As we head into the Desert Southwest for a glorious month on the Colorado Plateau, I wanted to remind myself of the beauty of home and the joy that is spring in the Southern Appalachians. Middle Prong of Little River flows out of the rugged section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park where Lynn Camp Prong and Thunderhead Prong come together. These two beautiful streams drain Miry Ridge and Defeat Ridge descending from the north slopes of the Smokies Crest. Where the waters join once lay the starkly quaint logging town of Tremont, owned by Colonel W.B. Townsend’s Little River Lumber Company. An arm of the Little River Railroad climbed slowly through the narrow valley, opening access to the prized board feet of wooden treasure. Today a gravel one-lane road usurpts the railroad’s bed to lead seekers of solace into the heart of a land recovered by nature and filled with amazement. In spring, Tremont is a fireworks display of dogwood and Middle Prong is a boulder-strewn world of whitewater. I stood on a large boulder whose presence diverted the flow to river-left just at my feet. I wanted to include a lot of information so that the entire river would seem to be flowing toward me. A focal length of 42mm accomplished this. The arched dogwood limb in full blossom gave me a foreground element with which I could repeat the dogwoods in the back of the image. I wanted depth of field from front to rear, but I did not want to completely blur out the swiftly moving water. An aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed of 1.0 second at ISO 100 allowed for this result.
Awesome! The way you know all the names of rivers , tributaries, lands, mountains. Surely there must be one named for you, or should .
Beautiful! Spring caught at it’s best. The dogwood branches seem to be reaching out to bless the water below. The color and light are wonderful making the air look a little nippy.
You guys have a wonderful Southwest adventure!
The dogwoods provide a nice continuity.
Hi Everyone. Thanks for joining me. Rosemary, thank you for such a lovely sentiment. I’m sure there are many who have done much more for the Smokies than I could ever dream of accomplishing. I am honored to be thought of in the same breath as such folks. I hope you and Don are doing well. Nancy T., it was such a wonderful day when this Image was taken; you are right, the color and the light were amazing. The relationship between the dogwood limb and the water was what drew me to this particular composition; and thanks for your good wishes. Continuity is an apt word, Nancy K.; it almost seemed as if a pattern had been created, and it was certainly a lot of fun seeing it.