Most people think of Fall as the best time to be in the Smokies, but with the explosion of blooming flowers, new foliage on the trees, and water filling streams, Spring needs consideration. 

 The sheer volume and wide variety of blooming plants in the Smokies is hard to imagine.  If you take a short hike on a well known trail like the Porters Creek Trail (4 miles), the lower Chestnut Top Trail, or even the short Cove Hardwoods Trail (0.75 miles), it’s likely you will see 20-30 different varieties of plants in bloom. 

 One of the best known is the fringed phacelia – a small white flower that carpets the ground.  Shortly after you cross the third bridge on the Porters Creek Trail, the millions of blooms let you know that you must be in Oz.  There are plenty of places in the park that you can see the fringed phacelia.  The typical peak bloom is the second week of April, but weather can move that peak a week or two in either direction.  This week the peak bloom was about 7 days later than normal due to the cool weather.  My first trip to “Oz” this year was on April 15, and that was around the peak bloom.  Just four days later on my second visit, the blooms were past their peak in Oz and but there were other plants screaming for attention – like dwarf iris, painted trillium and showy orchis.

 The main attraction of the Spring wildflower season is probably the trillium.  The park has ten or more different varieties of trillium that bloom over a two month period.  Probably the most common are the white trillium and the yellow trillium.  The white trillium can be easily seen throughout the park, but my favorite area is around the Chimneys.  For the second consecutive year, the displays of white trillium just off the road made me just stop the car on the side of the road and pull out my gear.  White trillium are not always white – as the bloom ages they turn a soft pink that many mistake for a different variety.

 The list goes on with wonderful displays of phlox, wild geraniums, dwarf iris, and violets.  One of my favorite individual blooms is the showy orchis – a small pink and white flower that is in the orchid family.  All it takes is a sharp eye – and a reference book on wildflowers.  Don’t forget that flowers are not only found on the ground – there are dogwoods, redbud, silver bells, service berry, wild cherry, and magnolia trees contributing to the display.

 If you miss the fringed phacelia and the white trillium, most likely you will have to wait until next year.  But if you visit the Smokies any time in April or May, there are plenty of wildflowers.  If you just missed one of your favorites, try going to a higher elevation to turn back the calendar a week or two.  Or make plans for next year.

I love the Okefenokee – deep, dark, mysterious.  Up until two years ago I had never been to the Okefenokee in spite of growing up in Georgia and traveling through the area many times.  Eager to learn more, I visited the swamp – and subsequently have made a number of visits to understand the swamp, the wildlife, the people, and how to photograph such a strange and foreign environment.  And I wanted to share the swamp with others – most of which had not visited the swamp either.

 Our workshop visit to the Okefenokee is just a single day because time is limited.  The first thing you need to understand is the swamp if filled with water – and there is very little land to explore.  That means the best way to see the swamp is by small motorized boat or canoe.  If possible, a canoe is the best way to see the Okefenokee because you are able to navigate the shallow waters and visit areas that cannot be accessed by motorized boat.  A canoe also gives you the best chance to see wildlife.

 We meet our guide at the swamp a half an hour before sunrise.  That meant a very early start.  We wanted to be the first into the swamp and catch the mist on the water.  If possible, we’re looking for a little color in the sky.  Our morning trip will head out the Sewanee Canal into a swamp prairie with lots of wildlife and blooming flowers.  We’ll be on the water for 4-5 hours – and just one stop so we had to watch the coffee.

 The Sewanee Canal was a classic folly of man.  Around 1900 investors bought land in the swamp, and made plans to drain the water so the land could be developed.  Crews worked to cut a channel into the swamp.  Can you imagine the conditions?  Luckily for us, their efforts failed as the channel allowed water to drain into the swamp rather than out.  The ecological disaster was avoided.  Even luckier is that the channel today provides ready access to go deep into the swamp.  The fight against development is not completely over.  Within the past few years, additional land has been purchased to protect the swamp from mining mineral deposits in the area, but the swamp remains at risk.

 The first thing you notice is how still the water is early in the morning.  There is no wind.  We don’t see any animals yet but can hear the birds in the distance – woodpeckers, sandhill cranes, warblers, and a host of others.  A huge great blue heron is startled by our presence and flies ahead – broad wings seeming to touch both sides of the tree lined canal.  Wildlife is everywhere – but it is truly wild and better seen from a distance.  And there are chances to see wildlife up close – for example, the 7 foot long alligator sunning itself on the edge of the canoe trail only a few feet from our canoe.  We closed the day with a second trip into the swamp – this time for sunset on the prairie.

Driftwood Beach Sunrise

My favorite place on Jekyll Island is Driftwood Beach.  But it’s not without some effort.  Driftwood Beach is named for the large number of old trees that now rest as driftwood on the beach.  The shapes and textures are wonderful against the clean white sand.  The effort – is that this is a sunrise location.  And with the unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean to the east, you have to get up early.  The other challenge with this location is the tides.  At high tide there is a relatively small amount of beach presenting a challenge in the dark before sunrise.  At low tide you have wide expanses with patterns, reflections, and smooth sandy beaches.  We’ve timed this workshop for the low tide at sunrise.

 The weather makes a big difference for a sunrise shoot.  Luckily, this location is great even when it is completely overcast.  For sunrise on sunny days I like to emphasize the changing light before sunrise, rising sun on the horizon, the warm glow on driftwood and sandy beaches, and colorful clouds in the sky.  On cloudy days I tend to emphasize the soft pastel tones, neutral grays on the water and sand, and use the dark color of the driftwood to create contrasts.  It’s great – you can’t lose as long as you are up early.

 One of the tricks to photographing sunrise is to use filters.  For the sunrise on a sunny morning, my favorite filter is a Singh Ray Reverse 3 Stop graduated neutral density filter.  The Reverse GND filter has its deepest light blocking in the middle of the filter and gradually decreases the filter effect toward the top of the filter.  It’s perfect to block light on a bright horizon.  I find that the 3 stop filter is enough to cut the light on the horizon while maintaining the light on the beach, ocean, and upper sky.

 The other filter I use is a Singh Ray Vari-N-Duo.  The VND filter is a combination of a circular polarizer and a 9 stop neutral density filter.  It is used to both polarize light and to slow the exposure – perfect to turn waves into a gauzy blur.  With the Vari-N-Duo and low light, it’s easy to get exposures of 20-30 seconds.

One of the challenges with Driftwood Beach is deciding on your subject.  It’s easy to try to photograph the beach – the whole beach.  And that’s okay, but the best images involve simplifying the scene.  Look at the beach and what catches your eye.  Pick a subject.  Now emphasize the subject and remove everything else.

 We’ve just got two days of photography but this is a place I could easily spend a week or more.  The images will depend a lot on weather conditions.  I’m was hoping for some light clouds, but the weather upon arrival was a bit overcast with a chance of rain.

 Any time you get to a new location, the first thing to do is to do a quick assessment of conditions.  I’ve spent more than 30 days at Jekyll Island, so I know the area.  But I don’t know what has happened in the four months since my last visit.  At a coastal location – especially with marsh – the tides are important.  I scheduled this workshop based on the tides, but I still want to see for myself what might have changed at our sunrise and sunset locations.  My prime sunrise location is a beach covered with driftwood.  The nature of the location is that huge driftwood trees move with the tides and shifting sands.  So I’ve got to take a good look and consider the position of the sun.  For the sunset locations, we’ve got three good choices but only two sunsets, so I’m going to make sure there are no site issues and we are at the optimal locations.

 As we prepared for sunset, the island was completely covered with clouds, but we saw some clearing on the mainland.  We decided to go to an alternate location closer to the mainland.  As the light changed, the setting sun was blocked by clouds, but our view to the east provided this image.

The lesson – scout your locations and be prepared with a Plan B.

The 2010 workshop schedule is as follows:

Swamps, Marsh and Shore – March 21-26, 2010
This workshop explores southeastern Georgia and northern Florida including Jekyll Island, the Okefenokee, and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The primary subjects are birds and landscapes.

Spring in the Smokies – April 19-23, 2010
This workshop places you in the Smokies at the peak of the wildflower season. We’ll visit the major areas of the park and all of the peak locations for spring wildflowers. Water levels in streams will be high making it the perfect time for photographing moving water and moss covered rocks.

Fall in the Smokies – October 25-29, 2010
Fall is the perfect time for the Smokies. Leaves turn into brilliant orange, yellow, and red turning the park into an explosion of color. Wildlife is active as the elk and deer search for mates and the bears fatten for winter. We’ll visit the best places at the best times for great fall photos.

One day workshops and photography instruction are available by request.