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 Winter

OK although it has cooled down a bit I am still in need of a nice walk thru a cool environment, it doesn’t look like it will be coming outside real soon so I will just have to substitute a shot from a few winters ago.

This image came form Clifty Falls State Park near Madison Indiana, we had just received a nice accumulation of snow and the roads were clear enough for me to travel thru the park, it was just one of the many stream images I captured that day. You just can’t beat Clifty Falls for photography, the natural beauty of this park is unparalleled for this part of the country and is a must visit anytime you are in this area.

I purposely blurred the bottom and top part of this image just as a different look for this subject…not sure if I like it what do you think ?

 

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Just thought I might share this with you since the weather has been so hot, it’s kinda nice to go back in time a bit and enjoy a cool moment for a change. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look !

 

“Madison Indiana Photography, Sweet White Violet”

I spent another afternoon out looking for wildflowers in Clifty Falls State Park here in Madison Indiana. The weather is warm and there is plenty of moisture but the flowers still haven’t busted out yet, Hepatica and a few small Bloodroot are popping but all in all it looks to still to be a few days away.

I am starting to get busy already this year with the studio side of my photography..I already have shot a wedding, two infants a senior with another senior this weekend. So somehow I will just have to make time to get out  and shoot the wildflowers this year whether I have the time or not!!

I plan on a quick trip down to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as well, I haven’t been down for the bloom for a couple of years so I am really looking forward to shooting in one of the most amazing places on earth to shoot wildflowers !!

I shot this beautiful little Sweet White Violet down there a few years back, the moisture on the bloom came from the nearly impenetrable fog that we hiked thru that morning along the trail to Spruce Flat Falls  in the Tremont section of the Smokies. The numbers and varieties of wildflowers that bloom in the park are too numerous and varied to go into now but rest assured if you ever get there for the bloom you will be amazed at their beauty !!

The GSMNP is the only place I would go to instead of our area here in Southern Indiana for photographing wildflowers so you know it must a pretty incredible place for me to make that statement !!

So I am hoping as the week progresses I should be able to start photographing wildflowers and if I get real lucky maybe and I can have a good year  shooting in both areas…we’ll see 😉

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, as always click on the image for best viewing !!

                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

“Waterfall Abstract”

I just returned form Clifty Falls State Park hoping to have acquired  my first card full of early wildflowers only to be relegated to my truck the entire time I was there !  Heavy rain and wind moved thru so I guess tomorrow will have to be opening day.

The good thing about all this rain is the moisture is great for the waterfalls that surround Madison Indiana and  make for some wonderful photographic subjects. The Park and  surrounding area I live in is lined with canyons and gorges that seem to have a waterfall at the back of almost every one of them.  Some of these falls may be only ten feet high and others are 80 feet or taller, and this is definitely the best time of year to view them,  spring is the monsoon season in Southern Indiana and this year it is especially wet !

There are 20+ Falls in this area that I would consider a major attraction it’s just too bad that they have not been developed for the public to view, the Falls in Clifty are the exception, but there are many more in Jefferson County that would rival Clifty in size and beauty!

I understand the logistics of developing them all into a tourist attraction would be quite an undertaking but the fact that no one has envisioned this as a major attraction for tourism really strikes me as being short sighted especially with the shape of the economy today, this would definitely separate Madison from all the other Regional tourist destinations.

Maybe someday someone will take the initiative and at least study the feasibility of using the vast amount of natural resources that we are so blessed to have in our local community and find a way for us all to benefit from it.

Well enough from the soapbox, here is an image from the the platform overlooking Little Clifty Falls, I thought this falls had a neat abstract look to it as the water flowed over the edge, I converted it to b&w and added a cool filter to it for a cold steel look.

Hope you enjoy the image and thanks for stopping by !!

 

“Madison Indiana Waterfalls”

We keep getting closer and closer, I went out Sunday and explored a couple of my secret wildflower haunts and found that the plants were just starting to poke up thru the leaf cover, with temps rising into the 70’s over the next few days it looks like late this week and weekend will be my first serious shoots out in the woods !!

So in the meantime here is an image I captured of one of the many waterfalls that grace the landscape of Madison Indiana and the surrounding area, this one lies very close to a busy highway with thousands of cars a day flying by without an inkling of the beauty that lays just off the roadside from them….and I kinda like it that way !!

I had to isolate just a part of the waterfall because of the trees and debris that still hang over it from the ice storm we had a couple of years ago.  Time or a chainsaw will eventually bring about a clearing around the falls and hopefully I can then show you a better image of this particularly beautiful falls.

I really like the lushness of this waterfall the green colors in the pool kinda puts you in the mind of a tropical paradise, but that is very far from the truth with this particular falls.  The falls has a ton of garbage and other debris that has been thrown over the cliff and washed down by the creek over the years and has really made this beautiful spot almost a landfill, with the right leadership this place could well become a park as is the case for all the other waterfalls in our county.

Hopefully someday the local officials will understand this beautiful and amazing environment that surround our community and turn these wonderful sites into a place people can visit and explore, until then I will just have to share them wth you thru my photography and maybe someday you will be able to visit them yourself !!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look and as always click on the image for best viewing !!