir trees situated just off the main road. Completely surrounded by fir trees and their low lying branches, totally ensconced in the pungent scent of pine cones, and feeling the crunch, crunch, crunch of fir shavings as I walked amongst the trees, it felt as though I'd been transported deep into a forest. That's the beauty of Bernheim, finding solitude and tranquility in a beautiful place such as this. ENJOY!