Hey there! As I am typing this, we are about a week into our mandate of social distancing ourselves from each other. My day job was closed for 2 weeks minimum. I decided that I needed to social distance myself all the way to the Smoky Mountains. I only went to public/high traffic places (beside the park itself) when absolutely necessary, and I did not interact anyone face to face while I was gone. I spent a couple of days in nature with my camera--a dream come true!
I had two FULL days in the park to go exploring. I hiked lots of trails (didn't finish all of them) and did a lot of driving around the park. I was in search of two kinds of photos: a big landscape that displayed a valley surrounded by mountains and soft water effects around waterfalls and flowing rivers. I got BOTH in my first few hours in the park!
The first morning was a BEAUTIFUL sunrise and I lucked into a spot that had a good vantage point of a valley filled with a blanket of fog as the sun rose.
Then I walked the Laurel Falls Trail. From my reading online, this trail is probably the most popular trail in the park. When I started (before the sun even officially rose), I was the second car in the lot. When I came back down, I passed so many people on their way up--I was so glad I got there early. The falls were beautiful!
Another popular waterfall trail is the Rainbow Falls Trail. I started this trail, and eventually realized that I was just NOT going to make it all the way to the falls. This trail was up, rocky, and filled with tree roots. I did not have the physical capacity and the time to hike the falls and take all the photos I wanted to before it got dark. And I really didn't want to hike in the dark. Instead I turned around and had fun climbing the rocks around the stream that paralleled the first part of the trail.
So to get these shots of the soft water required the use of a tripod. The shutter speed of the camera is at least 2-3 seconds. You can't hold the camera steady for that long to keep it in focus, hence the tripod. I placed my tripod in some very creative places to get these shots.
While I was in the park, the infamous fog that makes the Smokies what they are rolled in. It took away any opportunity for a sunset or sunrise. Instead, I had practice taking pictures in the fog. These were taken around the area of Newfound Gap. It is not the highest point of the Smokies, but is pretty close.
A fallen tree along the non-trail I hiked for a while in the fog.
My final evening, I planned to sit and watch the sunset (it seemed the majority of the fog was gone). Again, in all my reading online, I found that a good place to watch the sunset was a place called Morton Overlook. This was simply just a pull-off along the road on the way to Newfound Gap. I staked out my place and sat to watch. The sunset was not as amazing as the sunrise on my first morning, but I still enjoyed capturing it.
There were lots of clouds (surprise, surprise), so we were lucky to get any kind of a sunset. Once the sun was below the mountains tops, I started to play with long exposure and time lapse of the clouds moving. The time lapse didn't go great, but I got this long exposure as my last shot of the trip:
I hope you enjoyed. Stay safe and well.