Great Smoky Mountain National Park Wildflowers

Here are a few more wildflower pics from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, I shot these in late March and actually came away with a large amount of images from this trip, conditions were just about perfect from this spring and it was a wonderful trip to the park.

I think I just about captured every species that was in bloom at the time of visit, I am sure I missed a few though, there are far too many to keep up with but it was a pleasure trying.

I wanted to share a few with you starting with Fire Pink then Foam Flower and finally Wild Columbine. All three were shot within yards of each other along the Bud Ogle Nature Trail right off The Roaring Fork, this is a beautiful road that you can drive along and find great trails along it’s length, there are many outstanding views of The Roaring Fork and it’s many wonderful cascades all thru out your trip.

All three of these flowers were very easy to shoot there was hardly any wind to speak of thru my entire trip and the wildflowers were at peak bloom thru my stay.  If you ever get a chance to go to the Park, definitely make sure you get out of your car and hike a bit, it’s incredible to me that most people who travel there might drive thru the park and then spend most of their time shopping in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg.  If shopping is your thing thats fine, but by all means take the time to take a walk thru the woods it can truly be a life altering experience for you, especially in the spring or fall !!

So here are the flowers that you can see all along your hike and there too many more to post now but I will try to share then every no  and then for you to see, thanks for stopping by and taking a look !!

And don’t forget to click on the images for best results.

 

 

Fire Pink

                                                                                                                                                            

Foam Flower

                                                                                                                                                                              

 

Wild Columbine

                                                                                                                                                                              

Madison Indiana Columbine

How about this, another post in one week, I had a little time today so I thought I would post this shot of a Wild Columbine shot just outside of my hometown of Madison. This little wildflower was shot up in a “holler” as we call our canyons around here, just outside the city limits.

The hills and “hollers” that surround our community offer a suitable environment to host the numerous wildflowers that appear each spring, many can found growing into the town itself. They actually make a beautiful addition to the more cultivated gardens that dot our city, some adapt very easily and others don’t seem to fare as well.

Flowers such as the Columbine have flourished in many of the local gardens but others such as the Large Flowered Trillium have never been able to adapt, I guess this gives me a reason to get out and hike and shoot a few images each spring.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

“Clifty Falls Columbine “

I have a lot of images I need to post but have been very far behind because of work related issues, this is a shot from Clifty Falls State Park, it took me a long time for this one and I am not really sure about the bg in this as well.

The wind had been blowing very hard that evening as it has been all spring, and when it finally died down I was almost out of light, but I waited it out and come out with this shot of the Wild Columbine. We had just experienced a little shower that just added to the beauty of this flower, but I am not sure if the bg in this might be a touch busy, I guess I can leave that up to the viewer since I am up in the air on it.

David asked me for a little commentary but right now I have been so busy with work that not much has been happening here, I hope everyone is having a nice spring, ours has been very cool and wet which has led to a lot of nice images for me.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

” My Favorites of 2007 “

I see a few other people have been posting their favorite shots of 2007 so I thought I might throw in some of my better shots of the last year. I will start with my five favorite wildflower images that I captured last year…..

I titled this one Out of the Darkness for obvious reasons…

This is a Dutchman’s Breeches macro shot that I thought came out pretty neat…

Maybe my all time favorite wildflower shot, a Backlit Trillium, I love the lighting in this one…

Another one I was quite fond of was one my Columbine shots, I got a nice selection of these delicate little flowers this year but I thought this one stood out over the others…

And last but certainly not the least , this one might not be a wildflower, but I really loved the elegant feel to this fern I found unfurling in the spring sun, this is also one of my favorite all time images…

Thanks for taking a look at my images and I hope you find these as pleasing to your eyes as I do’ I will follow these up with 10 more shots later on..My 5 Favorite Backyard Flowers and my Five Favorite Landscape shots of the year.

“Classic Columbine”

Spring shot of a wild columbine, I like the sweeping curves of the stems and the placement of the secondary bud, it’s hard to find them set up this nice ( at least for me). I was using a 80-400 lens shot at around 300, which gave me real good separation from the bg, also shot at about f/8 with 1/50 sec ss. I think columbines are my favorite wildflowers to shoot, if it is the least bit windy you are sunk, but if conditions are right they can be a joy to capture. Thanks for taking a look.