We went to Gatlinburg, Tenn. and had a wonderful time. Timing is important, school wouldn't let out for two weeks so the number of munchkins was low, also Memorial day was the week after we were there. That kept the prices low. Thee Photobear is thrifty. This is the place we stayed, our friends got a suite with two bedrooms and a really nice creek view. The sound of rushing water is soothing and the weather was perfect. One thing about Gatlinburg is the quantity and quality of the water. We had just come out of a two year drought in the Atlanta area, and it is refreshing to experience the nice flows.

There is a sustantial creek running right beside the hotel, our balconey is second floor about halfway down the building. Straight down is the creek. Next to us across a small isle is a short dam, the sound is far superior to any city noises I'm use to.

Our first excursion was to Cades Cove, it is a flat area within the Great Smokey Mountains, about five miles long and approximately one mile wide. The original settlers were the Indians indigenous to the area. How they originally found the Cove is a mystery to me, it is one hard walk into that area. Somebody let slip to the white people what was there and suddenly they had to go, then the Federal Gov. stepped in and relocated the white folk. There is still a court squabble ongoing today.

As you can see, deer love this place. Every traffic jam usually involved them. They have no fear of man and one can get quite close to them. I couldn't, passengers don't get to call the photostops. That's ok, because there were more.

When you are shooting them remember they like cover and even though it is day time the shade reduces availible light. I had my short tele cranked out as far as it would go. Then cropped the pix a little. The Nikon D70s was able to compensate for the lighting, but my shutter speeds were a little slow. The Nikon SLRs have thousands of exposure scenarios built in and over the years I've come to trust that ability. My only want was to get a little closer, faster lens, more pixels, and everything the average photobear could want.

The settlers who lived here had excellent water suppies, quality and quantity. It is a beautiful place.

I love shooting water. The motion, the feel of its life makes it one of my favorite subjects. Plus its a lot of fun.

The water wheel below turned a grain,corn grinding wheel inside the building. There is actual grinding going on and we bought some corn meal there. It is very dark inside, so I didn't make any pix. [Yes, I know what a flash is, I hate them] [OK, hate is a strong word, dislike the way the picture looks with flash. Is that better?] The wheel isn't spinning madly, its just a long exposure to get the water's motion. I braced the camera on the rail and made three exposures. Love digital, a large memory card allows you to take many pictures without running out of film. Memory cards are very cheap now, it makes no sense to not carry several.

The lighting was just right for this piece of farming equipment, the horse drawn sickle is in the shade but the sun was bouncing up off the ground in front of it giving the item a 'quality of light' feel. Also there is plenty of light to use a small aperture and get plenty of depth-of-field.

Review: depth-of-field is the area of the photograph that is in focus. A large aperture gives small depth allowing the background to be out of focus and the primary subject jumps out of the picture catching all of your attention. Small apertures give large depth, sometimes so large everything in the photograph is in focus. that puts your primary subject in its enviroment.

There's more later. The Photobear. ....and there was a bear, too.