Yet another attempt to photography one of these tiny wild irises. I’m still not pleased with the background, but I definitely like this better than my last couple of attempts.

An old mill in the Roaring Fork Historic Area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

If you’ve seen Joseph Rossbach’s “Layers of Light”, you may see quite a few similarities between his shot and mine. The reason for that is that I was attending his Smoky Mountain workshop and this is one of the locations we shot. All of the workshop participants were spread out along the parking lot at the Oconaluftee Valley Overlook in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, when a break appeared in the clouds letting the sun beams through. Joe started yelling for everyone to come down to where he was to capture the beams before the clouds closed up again. I ran down and shot this while standing right next to him. Processed to emphasize the beams a bit and to bring out some detail in the trees in the foreground.

A Pink Lady’s Slipper flower that I photographed while on a workshop in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We came across these on a hike back from another location, and most of the group wasn’t interested in stopping to photograph them, but I made them wait so I could get at least one shot. It’s not every day you get to shoot an endangered flower in bloom.