Spring in the Smokies - A Hackberry Farm Nature Photography Workshops Field Report

It's quiet here in this mountain valley.  Elk are strewn along a wooded creek at the foot of the valley and they seem content. The people in this workshop are content, and all seems right.  

Just a day before, we walked into the woods at daybreak as the last vestiges of an overnight rainstorm still softly peppered the newly unfurling leaves with a few last drops of rain.  Depending on where you are in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park depends on what phase of Spring you witness.  Down in the lower country, where creeks flow into creeks and eventually fold into rivers, Spring is ever-present as greenery invades your periphery.  Up high in the mountains, winter still has a grip and will for another month or so.

A backwoods waterfall.

Gravel lane in Cades Cove.

Here, where we walk, the creek is swollen from the overnight showers.  The waterfalls, while typically a bit more placid, now roar.  It's a perfect study in long-exposure photography.  Up in this holler, where the sun has yet to reach, it's still dark enough to apply an exposure to the sensor for enough time to make the water silky. It's a valuable photographic technique when applied properly.

A morning in the woods is like medicine.  The trees whisper in a way that speaks to all of us.  The woods have a language all their own if you let yourself listen.

The Great Smoky Mountains

This week, in the Spring in the Smoky Mountains nature photography workshop, we earnestly explore the woods and the water therein.  From bottom to top, the Smokies are awaking from a long winter's slumber.  Male turkeys, amorous and animated by the long days and warm temperatures, gobble from the bottoms of the hollers, and their forlorn sounds echo throughout the mountain draws.  The bears emerge with young in tow and search for food in the fields of abundance, where fresh green shoots emerge from the ground and sip up the sunlight.  Overhead, maple and oak tree buds swell, and their leaves unfurl while in the nutrient-rich first soil beneath, wildflowers in all sorts of colors and configurations bloom.  

Yellow Trillium in the Fog

It is all a site to behold.

Spring doesn't come at one time here.  Instead, it unfolds from the bottom of the mountains to the top.  Down low, the trees display a verdancy that's refreshing to see after the season of grayness.  Up on the mountain tops, winter still keeps her grip.  As such, we photograph frost-laden trees and green mountain streams on the same trip.  There aren't many places where you can witness this transition.  

Here in the Smokies, traditions run deep, and we explore spots where Cherokee and pioneer culture thrived. The great thing about being in the Smokies is the varied photographic disciplines we perfect. Wildlife photography, landscape photography, macro photography, and abstract photography are all represented in the palette of possible photographs here.

Mountain Sunrise

Waters of the Little River

As the week winds on, the group bonds as friends and fellow travelers.  It's a nice thing to be a part of.  In the van and in between stops, we talk about our families and other matters.  In the field, we talk about the beauty of nature and photography and where the two intersect.  It's a thought exercise in humility.  

Baptist Church

Dogwood Flower

We traverse the Smokies with reverence and curiosity as we seek out photographs of note.  We find plenty.  On one glorious evening, however, ease around a bend in the road, look to our right, and see the stalwart symbol of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park: a black bear.  Plump, he chomps in mouthfuls of grass as he satiates his hunger in the field of green. Slow moving, he picks his way along the edge of a draw, sniffing out any morsel he can find.  With our cameras trained on him, he looks up and makes eye contact with us.  The sky is overcast, and the light is a bit soft, and it's a good condition for photographing such a dark animal.  

In a few minutes, the bear slips away into the woods.  He's now a memory, but he's a memory that's captured in perpetuity on a digital medium.  I look at the group, and their smiles abide.  It's one of those perfect moments that all photographers seek.

Black Bear in a Meadow.

NOTE: We've got a great Autumn in the Smokies Nature Photography Workshop coming up this fall. Lucky for you, we still have a couple of spots remaining. If you want to see and learn about this incredible national park during one of the most beautiful times of the year, click HERE.

Additional Images