It is easy to get caught up in the present of being on top of Clingman’s Dome – quite possibly the namesake of Ole’ Smoky of Appalachian ballad fame – and overlook the cloud-filled valleys of Kephart’s Back of Beyond in the mists below the great peak. Beauty’s show is everywhere and the challenge is to see it so.
A focal length of 190mm, medium telephotoland, gave me the narrowed angle-of-view I wanted with some compression and magnification to isolate some appealing cloud-ridge relationships. An aperture of f/20 provided depth-of-field from the camera-to-subject distance. and a shutter speed of 1.0 second at ISO 100 gave me an overall medium exposure and a slight sense of movement in the clouds hovering above the ridges and valleys.
People like Horace Kephart and George Masa fought tirelesssly to secure these lands as public lands for the benefit of all of us. Can we do less in order to preserve them for the generations that follow?
I know I don’t often comment but I look forward to your images each week. Love this.
Hey Nancy K. It’s very good to hear from you. I hope you have been safe and well. No, you do not comment often, but I really appreciate hearing from you, and I know that you do pay attention to the work that I post. I’m very glad that you have connected with this particular Image; it has become one of my favorites. I have been working with the theme “Shaconage” for many years and this is the first example of that theme in which I have incorporated this type of cloud structure. Take very good care, and walk in Beauty.
Before opening the image, the title had me wishing for blue ridges; I got my wish and I was not disappointed. It looks like you must have been on top of the world. Karen Carpenter is singing from above, the clouds are perfectly placed, and I have another favorite photo! Thanks for sharing this one. The mountains are calling…
Hey Nancy T. Indeed, the mountains are calling. I’m glad to have been able to fulfill your wish. These old mountains have been very dear to us for a long time and have given us endless pleasure in the form of color and form and shape… and all of the other good compositional elements they share. As you well-know, cloud placement is truly a matter of where one stands and the focal length one employs. I was fortunate to have been standing in a good place and focal length was a choice made by what I saw standing there. Wish you could have been there, too. Looking forward to our lunch date this coming week. Walk in Beauty and be safe.
Wonderful image, Don. The more I looked at it, the more I saw texture, depth, and line. It’s quite engaging. I have been lucky enough to visit Klingman’s Dome (and coincidentally ran into a cousin from Louisiana there who was working on a painting!). I didn’t leave with any image with the power and intrigue of yours. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Ray. A pleasure is always in hearing from you; I hope you have been well. The fires in the West have been so disconcerting that they have captured way too much of my thought time of late, as I feel sure they have yours as well. I hope you will not feel badly: it is very possible to visit Clingman’s on many occasions and come away from most of them with a feeling of empty handedness. Having learned to glean some of Kuwahi’s secrets over the years has perhaps given me a bit of an inside edge, but even then, I regularly come away with nothing to hang on the wall. I appreciate that this one spoke to you in such a positive way. Wish you were going to be with us in the Southwest in the coming days. It’s going to be a goodbye party to remember. Take good care, my Friend.
Thanks, again, Everyone for joining me for this conversation. It always gives me very great pleasure to hear from people who love the natural world a much as I do; for I know that it isn’t the Images that have touched you nearly as much as the wonderful world they represent; the world we all share in common and the amazingly beautiful lands with which we have been blessed so abundantly. To have them is to have the obligation of caring for them so that the generations to come will feel the same good fortune we have known in the days of our lives. May we always walk in Beauty.