Having a large portion of my family come from East Tennessee, it is not unusual for us to make trips though the Great Smoky Mountains. One of the places my Dad talks of growing up is the Little River and the Sinks. It happens to be a great place to stop when driving through the mountains, but be careful as it is extremely dangerous.
Back in the fall, my family and I took a trip out to Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We made the trip through Maryville, Tennessee. I could not help but stop for a few shots of this church.
I was checking on some of the visitors of the site yesterday and noticed some traffic from reddit.com. I had looked at the site a while back and did not explore much further, but took a big interest in it this time. After a few minutes, I was intrigued by all the different stories and links just thrown out there. If you are looking for random thoughts on just about any topic, it can be found on reddit.
This is a small foot bridge along the Tennessee River in Knoxville. I took this late one evening after waiting around on the Gay Street bridge for the sunset. There was so little foot traffic on the greenway beside the river that getting this shot was not that difficult. I love the peace an quite on a night like this one was.
I spent a couple of evenings around the Market Square area of Knoxville. The first evening, I barely made it out of Market Square proper and not at all along Gay Street. This shot is of the Regal cinema on Gay Street. The traffic was so bad that it took forever to get this shot with out cars driving along the street. I guess I could have waited until about 2 in the morning, but I’m not sure it would have been any slower then.
A little water stop along the river railroad in Knoxville, Tennessee. This shot was from my first day of exploring and the beginning to many more. I did not go any further north from this point. That is stored for another day of exploring. You expect to see Thomas and his friends come around the bend.
Ross Landing has to be one of the most peaceful places in Chattanooga. Sitting on the Tennessee River with the Chattanooga Aquarium at your back makes for a pleasant evening. One day a while back, we had gone to the aquarium and then happened to be near the landing around sunset. Of course, I wanted to get shots of the sunset, but not much could match the inviting atmosphere and friendly people we an into while visiting.
Candid shots are by far my favorite in the portraiture realm. People’s expressions and body language are not prepared and people do not try to act the way they want other people to see them. Often times, that is completely different from how they really appear when their guard is down. I took this candid while my youngest was wading through the “Tennessee” river that flows in front of the Tennessee Aquarium. She is my thinker and often times, I catch her pondering what I can only believe she thinks are the woes of the world.
Designed and built for the 1982 World’s Fair, the Sunsphere remains an iconic landmark in Knoxville, Tennessee. So, of course, I had to make a trip to visit. The World’s Fair park was impressive, but not so much the Sunsphere. It was neat to get to go to the observation deck and watch the city. I wanted to get some skyline shots from the observation deck at night, but the reflections from the lights inside the deck prevented that. So, I settled for a few shots from outside.
My children and I were hiking up Goforth Creek at the end of the summer. It runs into the Ocoee River and for the first several hundred yards, has some really good waterfalls. After that, it levels out and has just some small shallow rapids with the occasional cascade. This was one point where all three of us were wading. I saw how clear the water was just before entering this shallow area. It was so clear that the depth of the water is deceiving.
When I was in high school and for a short time in college, I was a member of the theater programs. In fact, I toyed with the idea of majoring in theater in college. That did not last when I transferred colleges to one that did not offer that as a degree. I am still a student of theater though and get that same thrill when I see a theater. This little theater is located in Etowah, Tennessee. I am surprised that they have one at all. Let alone an active one.
