Looking Back at 2017

Wherever you travel in the world, more than likely you carry a camera with you today. It may only be a camera on your smartphone or a tiny point and shoot or it might be a larger digital camera with interchangeable lenses. Here's a look back at a few of the venues I captured images of in the past year from the Tennessee all the way west to the Pacific.

One of my favorite places to visit in all of the States is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At the highest elevation, any visitor in an automobile can drive, sits Clingman's Dome. On this beautiful day in the Smokies, I captured this image of Fontana Lake way off in the distance with clouds floating by.

Capturing images of farms and farmland is by far one of the many photo ops photographers enjoy doing. To take this urban image, I only traveled about thirty miles north of my home and about a mile from the Kentucky/Tennessee northern border, just outside of Portland. This vintage barn with it's peeling red paint sits in a large field with beautiful yellow Canoli flowers in bloom in the background. I love to see the gorgeous fields of Canoli seeds in bloom every Spring. They are breathtaking.

Visiting Cheekwood Botanical Gardens is a great way to spend a few hours and get outdoors in nature. This Spring I walked over to the arboretum one last time only to find all of the visitors had dissipated and there was the beautiful arboretum just waiting for it's close up. It's yellows and purples and reds were so pretty, but I especially loved the urn at the back of the arboretum filled with flowers.

I flew across many states to land in the great state of California to spend a few days in San Francisco this Spring for a sales conference. While out on the Belle of San Francisco one evening, I walked out on the deck looking toward the Golden Gate bridge. When I turned back this image stared back at me. The city's lights were so beautiful I snapped a few images to share with you.

Photographing flowers is one of my favorite past times. Who doesn't love a beautiful flower. To capture Sunflower images this Summer, I traveled south almost an hour to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Batey Farms to snap images of the beautiful Sunflowers in bloom. It was a picture perfect day with blue skies and tons of sunshine and the time of day couldn't have been more perfect for flower photography. It was the best photo opportunity I have ever had to take images of Sunflowers.

I hope you enjoyed coming along as I looked back at my travels in 2017. I can't wait to see where 2018 takes me. Are you ready for a major cold front that is on the verge of sweeping down from Canada in the next day or two. Today was 70 degrees and really didn't feel like Christmas at all, but this cold front will surely remedy that. Are you deckin' the halls. I trust you are or have and are now in hot pursuit of that perfect gift for your loved ones. My tree is decked, the gifts are purchased and I'm all set. Hope you are having a wonderful Holiday Season. ENJOY!

Up Close With A Turk's Cap Lily

On the road to Clingman's Dome, which leads to the highest elevation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, if you look very closely you just might catch a glimpse of the beautiful Turk Cap's Lily. If you are very lucky, you will find a spot to pull off the road to photograph them as I did on my recent visit.

Before my trek to the Smokies, I had read on the national park's Facebook page that the Turk's Caps were in bloom. I immediately wanted to photograph them. I didn't think I'd actually get to. So imagine my surprise when I found them in bloom along the road up to the summit of Clingman's Dome. The Turk's Cap Lily bloom in Summer in the higher elevations of the park. Since I rarely visit the Smokies in Summer, I had never made their acquaintance until this trip.

Along the road to Clingman's Dome I only saw one clump of Turk's Caps, but on the way back down there were several. Luckily I found a spot or two to pull off and capture these images. Needless to say, I was in my glory. Oddly enough, I thought I might see these flowers blooming along the road up to Newfound Gap, as that is a higher elevation too, but I didn't. We are having an 80's kind of weekend here in Nashville with an occasional scattered thunderstorm. Could it be that the 90 degree days are behind us. Wherever you are, I hope you are enjoying the weekend and your weather is cooperating. ENJOY!

Fontana Lake View, Clingman's Dome

What a view from the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park! Looking out from Clingman's Dome, alt. 6,644 feet at the tip of the observation tower, you can see Fontana Lake in the distance. The forest around Clingman's Dome is a spruce-fir forest, but due to the cool, wet conditions here making it a coniferous rainforest. You notice the change almost immediately when you turn off the main road to make the drive up to the summit. You also notice the 10-20 degree drop in temperature.

Fontana Lake snakes its way through the valley below and is actually situated in eastern North Carolina. Clingman's Dome actually sets half in North Carolina and half in Tennessee. On a clear day you can see up to 100 miles and perhaps even seven states.

I snapped this photo with one of those beautiful Spruce Firs in the foreground. I just love these beautiful trees. The blue haze hung over the Smokies making for a beautiful blue hue. The weather here in middle Tennessee finally cooled off a bit and the sun gave us a beautiful weekend. Thank goodness for those cooler temperatures. What a sweltering July. Have a wonderful week. Back soon. ENJOY!

Black Bears, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We are deep within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park today. What images come to mind when I say those words? Mountains, forests, rivers or perhaps fog, rain, smoke. Well, you would be right about all of those things. And then there is the wildlife. Elk, Deer, Fox and Black Bears just to name a few. On this particular trek the day my journey began, I was driving toward the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail when I spotted Black Bears alongside the road.

A female Black Bear, a mother no less, was feeding heartily next to the roadway while her two cubs were off in the brush a short distance away. This is almost the same place I had encountered a Black Bear off in the distance on another visit to the park a year or two before.

My camera was zipped safely away in my equipment bag. Darn! I reached back and unzipped the bag and pulled so as not to break anything on the camera. I got out of the car knowing the Bear was getting ready to head into the forest, but still kept the car between me and the Bears. You just never know. Keep in mind I have a 300mm lens on my camera so while it may seem I am right on top of the Bears, I am a safe enough distance away. If there is a safe enough distance away from such a powerful animal as the Black Bear. Keep in mind while photographing mother Bears that they will charge and fight should you get too close to their cubs. After a few minutes, the Bears had moved further into the forest and disappeared but I was glad to have seen them.

The following day having changed my plan of direction going into the park due to impending thunderstorms, I drove across the main road that eventually takes you to Cherokee, North Carolina. You pass Newfound Gap and the road to Clingman's Dome as you make your way up the side of the mountain and around the mountain and back down on the eastern side. As I reached the bottom of the mountain on the other side of the park, now in North Carolina, I encountered a group of cars. I knew full well it had to be a Bear sighting. This Bear was a large male Bear munching way off in the brush by himself. He spent some time in one area before moving away farther into the forest. You will notice as I cropped this image closely, this Bear is tagged. I hope it was not due to being a nuisance. If so, and he causes a nuisance by getting too close to humans, he could be put down. Let's hope the tag is for a study.

I enjoyed seeing the Black Bears and knew there were plentiful sightings from the alert posted on the park's website before I left home. Hope you are off to a good start to your weekend. Back soon. ENJOY!

Linking to Saturday's Critters

Two Springs

From a fly fisherman in Tremont to a Heron fishing the Little River, from the mountain view atop Clingman's Dome to the view across the meadows of Cade's Cove, this park keeps giving back to me each Spring that I visit.



Just a few of the images from the past Springs I have paid a visit here. Here being the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Stay cool out there. ENJOY!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Decking the halls, hanging wreaths on the walls, trimming the tree, wrapping gifts with glee.

Yes, I've been busy doing all of these things and neglecting my photography friends and family. I do have a confession to make. I've also been working hard on my new Facebook photography business page and have even scheduled a workshop that I'll be leading in early January. I'm very excited about that, because this particular workshop is going to be so much fun. So if you haven't liked me on CAROL MATTINGLY PHOTOGRAPHY on Facebook stop by and do so. Honestly, I'm posting lots of different images there in an effort to show folks some of my current and some of my much much earlier images.

In the meantime, here's a collage I put together of some of the various images I captured in various areas of the Smokies while on a visit in May of this year. The one image with all of the folks in it is Clingman's Dome, and the large beautiful tree sitting in a the field is Cade's Cove along the motor route and right off the road. Most of the other images were taken along the road on the drive up to Clingman's Dome or along the hike up to the Dome. More importantly, if you are one of the unfortunate people to be in the path of this severe winter storm crisscrossing America, I beg of you to drive slow and stay safe. Right now there's a solid sheet of ice covering everything out my patio door. ENJOY!

Black Bear, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

It's not easy to capture a Black Bear in the Park especially with Rangers about. They don't want you to invade their habitat which is fine with me. In this particular instance, this Bear was peering out at a group of hikers as they made their way up the half mile trek to Clingman's Dome. It's the highest point in the Park and normally you won't see a Black Bear on the trail.

Except this day there was one and the Ranger was not happy it was too close to the trail. He monitored its presence and finally another Ranger showed up to hike onto the Appalachian Trail which runs across the trail to the Dome to see if he could move the Bear farther from the trail and away from visitors. I stopped long enough to take this image and moved on up the trail to the top of the Dome. ENJOY!

More Views, Clingman's Dome, GSMNP!

Looking out over that landscape to those mountains that stretch out going on forever it seems. This is Clingman's Dome.

My fear is that one day I'll be photographing this tree looking much like the dead trees you see in the background dotting the landscape of adjacent mountainsides. So sad. I hope not. ENJOY!

Overlook, Clingman's Dome, GSMNP!

After some review, I realized I had not posted many of the images I took on my Spring visit to the Smokies last May. So I hope you don't mind if I remedy the situation. This is looking out across the mountains from the summit of Clingman's Dome. It's the top of the top. Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons to visit here. Spring for the flowers and the bear cubs if you're lucky enough to see one, not to mention the cooler hikes. And Fall for the beautiful fall leaves and crisp fall hikes. I've hiked in the Smokies in dead of summer and must say, it's no fun. It's hot, humid and just plain yucky. So I'm sticking to my favorite seasons to visit. Have a great week everyone. Thanks for stopping by. ENJOY!

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