It is just a shade under thirty-six miles from the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Richland Balsam Mountain to the end of the Parkway at Oconaluftee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is a route that passes through some of the most wonderful vistas that the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Balsam Range in particular, have to offer. One of my favorites is the view from Lone Bald Overlook looking southwestward into a fastness of mountains clothed in late-spring green and afternoon light breaking through a mixed layer of clouds riding low in the sky.

A focal length of 35mm, at the far end of wide-angleland, gave me the angle-of-view I wanted. An aperture of f/18 provided depth-of-field, and a shutter speed of 0.3 second at ISO 100 gave me an overall medium exposure. The clouds were so intriguing to me that I felt they merited nearly half of the Image, so I created a 55-45% division, allowing the sunlit foreground treetops to comprise about a third of the Image and almost half of the sub-horizon area.

These old mountains are soothing to the eye and calming to the heart. They are the gift of peace to a planet in turmoil.