There is no more iconic location in Great Smoky Mountains National Park than Cades Cove; and the high point on the Cades Cove Loop Road is perhaps the most iconic of all. Maybe that’s why I don’t photograph it very often; but sometimes I just can’t help myself. At the beginning of April I was in the Cove watching a storm as it blew in over the Crest of the Smokies Ridge from the southwest, and I knew that with the clouds-and-light show taking place there was one excellent place from which to see it all. The brooding atmospherics and the moving light made an all-too-familiar scene something very special. After all, it’s always about the light. A focal length of 72mm, short telephoto, gave me the angle of view I wanted. An aperture of f/20 provided depth of field, and a shutter speed of 1/4th second at ISO 100 gave me an overall slightly darker than medium exposure. I was careful to wait, as the beams came and went, for a moment when the foreground meadow was in highlight and there was also light dappling on the distant ridges.
There is so much beauty and depth captured in this moody moment at that iconic spot. So many lines starting with the grassy area in the foreground then the trees, even the hills have lines pointing up to warn us about that angry sky. While the contrasting horizontal lines from the bottom to the ridges are smooth and calming to let us know it is not time to panic.
A lot of different stories could be told from this image. Thanks for sharing.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say it had to be a painting or drastically retouched, to get that combination of dark sky and multiply lit fore-, mid-, and background. But no, it’s a testament to a good eye, great patience, and deep knowledge of the subject. Thanks, Don, for another Sunday morning treat.
Dark and brooding but with a message of hope in the foreground light. The early settlers who lived in this cove led a difficult life. It was far from the idyllic existence that we like to fantasize about. I feel certain that skies like this one brought a sense of foreboding to those early settlers. Their homes, crops and livestock could all be threatened by the spring and summer storms. Still there is a quiet beauty and strength in those protecting mountains that we respond to even today.
Hey Nancy T., Don, and Dorsey. Thanks for joining me for this conversation. I really respond to all of the symbolisms you have suggested for this Image. Brooding, moody, and even foreboding; those are all things that dark skies can still evoke in me even after nearly seventy years of observation. And at the same time, there seems to always be a sense of excitement as I watch the sheer, raw energy of nature gathering itself together to move toward some calming resolution and conclusion. With such symbolisms we communicate to our viewers the feelings that were evoked in us as we watched it happen. Then, too, there is the counterbalancing power and force of the Earth in the form of the mountain’s mass which does exactly as Dorsey suggests and offers shelter and protection in the face of the vulnerability. From an elemental standpoint, the lines that Nancy T. mentions, both horizontal/slightly diagonal and vertical/diagonal, are all actors in the drama: communicating, as she suggests, the foreboding and calmness we have felt symbolically. And the light in the foreground, as Don points out, offering a sense of hope and relief. I really appreciate all that each of you has seen and offered. We become more creative in that sharing and understanding. Don, your kind words are always appreciated.