Great Smoky Mountain National Park - What Do I Know?

Sunset - Clingman's Dome (Kuwohi) - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

SO FAR, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the only National Park I have visited more than once. It seems appropriate, then, that this one would be the second on my list to cover. I am not saying it is my second favorite, though. Still thinking on that.

Sunrise - Foothills Parkway -GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

THERE IS a lot to like here, however. The first trip was the result of my buddy, Rich Pomeroy and I "spitballing" about what could be our next photography trip. At this point, over the years, we had visited the Michigan U.P. and Vermont numerous times together. We had been to Grand Teton NP and West Virginia. With the exception of Wyoming, all the others were pretty driveable. We liked that, as it gave us the convenience of our vehicle, and no worries about bringing equipment and supplies.

Early Morning Sun - Cades Cove - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I HAD always had GSMNP in the back of my mind. It was on Rich's mind too. Maybe for different reasons. Rich is an avid wildlife shooter. I have done very little of that in recent years and was primarily interested in the landscape possibilities. GSMNP looked like it might be able to satisfy us both - with maybe even a little crossover. Based largely on the commentary of noted GSMNP guru, photographer and writer: Nye Simmons, we decided fall was probably the best time for us to make our first trip there. So we planned it for October. If you do plan to make a photography trip (or trips) to the park, I strongly advise that you go to Nye's site and download his latest book on photographing in the park. Nye has spent most of his life in the vicinity and is a wealth of knowledge about where, when, and how to photograph the many features there.

Morning Fog - Cades Cove - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

ALL OF the parks are suitable for photography in different seasons, but most of them have a "peak season" (perhaps most often in autumn). For photographers, unfortunately, that means that you may be contending with crowds during the best times to photograph the park. This is certainly the case with GSMNP. It's peak season is generally thought to be fall, and I can tell you from personal experience: it is a combination of amusement park and proverbial "zoo," on steriods! The narrow 11 mile, one-way, "Loop Road" in the park's iconic Cades Cove - can be literally bumper-to-bumper vehicles (slow moving and often even stopped). Once you are in, there is essentially no way out (although you can exit by the narrow, one-way, Rich Mountain Road, just past Hyatt Lane up behind the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church). We did find some "relief" when we arrived at the cove early on a weekday, especially on the two north-south cross lanes (Sparks and Hyatt). Still, there was at least a half-mile backup of traffic waiting for the gate to open at sunrise. We experienced nearly unmanageable crowds at most of the other iconic locations in the park like Roaring Fork Motor Trail, The Newfound Gap Overlook, and Clingman's (now renamed to its Cherokee name: Kuwohi) Dome. So that is a serious negative about visiting the park during the Fall season.

Foggy Sunrise - Dan Lawson Place - Cades Cove - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

THE POSITIVES probably outweigh the negatives. I would suggest that you consider a fall visit to the park - at least once in your lifetime. And when you do, do your "homework" and have a plan for what you are going to shoot, and where you are going to stay. Not by any means one of the largest National Parks, GSMNP is still massive. Primarily because of accessability, the park is generally viewed as being divided into two sections: western and eastern. The western section is wholly within Tenessee. The eastern section covers both Tennessee and North Carolina, with substantial parts of the park in North Carolina.

Sparks Lane - Cades Cove - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

PERHAPS THE best western location for a photographer is Townsend, Tennessee (really the westernmost community with accomodations in the park). If you are going to focus on the eastern section, your best bet would be either Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge (to the north) or Cherokee, North Carolina, at the southeastern border. But be forewarned. Gatlinburg is a hot mess. Once a rather sleepy little town in the mountains, it is today one of the U.S. most popular tourist spots. U.S. Highway 321 winds through the mountainous park from Maryville (near Knoxville) to Interstate 40 at the far eastern end of the park, where it continues on to parts northeast. On the way, it goes through Townsend before continuing on toward Gatlinburg. It intersects with U.S. 441 (from Knoxville) at Pigeon Forge (also a huge tourist "trap" - of Dollywood fame). From there it winds down right through the center of Gatlinburg where you eventually must choose to continue east on 321, or - as most park visitors do (and you will want to as a photographer) head south on 441, known in this part of the park from Gatlinburg to Cherokee as Newfound Gap Road. Clingman's Dome road is on this route.

The Morton Overlook on Newfound Gap Road makes a spectacular sunset shot when the light cooperates. This was the best we could do in two trips there in 2025 - a very rainy, cloudy few days
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE STAYED in Townsend on both of our trips. Our rationale was that it is just minutes from the Cades Cove entrance, and also just minutes up onto the western sections of the Foothills Parkway, which provides, in our view, really good spots for both sunrise (western section) and sunset (eastern "new" section). We did find that he angles of the sun in both locations are much better in fall than in spring. On the "sunrise" section there are several overlooks which yield (relatively) clear views out over Townsend and to the mountains to the southeast. One of them (the second turnout on your left, as you drive southwest from the entrance on 321) is - we think - the best. If you are a sunrise shooter, you will know because it will be the one with a large number of photographers who have already beat you there and set their tripods up. Be early. The sunrise in fog shot above was made from this vantage point, as was the sunstar image immediately below.

Sunrise - Foothills Parkway - GSMNP
Copyright Andy Richards 2023

EITHER WAY, if you stay in Townsend and want to do the eastern sections, you need to plan for a drive. If you stay in Gatlinburg (good luck with that) and want to see Cades Cove, you also need to plan for a drive. If you stay in Cherokee, it will be an even longer drive. As much as we love the Foothills Parkway in Townsend, there are some very good opportunities to shoot sunsets and sunrises on the Newfound Gap Road. But there is no avoiding the drive if you want to visit both sections of the park. And you will.😊 We found that if you wanted to shoot a location on the east side of the park, it was best to make a day of it, starting very early (well before daylight) to either catch a sunrise, or to shoot in the warm morning light in some of the spots along the way. Then it makes sense to do dinner in Gatlinburg before driving back to Townsend. At least that is what we did. In 2023, we planned to shoot the sunset at Clingman's. So we headed that way first thing one morning, knowing it would be an all - day proposition.

Roaring Fork - GSMNP - Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

ON THE way, we decided to take the Roaring Fork Nature Trail. Once again, it was a traffic jam the entire way. We were fortunate to find one of the infrequent parking spots a few times along the way and were able to take a break and climb down into a couple of the streams. It is worth it. There are numerous spots with drops and multiple drops (no real waterfalls close to the trail - you need to hike back for that), and photogenic, moss covered rocks. Being October, the colored leaf drop was an added accent. It is an opportunity to exercise your ND filters and try to achieve that soft, silky look of the water between and around the rocks (although I often find I prefer a little movement in the water). We also found some really nice, similar scenes along the Little River on the road to Tremont.

Little River - GSMNP - Tremont, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

I WOULD classify photo opportunities in GSMNP as being in 6 categories: Grand Landscape, Waterfalls, Streams and Drops, Wildfllower photography, Iconic Architecture, and Wildlife. As with any sought after location, the "grand landscape" images may be the most challenging because of the multiple factors that affect them: weather, season (catching the fall color and/or catching the spring bloom), and location. What do I mean by "location?" First, you have to find the right viewpoint for a grand landscape. Perhaps the easiest in the park is shooting across the meadows in Cades Cove. It is the most "maintained" area in the park. Years ago, NPS removed (for better or worse - a conversation for another time and place) all the tall, native grasses which tended to obscure the views of wildlife and turned brown in late season, and replaced them with fescues which maintain their green appearance and don't grow particularly tall. This means there are ample opportunities for nicely framed compositions. The "other" location is the age-old issue. What were once spectacular clear view from points up high, have in many cases been obscured (or at least partially obscured) by new growth. Somebody once said the only constant is "change." That certainly couldn't be more true than in nature.

View down from Rich Mountain Road - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

AS WE traveled the park in 2025, this phenomena became increasingly clear. There are several areas in the park that you can access to get nice high views to set up grand landscape opportunities. The most prevalent are Foothills Parkway (currently 3 sections and perennially "under construction"), Newfound Gap Road, and the lesser known Rich Mountain Road (I understand there may be some views from State Highway 32 way over on the northeast corner between Cosby and I-40, but I've not been there). Then you must just hope for the right weather circumstances. In the right conditions, the park will yield wonderful low hanging fog, and/or stacked clouds that create some incredible colorful sunrises and sunsets.

Cades Cove Methodist Church - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved

BUT THE "growth" thing is inexorably changing that. Ironically, the NPS has spent millions over the past 50 plus years creating access and viewing areas for NP visitors, but have not taken steps (for whatever reasons) to maintain those clear views in many cases. At the Newfound Gap viewpoint on 441, for example, there is an old photograph of the view in which the proverbial phrase: "you can see forever" might well have once applied. Today, there are numerous towering trees in the immediate foreground that partially obscure that view. Remember, I am viewing it from the (perhaps myopic) perspective of a photographer.

Cades Cove Methodist Church - Restored View - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

SOMETIMES, AGAIN for whatever reason, they do maintain (or in this case restore) some views. In 2023, spurred on by a photograph in Nye Simmons book, we searched and searched for the viewpoint on Rich Mountain Road from which he shot down on the iconic Cades Cove Methodist Church. We found later, that the view had been obscurred (for many years it turns out) by new growth. In 2025, by (mostly) serendipity, we discovered that the new growth in the foreground had been cleared. I blogged in April, 2025 about this - so for "the rest of the story" you can go read it here: "Now You See It; Now You Don't."

Carter Shields Homestead - Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

IN ADDITION to the iconic church shot, there are the cabins and barns of the mostly preserved farms in Cades Cove and at the start of the Roaring Fork Trail. They are mainly rustic wood buildings, but the setting offers some nice compositional opportunities. On our 2025 trip we were specifically looking for images enhanced by the spring Dogwood Bloom. We found this single instance of blooms near the Carter Shields Cabin in Cades Cove. I wished to have had the blooms in the background behind the cabin, but no such luck.

Dogwood Blooms in Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE SPRING bloom is certainly an attractor for photographers. For us the "big deal" was Dogwoods and Redbud trees interspersed throughout the forest cover. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't very good in 2025. We were late and Mother Nature was early; a surfire promise of a "bust." We didn't sea any Redbud blooms. We caught the very last of the Dogwood blooms, and did our best to record them. One of my favorites of the week was the sole branch below, almost etherial as it weaves between the surrounding foliage.

Dogwood Blooms - Rich Mountain Road - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ANOTHER DRAW in the park are the numerous wildflowers during the spring months, including Orchids ("Lady's Slippers"), Trillium, Viginia Bluebells, and Phlox, among others. I understand that the is a small area in what is known as White Oak Sink that can be littered with blue blossoms along the ground if you catch it right. While in (fruitless) search of them, I did find this widespread area of White Trillium along the White Oak Sink trail. White Trillium turn a pretty pink or purple as they mature. It was obvious to me that these were quite late and the last of the year.

White Trillium - White Oak Sink Trail - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

IN ADDITION to the surrounding trees, mountains and picturesque meadows, Cades Cove is prone to fog given appropriate weather conditions. The Dan Lawson Farm shot above, made in the fall of 2023, is one of my favorite shots of the park. The image below (same farm, different perspective and different weather conditions) shows a different kind of fog.

Dan Lawson Farm on a Foggy Morning - Cades Cove - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I MENTIONED wildlife. I think GSMNP may be the premier eastern National Park for wildlife. Long known for its population of Black Bears, White Tail Deer, and wild Turkey, it is also common today to see coyotes and bobcats. During my time in the park I have heard, but not seen, several species of Owl, including Screech and Bard Owls. I am quite certain there are also Great Horned Owls in the park. Other birds of prey include the Red Tailed and the Red Shouldered Hawk and Northern Harrier, Sharp Shinned Hawk, American Eagle, and rarely, the Golden Eagle. There are also many instances of songbirds in the park. As wildlife photography is a very specialized genre, generally requiring special equipment and special skills, I don't really cover it here. I don't really have the equipment (body or lenses) to make good wildlife images for the most part (though I have occasionally gotten lucky). Fortunately, my frequent photo-traveler companion, Rich Pomeroy has both the equipment and the skills. He (and the other Rich, who also has the equipment and skills) were both with me on the spring trip, and when we did have a couple opportunities to observe bears, they were ready and got some nice images. Rich has been gracious enough to let me use some of his work to illustrate the kinds of Black Bear images you might expect to get in the park.

Black Bear - Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Richard Pomeroy 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I DO want to give it the credence it is due though. The bear population becomes active again in the spring and we saw a lot more bear activity during the week in April 2025. We saw a couple fleeting glimpses in the fall of 2023. A substantial proportion of the visitors to Cades Cove are there in hopes of spotting a bear - and even better, a mama and her cubs. As for birds, I'll leave that to the experts. 😕

Black Bear - Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Richard Pomeroy 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE BEARS in the park are more acclimated to humans than in other areas, and therefore can be approachable. This is particularly true when they are fixated on something like feeding. Sometimes they will even "pose" for you, as in the image above. Most of the time, you will know there is a bear nearby by the traffic jams on the roads within the park. If there are several cars stopped and people out of the cars - it is either a bear or a serial murderer. I am voting for the bear.😀 We were driving the loop, on our way to shoot the Carter Shields Homestead, which is just beyond the southern intersection of the loop road and Sparks Lane when we ran up on one of those "jams" (I think they call them "bearjams" in Yellowstone). Rich was able to make a couple pretty close images of a young bear rooting in some old stumps looking for food. Sometimes you can capture more "environmental" images, like the one above with some green plant matter still showing in the bear's mouth.

Black Bear - Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Richard Pomeroy 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I DO not want to be cavalier about the approachability of these animals, who are - lets be honest - the inhabitants of this park. We are just visitors. And as visitors, we need to be cognizant of certain appropriate behavior. I had to learn that when we were in the park recently. First, they are wild animals. They are actually deemed the so-called "apex preditor" in the park. Though they are omnivoores, they are not naturally aggressive toward humans (or other mammals for that matter). Indeed, in the wild in a non-park setting, it is not all that common to spot a bear. They are reclusive, an in most instances, will see (or smell) you before you do them, and make themselves invisible. But not always. And if they are visible, they are very possibly at their most dangerous state. They are probably eating (or foraging) and are quite possibly accompanied by their cubs. You know the saying about a mama bear and her cubs. It is never safe to approach a bear closely and there are some pretty strict rules about that in the park. Park Rangers and volunteers are constantly on the vigil for a bear spotting and usually quickly on scene to keep onlookers back.

Black Bear - Cades Cove - GSMNP - Townsend, Tennessee
Copyright Richard Pomeroy 2025 - All Rights Reserved

BUT THERE is another "manners" issue. Because the park is their natural habitat, the constant stream of thousands of annual visitors takes its toll. While is does partially acclimate them to human presence, such presence can also produce a high amount of stress for them as they go about their daily routine which is pretty simple: find food for themselves and their cubs. In the excitement of seeing them in the wild, we sometimes lose sight of that harsh fact (to the bear, anyway). As we drove the loop road, we knew there was a mama bear up a tree (which we later learned was a large, hollowed-out trunk which served as a den for her 2 cubs). Seeing a couple folks out of their car and walking along the loop road, I thought maybe this would be my opportunity to make an image with my 70-300 zoom. Thinking it must be "o.k.," I began to exit the car. There was a volunteer directly behind us who warned me not to get out of the car. Had I been more observant, I would have seen the orange cones. He scolded the others who had walked inside the cones along the road. Nobody needs a bear photograph that bad. We really should keep the stress factor in mind. The image above was made from a proper distance, well out into the field away from the bear.

AMENITIES

LIKE MANY popular outdoor destinations, lodging can be a challenge, and it is adviseable to make lodging reservations well in advance of the planned trip, especially during busy seasons. Gatlinburg is an especially challenging spot, as it is so popular for tourists of all descriptions. I have already said here, that I prefer the "western" part of the park - namely Townsend. Townsend has managed to maintain a "small town" feel, in light of the 1000's annual visitors. There are a couple resort/hotels, and numerous private cabins you can rent. On our first trip, we stayed in the Townsend Best Western, and found it perfectly suitable for our needs at a reasonable price. Rich found a good deal for us on a private cabin for our most recent trip. The key here is to get out ahead of your trip while availability exists.

PHOTOGRAPHERS OFTEN work on a different meal schedule. But we still have to eat. Commonly, we will be out in the field well before sunrise, and sometimes work the light as long as it gives us. That means that when available, we may have a late breakfast, and often no lunch (or maybe a quick deli sandwich consumed while driving between destinations. The supper meal can be more of a challenge. Once again, we follow the light, which means choosing an early meal, or a late meal (after twilight has passed and we find our way to a restaurant). For breakfast, we have found a few spots in Townsend. At the western end of town, the Dancing Bear complex has two very good breakfast spots. The Dancing Bear Cafe, itself, is one of them, serving decent coffee various egg sandwiches. Across the parking lot in the complex, is the Apple Mountain Valley Village Cafe. They serve a great breakfast, with a few more options than the Dancing Bear (they also have a good lunch selection). Both are close when you come back down off the southwestern section of the Foothills Parkway. At eastern side of town there is the Riverstone Restaurant. We have not partaken, but it always looks crowded at breakfast time. Alternatively, if you come down off the northern ("new") section of the Foothills Parkway onto U.S. 321, you come into the Wears Valley and there are a couple good breakfast restaurants in Wears, including Elvira's Cafe and Hillbilly's. 321 can also be accessed from the main drag in Townsend, heading north toward Pigeon Forge - just east of the middle of town.

FOR OTHER meals, we have found the "Peaceful Side Social" to be very good for lunch and later meals. They are quite informal, with walk up ordering, but have a nice selection of sandwiches and pizza. On some afternoons, there is an adjacent walk-up building that serves limited Mexican menu items, and a decent Marguerita. The inside restaurant is also a craft brewery and has a few pretty good beers.

OUR PRIMARY problem was that they tend to close the town down very early. On our first night in the park, we went up on the new bridge on the new northern section of the Foothills Parkway to shoot the sunset. By the time it was done (this was May), it was after 9:00 and there was only one of the many restaurants in Townsend that was open: Pizza Hut. We made it before they closed and were the only diners in the restaurant. We didn't have that problem in Gatlinburg, but we did learn that it might make sense - when possible - to have an early dinner before we went to our sunset destination.

The Cost of a New Camera

YOU CAN spend over $50,000 on 50 plus megapixel, medium format Phase I or Hasselblad cameras alone. I doubt there is more than a handful of photographers in the world who would buy one of them just for hobby purposes. Or, you can jump down to the next level, still near the stratosphere, as far as I am concerned, and pay over $8,000 for the latest and greatest or Leica, Hasselblad medium format models and nearly that much for the "flagship" Fujifilm medium format camera. Even the highest end full frame cameras are now north ot the $5,000 range. But the cost of the camera body isn't really what I am getting at here. The cost of the camera you choose will become a given. Everything else you buy along with it (and you will buy things along with it) are variables. I am talking about the "extra" purchases that at first blush we may not even be considering. I am talking about potentially addtionally hundreds of dollars of additional outlay to ensure you setup works for you.

BEFORE I get too deep in the weeds, lets make a few assumptions about the intended audience. You are not buying your first camera (that would entail a much longer post with much more detail and commentary). You are not a professional photographer who is purchasing business equipment (again, a very different discussion). You are probably buying what we often call an "upgrade." A new camera, but not a new photographer. I have written a lot here about my philosophy for making that decision, and as I said earlier, that is not really what this is about. You likely already have a lot of basic gear, like a bag, tripod, lenses and filters. Lets assume, finally, that you have made your choice of camera and are about to pull the trigger on it (or already have).

I HAVE recently made an upgrade within my Sony a7 family. I knew, going in, that it is very uncommon in the modern camera world for the camera body to be identical in size and shape. It is pretty much a given, today, with sophisticated cameras, that we will need to match up a few essential accessories. There will be a handful that you will be able to easily anticipate. Then there will be the surprises.

Batteries and Charger

FOR YEARS (since I bought my first a7 body over 10 years ago) I have been very fortunate that each new iteration used the same battery. I got lucky, and in terms of planning, perhaps complacent. But these guys demand power. They generally come with one battery. You aren't likely to get along with just one. OEM batteries for a modern digital camera currently approach $100 each. I deem it essential to carry at least 2 extras.

THAT ALSO means you need a charger.These days, most manufacturers have done away with shipping a separate charger. Documentation suggests you can charge the batteries in the camera. But I wouldn't recommend it. First, the average Mirrorless Digital Camera  costs from hundreds to thousands of dollars. That is a pretty expensive battery charger (especially if something goes wrong). Moreover, it is totally inconvenient. You cannot use the camera while it is being used as a charger. If you carry (and you should) more than one battery, you can only charge one at a time in the camera. Whether you purchase OEM or after-market, this is likely going to be a cost to acquiring new gear.

Memory Cards

A SUBJECT which will vary among photographers depending on the camera specs and the intended use, is what spec memory cards you will need. Will your new camera demand faster cards? Since I first started shooting, I have moved from 6 megapixels to 10, 12, 24, 36, 46; and now 61. That means that cards have become progressively larger and I have had to "re-gear" a couple times. Again, I generally carry a handful of cards with me. My theory is to use different cards (generally) every day with the thought that a catastrophic failure would not ruin a whole trip or shoot. Newer cameras usually mean more megapixels and often faster continuous focus speeds, meaning the card write speeds may need to be faster than what you have. Those newer, faster cards, I am finding, are expensive!

Camera Mount

I AM an unabashed tripod zealot. I firmly believe that if you are serious about your photography, you need to have a quality tripod. For purposes of this post, I will assume you have that covered. And I will assume you also have made your choice of a tripod head (most commonly a ball-head; but growing more common for landscape shooters, some kind of 3-way - or geared head). Either way, you will need a way to affix the camera and lens to that tripod. Unless there is a mounting plate on a lens bracket (some of the large telephotos and zooms), that means something mounted to the camera base using the "tripod" screw. I want to believe that nobody mounts their tripod screw directly to the camera base any more.

LONG TIME readers here have heard me preach the virtues of the L-bracket. I since I first discovered, and began using them years ago I have considered them an indispensible accessory. In the beginning, I only knew of 2 manufacturers of L-Brackets: Kirk Instruments and Really Right Stuff. Both are American companies and manufacturers, and that, together with trying to recoup R&D and patent costs, means that they are quite expensive. Over time, a number of competitors arose and prices for other brands (they are virtually all manufactured offshore - mostly in China) became more affordable. In my experience virtually all of them have been of good quality and I have not hesitated to purchase the much less costly alternatives. They are pretty simple in design; essentially a piece of machined, anodized aluminum. Since the mid-2000's, I have probably owned close to a dozen of them. The reason for that is that in order to be useful, they have to be designed as a camera-specific fitting. If not, they will rotate on the camera base, rendering them useless for their intended purpose.

MODERN DIGITAL cameras have made the relatively simple concept of the "L-bracket" much more complicated. Newer cameras have multiple electronics ports, battery doors and card slots with doors. More recently, the manufacturers have been designing the rear LCD screens to flip out and articulate. This means new challenges for the designers of brackets to ensure they do not interfere with these essential functions on the camera. Indeed, I have found it more difficult with each newer body to find a bracket that does not interfere with some one of these features. In some cases, the only models available are limited and therefore expensive. In recent years a couple new camera-orientation solutions have appeared on the market. There are now circular that mount to the camera body and allow it (much like the lens collars on some bigger lenses), to spin the body around. Slick idea. I tried one of the early ones and concluded it wasn't as useful to me as the simple and elegant approach of the L-bracket. And they are also camera-specific in their design. Just recently, I have seen a modified version of the collars which are more of a half-circle and are designed primarily to rotate between portrait and landscape orientations. It looks to me like they are not necessarily camera specific, as they mount on the tripod screw mount, but I haven't had an opportunity to really look at them. The bottom line is that you are going to need some kind of mounting bracket and depending on which one, they can be a substantial added expense.

OH, AND it gets worse. 😏Every time a camera maker rolls out a new and different model, they tend to move controls around, including ports, battery and memory card doors. When they do, our existing designs and approaches to L-Bracket (or equivalent) mounting hardware gets re-assaulted. It is almost like the camera designers aren't considering these issues any further than the historic inclusion of a tripod mount screw on the base of the camera.

I SAID above that there will often be a surprise or two. I had one, which resulted in an unexpected purchase. For a long time, I had coveted a geared, three-way head for my landscape shooting, but the alternatives were just too expensive for me to justify, or weren't compatible (Bogen) with my chosen arca-swiss dovetail mounting system. When Benro finally introduced one that was reasonably affordable, I jumped on it. I have been happily using it for a few years now. But it seems like every change begets another chain reaction. This time, it was the continuing saga of trying to find an L-bracket for the a7CR, which has a fully articulating rear LCD and a memory card door on the right side of the body. Both make the design of an L-bracket problematic (note that I don't say impossible - just problematic - and it remains a peeve of mine that engineers don't design around those things).

AFTER A couple "fits and starts" I stumbled on a solution. Indeed - in my view - a quite elegant one. I am not sure who did it first, but I'll give accessory manufacturer, SLIK credit. They designed - in lieu of the L-Bracket, the "i-bracket." Reasoning that the dovetail fitting didn't have to be wide in order to be retained solidly in the arca-swiss dovetail clamp, it is pretty much a classic dovetail bottom plate with the end sticking just far enough from the camera to mill in a dovetail just slightly more than the thickness of the rail, at a 90-degree angle. The milled aluminum is stiff enough that the clamp will hold that narrow piece and the camera solidly. There are a couple negatives.Handholders might find that slightly sharp dovetail uncomfortable (that doesn't really concern me much as I rarely handhold the camera and the vertical mount is much more of a priority for me). The i-bracket still partially obscures the bottom flap on the camera body which houses a charging port and a headphone port. You know my thoughts on charging. The headphone thing? Maybe this isn't a good vlogging camera. 😉

BUT WHAT about the incompatibility issue? For reasons unfathomable to me, Benro incorporated its own proprietary version of the tried and true arca swiss clamp for its geared head. The design deviates from the arca swiss standard clamp, with a gap of well over an inch of middle of the clamp surface. No problem for most L-brackets. But the vertical portion of the i-bracket dovetail is only 1/2 inch wide. The Benro won't clamp on it in portrait orientation. Fail. Another purchase, now as I replace the Benro (the integrated clamp on the Benro isn't replaceable without going full "Rube Goldberg" which kind of defeats the elegance of the whole thing). Fortunately, my new K&F Concepts model incorporates the standard arca-swiss clamp and I am back in business. But not without another expenditure.

Camera Bag

YOU MAY or may not need to consider this issue, depending on how you configure your new "rig." Your existing carry solution might fit the new body. But if it doesn't, (or if you want to carry the new body plus accessories) and the old setup as a backup or second body, you will probably find yourself re-thinking this also.

Reference Book

THIS ONE maybe isn't a necessity. For some of us. For myself, I consider it to be. I need some expert, experienced guidance to effectively configure the camera. I know there is You-tube, but I am old school. Your mileage may vary on this one. But here is the thing. I am so old school, that I want a print book that I can highlight, flag and/or dog-ear. And print books have suddenly becomes both scarce and frightfully expensive at the same time.

THERE ARE other things, like dedicated flash equipment, etc., which I think are for a more limited audience who had probably already thought those items and their costs through. For the rest of us, thinking about some of these necessary extras, will put the true cost of a new camera in a more realistic perspective. I have estimated that I have personally added an additional $400 to my cost of acquistion at this point. If it turns out that I need new or additional memory cards, that could easily double. This ain't a cheap hobby. 😐

 

Acadia National Park; What Do I Know?

Sand Beach - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

THERE ARE more than 60 National Parks in the U.S. and its territories. I have visited just 7 of them and spent time of any note in just 4 of them. Given that, my honest answer to the question posed in the title is: not really very much.

Stone Bridge over Park Loop Road - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

ON MARCH 1, 1872, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, Congress designated Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law a bill that created the National Park Service, and administrative division (bureau) of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Though the first half century, the park was maintaiened in fits and starts, being at one time occupied by the U.S. Army to fend off poachers and timber thieves. But it endured, and its progeny is manifest in not only the 60 parks in the U.S. but the numerous national parks in the many countries of the world.

Classic View of Frenchman Bay from Cadillac Mountain
Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

I WAS recently in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (one of only 2 that I have been in more than once), and it occured to me that it might be fun to blog about the ones I have visited, as I have come away from each of them with images that I liked.

Jordan Pond ("Bubbles" in the background)
Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

WHILE NOT the first National Park I visited, Acadia National Park comes to mind when I try to think of my favorite. It may be because for my kind of photography, it is the most diverse that I have visited. Originally named LaFayette National Park in 1919, the par was renamed Acadia in 1929.  Acadia is not one of the largest parks, occupying just under 50,000 acres. Yellowstone alone takes up well over 2 million acres (and it is not the largest). Acadia does have the distinction, though, of being the first National Park east of the Mississippi, and the additional distinction of being the first National Park to be formed from donations of private land. Unlike the vast acres of Yellowstone and Adjacent Grand Teton, the borders of Acadia are more limited. It is often difficult to know when you are in the park or out of it. Most of the park is situated on Mt. Desert Isle, an island in northeastern Maine, in the Gulf of Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean. Those parts of Mt. Desert Isle which are not part of the park are bucolic and mostly true blue collar lobster fishing communities, the most noted of which are Bernard, Bass Harbor, and Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor, which mark the east and west shores of the Somes Sound, a deep waterway up into the island that ends near the picturesque village of Somesville (best known for its iconic bridge). 

Hunter Creek - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

PHOTOGRAPHY IN National Parks can be challenging for a number of reasons. Particularly in the "iconic" sections of the parks, one of the biggest obstacles is the number of visitors. The parks were created to allow (and even induce) the citizenry to visit them and appreciate our natural wonders. It has worked. Perhaps too successfully. With crowds has come litter, polution, destruction of the sometimes delicate ecosystems, and stress on wildife, among other things. For a photographer looking to make beautiful images of our natural environment, this can certainly degrade those opportunities. In terms of automobiles and people in the image, we have - in the past - had the opportunity to simply patiently wait for our scene to clear. In recent years, that has become more difficult as the numbers of visitors have rapidly increased, making the park often overcrowded. This is evident in places like the main roads through Yellowstone, the Cade's Cove Park Loop Road in Great Smoky Mountains, and the Park Loop Roads in Acadia.

Park Loop Road in full Fall Foliage
Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

FORTUNATELY FOR us, Acadia is one of the places that can be visited in the off-season and yield some wonderful photographic opportunities. We did that. Although we almost missed the fall foliage (and probably did miss the proverbial "peak"), there was still abundant fall color around us. The nearby iconic village of Bar Harbor is a famous and popular tourist destination during the summer months, even recently becoming a major port stop for cruise ships on the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast. 

Cruise Ship in Bar Harbor, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

WE LEARNED, though, that the climax of the season for Bar Harbor is the Columbus Day holiday weekend. We were a week after that and though we missed the "cheap" lobster rolls at the lobster pounds, we did just sneak in a full lobster dinner at one of the Bar Harbor legendary lobster restaurants the night before they closed for the season. But the real win for us was: NO CROWDS! Not anywhere. We had the run of the place and thoroughly enjoyed our time.

Otter Cliff - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

MOST OF the iconic shots you have seen of the park over the years are easily located (and often well-marked) within the park. There was one elusive spot that we were rather proud that we found. There is a shot down on the rocks at Otter Beach that shows Otter Cliff (a granite cliff that turns pink during appropriate sun conditions) in the distance. That is where most photographers make their shots from. It is plainly visible and quite accessible from the road. But there is a better spot. My research paid off as one of the books I read about photographing the area disclosed this location, known as the cobblestone beach for its smooth, rounded stones that have been shaped by centuries of wave action. There is a not well known (nor marked) pathway which takes some searching and looking to find that will take you down to the cobblestone beach. If you find it, be careful, as the rounded stones shift easily and you could end up with a twisted or sprained ankle. But the discovery was worth it, as those cobbles make (in my opinion) a much nicer foreground for that Otter Cliff shot.

Park Road - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

I THINK it is fair to say that a photography trip to Acadia National Park should really be viewed as a trip to Acadia National Park and vicinity. As I mentioned, the park proper, while having some pretty great (if iconic) photographic sites, is quite small. And once you get beyond shooting the icons: The Bubbles, Otter Beach, and Cadillac Mountain, the real "show" is probably mostly in that "vicinity" part. You are going to want to venture out of the park!

Colorful Lobster Boats - Mt. Desert Isle; Bernard, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

You are going to want to venture out of the park

WE SPENT numerous early mornings and late afternoons in the lobster harbors of Bernard and Southwest Harbor, on the island, as well as a couple trips to the noted (and iconic) Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Later in our trip we ventured off Mt. Desert Island and over to the Penobscot Peninsula to the west of the Isle, and on down through Deer Isle to my favorite of all the Lobster Harbors: Stonington. It is hard for a photographer not to get excited about the colorful and shapely boats, surrounded by everyman fishing piers and buildings, and this is particularly the case when there is some fall foliage in the scene. Northeast Harbor seemed a lot more of a recreational boating harbor and - dare I say: more "upscale" than the others - so hence, less photogenic.

Southwest Harbor - Mt. Desert Isle; Southwest Harbor, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

FOR ME perhaps the second largest impediment to good photography is the operating hours of some parts of many parks. Almost all of them cover ground that is not gated, but often the parts of the part that might lend itself to pre-dawn to sunrise and sunset to twilight are gated. And most of the time they are regulated under a "dawn to dusk" test. There are a couple difficulties with that for the photographer. First, there is no hard and fast definition of dawn to dusk, and sometimes the powers that be take some license with that. More importantly, however, in order to make a really good "sunrise" image, we really need to be at our shooting point and set up for the shot well before the actual event. Anyone who has "been there," knows that not only is that 340 minutes or so before the actual sunrise just a wonderful time, but often the light just before the "main event" can be - for lack of a better description - "magical." The problem with "dawn to dusk / "sunrise - sunset" gating is that the photo is rarely just inside the gate!

Lobster Boats - Mt. Desert Isle; Bernard, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

THIS PROBLEM usually reverses itself at night. I have often made what I consider to be my best "sunset" images after the sun dips below the horizon. That is - technically - after sunset. And if you are a distance from a gated park entrance, you may have a problem if you (and your vehicle) are inside the gates at that time. There are, of course, many parks and many parts of parks that are not gated, and one of the enjoyable components to park photography can be finding those spots. But "dawn to dusk" often forces the photographer to photograph only during the daylight hours, missing what can often be the most pleasing and dramatic lighting conditions for photography. As in all my travel, I shoot pretty much all the time, with a thought process that I may never get another chance at a place. While I am not unhappy with my results most of the time, I sure would like to have more latitude to shoot during the "good light" hours of the day.

Acadia National Park Seashore - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

NOT SO in Acadia. At least not historically (read on though, for some not so happy changes). We found virtually all the roads and entrances to be open virtually all the time. We had no difficulty with arriving on location in the morning darkness, and occasionally coming back to our bed and breakfast facility after dark. The only exception to this was (and is) the road up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. That is gated and opens and closes at certain posted hours. In 2009, as late in the season as we were, we didn't have any problem accessing the road during the day, and we did drive up to see the view (it is a kind of "must see/must do" for park visitors). I understand that things have vastly changed now. In 1921, the Park Service instituted a somewhat controversial new vehicle reservation policy, ostensibly to ease congestion (which, as in all of our national parks, has become a major problem at times). I read recently (anecdotally and on Face Book so "for what its worth") that Bass Harbor (or some municipal authority) is going to begin a similar reservation system and a charge for visits to the Bass Harbor Light. It is hard to know what to make of all of this - once many wonderful viewing and photography opportunities being more heavily visited and in many cases consequently more heavily regulated. But it is part of the new reality.

Bass Harbor Light - Mt. Desert Isle; Bass Harbor, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

THIS PROBLEM usually reverses itself at night. I have often made what I consider to be my best "sunset" images after the sun dips below the horizon. That is - technically - after sunset. And if you are a distance from a gated park entrance, you may have a problem if you (and your vehicle) are inside the gates at that time. There are, of course, many parks and many parts of parks that are not gated, and one of the enjoyable components to park photography can be finding those spots.

Some old traditional Lobster Traps - Stonington, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

MOST NATIONAL Parks are not a fenced-in boundary type of property. Indeed, in many cases, main roads go right through the heart of the park. This often leaves vast areas of the parks that are not bounded or gated. While access to the iconic areas of the parks are often time-restricted, and visited only by park-operated access roads, there are so many other areas that are not - and are worth exploring and photographing. Acadia may be the best example of a diverse photographic opportunity. Exploring the often quaint little lobster harbor towns and poking around the marinas, always full of lobster traps, buoys, and other trappings of the trade can be fun and photographically rewarding.

Traps and Buoys - the equipment of the Lobster Industry - Bernard, Maine
 Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

IN "DOWNEAST," Maine (an odd tradition indeed: the futher north and east you go, the more "downeast" you are), there are seascapes, wild cranberry fields which turn a beautiful red in the fall, and boats almost everywhere you turn. The character is essentially rural and the majority of industry decidedly fishing-oriented. And not just any fishing. Lobster fishing.

Lobster Fisherman - Stonington, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

THE STORY behind the "LDB III": One afternoon when we were in Stonington, I was set up to shoot the harbor and was looking for compositions. The fishermen had (mostly) just returned from pulling traps for the day and were offloading at the pound quite near where I was shooting. One of the fishermen had finished, and run his boat to his mooring buoy, just out in front of me. I photographed his boat and a couple images of him running back to shore in his dinghy. As he stepped out of the dinghy, he approached me (turns out his pickup was parked directly behind me). A friendly sort, we talked about photography and lobster fishing. And on the afternoon, I got a bit of an education on the industry. My buddy, Rich and I had been involved in some conjecture about the cost of one of the boats. He guessed way too low. I guessed a bit higher and came closer. Suffice it to say that the equipment for a modest operation, boats, traps, mooring, maintenance and all was in the hundreds of thousands, approaching $1 million (and that was back in 2009). It went up from there.

Colorful Lines - More trappings of the Trade - Bernard, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

I SPENT a few years in my youth working on family dairy farms. The lobster fishing industry has many parallels. This gentleman worked on his own. They are regulated on when they can start pulling traps - usually shortly after sunrise. But his typical day - during the season - meant he was at the harboar around 4:00 a.m., loading the boat, doing maintenance, etc. His "staked out" trap lines were about 30-40 minutes from the harbor. He would be there and ready to pull at the instant the clock hit the regulated time. Often, it would be dark by the time he returned, off loaded and closed things down. Income was pretty good in a good year (much like the crop farmers I worked closely with during my legal career), but not a "get rich" proposition. It was - like family farming - a labor of love and often a generational thing. It was fun to talk with the guy and I will always remember his friendly openness.

Panoramic view of the Stonington, Maine Lobster Harbor
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

ONE ICONIC scene that you probably should not miss while at the park (still on Mt. Desert Isle, but not actually in the park), is the Somesville white bridge. Depending on conditions, you can find varying surrounding photographic elements, like flowers and foliage. The bridge can actually be shot from different viewpoints, but the straight on perspective is the "iconic" image. Officially, the Thaddeus Shepley Somes Memorial Bridge, it is one of the most often photographed sights in Maine, and is often used for wedding photography and graduation shots.

Somesville Bridge - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

ONE THING I found humorous as I read on-line about the Somesville Bridge was that it is characterized as "near Bar Harbor." As the proverbial crow flies, it is about 6 miles from the center of Bar Harbor. We learned a saying, though, while we were in the area: "you can't get there from here." Obviously you can. 😕What they really meant was there is no direct route. Driving from Bar Harbor, you must make 2 turns (first to the right for a short jog, and then back to the left), in order to negotiate your way around the northern end of the Somesville Sound. Worth the drive.

Wild Cranberries - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

ON THE way, during the fall and late fall months, you will most certainly see some fields dotted with wild cranberry bushes. You will know because much like the tree-laden foliage of fall, cranberry bush leaves turn bright red.

Acadia National Park Seashore - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved

BEING AN island in the middle of the Atlantic, you can certainly expect to have some spectacular views in and around the park. Indeed, they are almost everywhere you look.

Otter Cliffs from the cobblestone beach - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine
Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved