Posts Tagged ‘Photos’

Art in the River

September 1, 2014
Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.  August 27, 2012.

Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. August 27, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Betsy and I like driving and hiking along Middle Prong of the Little River in the Smokies.  This river is in the Tremont section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which means it is less crowded than more popular sections of the park.

We usually go when there is plenty of water flowing over and around the boulders in the river bed, but a couple of years ago we went on a beautiful August day when the water levels were very low.

At first I was disappointed that the water of the river was barely moving, but then I noticed the light and reflections.  Sunlight streaming through the trees seemed to turn portions of the river into gold.

Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.  August 27, 2012.

Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. August 27, 2012.

A little later we came upon a pool of water that was turned a yellow/green by the leaves of the trees overhead.

Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.  August 27, 2012.

Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. August 27, 2012.

As I continued to pay attention to the reflections in the water, I found I could capture the trees overhead and the sky by photographing the water.  The result is different from most of the photographs I’ve taken, but I like the color of both the green leaves and the blue sky as painted by the river.

Photographer at Work (2)

January 30, 2014
Betsy getting a picture of Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.  January 20, 2013.

Betsy getting a picture of Middle Prong Little River, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. January 20, 2014.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Last week Betsy and I went to the Smokies to do some hiking and get some pictures.  Unfortunately we didn’t get in much hiking, but we did get in a lot of photography.  We drove and walked along Middle Prong of Pigeon River, since I wanted to try out my new lens and filter.

But in addition to trying out my new equipment, I couldn’t resist getting some pictures of Betsy at work.  She didn’t have a new camera or lens, but she worked hard at getting good pictures herself.  The picture above shows her getting a picture of some rapids in the river.

Betsy photographing Stillhouse Hollow Falls.  January 20, 2014.

Betsy photographing Stillhouse Hollow Falls. January 20, 2014.

There were a couple of small waterfalls on the side of the road across from the river.  Here Betsy is getting a picture of Stillhouse Hollow Falls.

Betsy along Tremont Road, Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.  January 20, 2014.

Betsy along Tremont Road, Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. January 20, 2014.

I was lucky to get one or two pictures of Betsy without that camera in her face.  Just look at that smile.

Photographer At Work

September 16, 2013
Betsy in the Rose Garden, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina.  August 6, 2013.

Betsy in the Rose Garden, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina. August 6, 2013.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

One of the nicest things about traveling with my Beautiful Bride is that I get to watch Betsy the Photographer at work.  That was the case when we visited the Rose Garden at Biltmore House and Gardens last month.

Betsy takes her photography very seriously — perhaps more seriously than I do.

Betsy in the Rose Garden, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina.  August 6, 2013.

Betsy in the Rose Garden, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina. August 6, 2013.

You could almost say that she throws herself into her work.

Paul Neyron Rose, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina.  August 6, 2013.

Paul Neyron Rose, Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina. August 6, 2013.

But then the results of her dedication are absolutely beautiful.

Our World: Where has George taken pictures?

September 9, 2013

Places01

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

As most of you know, I have been using a GPS tracker for the past few years when taking pictures while traveling.  The GPS tracker gives the GPS coordinates of the location where the photo was taken.

I’ve also started to go back and give the location of my archived older photos.  The locations are then plotted on Google Earth.

I recently noticed that I had photos in 300 ‘places’ around the world, as shown by the red pins on the image above.

Places02

That map of the world doesn’t look as if it has 300 pins on it.  But drilling down reveals more pins.  The top image has one pin for Hong Kong, but the closer view shows six separate pins in Hong Kong.

Places03

For some reason, the greatest concentration of red pins seems to be in the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.  I wonder why that would be the case.

Henrys Fork

January 2, 2013

Henrys Fork River, Idaho. September 23, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Since there was smoke forecast for the Tetons on our last day in West Yellowstone, Betsy and I visited some more of the thermal areas in Yellowstone and explored part of neighboring Idaho.  We visited Mesa Falls in Idaho (you know how we are about waterfalls) and found some autumn color along Henrys Fork River between the upper and lower falls.  The picture above was taken from an overlook between the two falls.

Henrys Fork River, Idaho. September 23, 2012. This photo was taken with a 5.9 second exposure.

I had time to play around with my neutral density filter and I got this picture.  I like the way the water of the rapids was smoothed out by the longer exposure.

Smoky Mountains Panorama

October 31, 2012

A panorama of the Smoky Mountains as seen from the Foothills Parkway in Tennessee. October 23, 2012.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Last week Betsy and I drove along the Foothills Parkway, which is just west of the Smoky Mountains.  We were able to enjoy the autumn colors and beautiful views without getting caught in all the traffic of the Smoky Mountains National Park.

The views were spectacular, and I was inspired to try to get a panorama of the scene.  The picture above is my first effort, created by merging three photos in Photoshop.  I don’t think it looks too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Our World: Where in the World has George Been?

December 13, 2011

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

This is my post for the Our World meme.  This meme is a second generation of My World Tuesday created by Klaus Peter and is hosted by five wonderful ladies.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

Isn’t modern technology wonderful?  I’m trying to get my photos organized and published, and one of the programs I use is iPhoto.  iPhoto has a ‘Places’ feature that identifies the location of a photograph.  Now that I have a GPS tracker the process is automatic, although I have to enter the location manually on older photos.

Over the weekend I noticed that I currently have 119 places identified in my photos.  The red pins on the world map above give a general view of where I’ve taken pictures.  The dots on the far right are on Beijing, People’s Republic of China, and the island of Bali.  I visited those places more than 20 years ago.

The red dot in the Caribbean is San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Betsy and I boarded a cruise ship on our honeymoon.

Most of the dots are in the U. S., of course, and by zooming in to the area around Fairfield Glade, I can see that there are many places in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina that we’ve visited.

I have no idea how many places I will eventually get identified, but I find the whole process very interesting.

I Was Tagged

January 17, 2009

betsy051

My beautiful bride tagged me Thursday,  I wasn’t able to do anything about it at the time, but now I can share with you what she inflicted upon me.

Upon being notified that I was tagged, I received the following instructions:  “Open a document or a picture folder. Then click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo. Post the photo and describe it.”

My beautiful bride often doesn’t like to have her picture posted, so there is at least a certain amount of poetic justice involved in following her instructions.  The designated picture (shown above — it can be made larger) was taken in May, 2007, at Cherry Grove Point in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Cherry Grove Point is at the extreme northern end of North Myrtle Beach.  We went to the point one evening after dinner and since it was low tide we were able to walk around the point.  Once around the point, we could see the sun setting over the marsh west of the beach.  That’s when I took this picture — doesn’t she look beautiful in the sunlight?

The rest of the instructions say that I am to tag five additional people.  I’ll admit that I have a problem with that.  Many of the bloggers I visit have fantastic photographs, but I don’t want to impose on them.  I will, admit, however, that it is an interesting exercise.  If you would like to try it, consider yourself tagged and please post the results.