Quiet Walkway #1 on Cades Cove Road

So this morning I went on a couple of walks on quiet walkways. If you don't know what these are, well it's basically just a small and usually fairly short trail into the woods. There are alot of them in the Smoky Mountain National Park, and they are usually much easier than the regular full blown trails in the Park. So basically at my current fitness level, or lack of a current fitness level, the quiet walkways are more my speed. I hope to eventually work my way up to more.

So this post will be about the first one I went on. I shall have a second post later about the other one. This was the first quiet walkway on Cades Cove Road as counted from the Sugarlands Visitor Center. The photo (also on Zazzle here) shows the first small stream crossing along this walkway. By comparison to later crossings in the day, this was definitely the easiest one. I just kind of find these little crossings to be fun. Not sure why, maybe it's just my general love of flowing water. but it's fun to be able to stand over the stream and watch it flow.


The trail was a fairly open and flat one, and easily walked. There was still a bit of snow around from the big snow last weekend. As there were no tracks in the snow that was still there, I think I might have been the first one on this walkway since the snow. I'm a big fan of snow. I left Texas because it was too hot for me. I stayed in Tennessee because you get to see snow, but there is not so much that it causes many problems. I really love living here near the mountains because you can get out to snow more, but it doesn't impeded the daily living further down in the valley.




The second crossing was more a river crossing than a creek crossing and a much longer log. It also felt a bit more dangerous as there was some ice on the log, but for most of it there was a handrail. Near the end though part of the handrail had been taken out by a fallen tree. I made it across though with very little problem. This area was not so scenic though because of the fallen tree debris in the area.






This was at the end of this short walkway. It was a nice small creek. The full size unobstructed image can be seen on Zazzle here. I was actually kneeling in the mud to get this photo, but I liked how it turned out. I got new hiking boots weekend before last, and this trip was my first real trip out with them. They worked well. My feet stayed warm and dry.


I took a number of other photos. But I think the one below is probably my favorite for this walkway and maybe for this trip. I particularly like the leaf trapped in the ice, and the shadows of the trees in the water are also neat. It is also posted on Zazzle here, where it looks better with out the copyright stamp.

Happy New Year 2010!

Wishing you all a blessed, prosperous and Happy New Year.


This is one of my photos with my new Nikon D5000. I am loving it. More photos and posts from my playing with it will come later in the year. If you want to see a non-copyrighted version, there is a poster here on Zazzle. I will probably make notecards later, maybe some postage.

Merry Christmas To All!

I hope you all have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!



I will be posting more again after Christmas as I test out my new Christmas camera.

Deer in the Park

I actually took this video last Sunday. It was right in front of the Park Ranger Headquarters by the Sugarland Visitor Center.



I could not get my camera to focus well on the deer unfortunately. The video is actually the most in focus thing I got. But I have hope for an very very very good upgrade for Christmas.

And since I haven't taken the time to process anymore of my photos from last weekend. Here are a few of the others. I actually put these up on Etsy yesterday. They are only $10.00 there. And if you're reading this and would like one to give for a Christmas present, I can give you a 50% discount.


I really do like wildlife.















This unexpected snowy day in the mountains was so much more beautiful in person than any of my photos captured. This one came the closest though.























This was one of my first photos after moving here. This is the leaves were on the ground. I just saw them, thought they looked nice, and clicked.









And this is what I consider to be my best photo to date. It was at the bottom of that long hike a few posts back.

A Lazy Weekend Playing with Photoshop

Well, it was a long week, and despite the beautiful weather outside, I just stayed in this weekend. My mom found this site for me called Fan Art Review. You can post photographs and art, and have it reviewed by other people who also post their work. There is a small monthly fee for the site, but the feedback you get is worth it (at least to me). It was from going there that I started playing with making the mixed media photos as seen in the last post. It also inspired me to start trying making digital art pieces from nothing in Photoshop.

This was my first piece. I titled it "Glowing in the Dark". The link on the title goes to the listing on Fan Art where you can see the image without the copyright. Fan Art protects the images from being stolen with their code.


This was my second piece, and so far it is my favorite. It is titled, "Flying in the Light".

Based on the reviews on these pieces, I think I am going to create a new Zazzle page for these images. A number of the reviewers mentioned that their children really liked them, and Zazzle has many products that appeal to young people.



Fan Art has these contests that you can possibly win prizes for. And the deadline was coming up for the Halloween photography and art contest. So I made/found these to enter into the two contests.

Happy Halloween

Morning After Halloween Bird

It's just been a fun and relaxing way to spend the weekend. I hope you all enjoy my pieces.

Sunday's Adventures

I have worked 47 hours in 4 days, so it has taken me much longer than I expected or wanted to get to this post. But better late than never, right?

It rained all day Saturday, so it was not a good day to go out and take pictures. We did go see two shows at Dollywood for the last day of the Gospel and Harvest Festival. While waiting between shows, I did find this nice leaf arrangement sitting on the bridge.

This is my first attempt at using a waterstamp on the image to protect it. What does everyone think?

And this is what it looks like after I played with it all evening.

I've really just started playing with the fun of mixed media pieces. But anyway, back to Sunday's adventures in the Smokies...

Sunday was most sunny, well sometimes it was mostly cloudy, but at least there was no rain. So after church we set out on a drive into the National Park. We went a different route than usual and went down Wears Valley Rd. It is one of the back ways into the park from the Tennessee side.

My whole goal for the drive was to see Meigs Creek Falls and The Sinks. We ended up taking the long way around because I didn't bring the map. So I was just trying to remember what the map looked like and said. So we took a detour down to Cades Cove, but we eventually found the right way.

So this is Meigs Creek Falls:



And this is the Little River that Meigs Creek Falls feeds into:



I had a stranger take this photo of me at the Falls.





I think it turned out pretty good.










Just down the road from the Meigs Creek Falls is a part of Little River called The Sinks. I think we kind of lucked out while there and their were two guys kayaking down them. I got a video of one of them going down.



They climbed up the rocks on the side, went over the road, and went down two more times while we there.

So my mom was with me...



















I saw this guy climb out to this rock and it would make a good picture point. So I handed mom the camera, and climbed my way out there. Here is what we got...



I had forgotten to change the camera from video mode. So after climbing back and realizing this, I reset the camera and climbed back out to the rock. Here is the resulting photo.


I know this post was a little photo and video intensive so hopefully it didn't overload your server. We had a good trip out on Sunday though. The fall colors while not as numerous in some place were still brilliant. The extra rain this year seems to have made some trees turn later than others, which meant the overall colors at one time were not as brilliant. But it has also meant that the colors last longer.

I really do love living here. There is always something to see or enjoy.

George the Walking Stick

My friend, Rebecca, asked me what my walking stick's name was...I asked it. George seemed right to me. So here is my photo of George leaning against a boulder by the river.


And because I am trying out my mixed media skills...the Real George glows out.


More to come soon on the rest of today's adventures.