During my trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park last October, I spent several hours photographing along the Roaring Fork Drive. I was in the park along Roaring Fork very early in the morning after a night of rain. As a result, the woods were shrouded in a dense, wet fog, which is one of my favorite shooting conditions.
As I wound my way down the foggy road, my wife pointed out a nice cascading stream set back away from the road, so we pulled over. At that point, we decided to, as she claims, ‘man vs wild’ it, and blaze our own trail to the cascades. We crawled over moss covered boulders, crossed several streams and slid down wet embankments. The resulting beauty of this area was stunning and it felt as if you were deep in the back country, despite being relatively close to the road.
Roaring Fork Panoramic Cascade - Great Smoky Mountains National Park
I spent hours photographing a variety of subjects before turning back for the car. Halfway back, I came upon this scene and loved what I saw. The cascading water, mossy rocks and fallen leaves brilliantly composed the scene. The resulting image consists of three seperate photographs that I stitched together in Photoshop. This is one of my favorite photographs I’ve taken.
