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Tag: Photography
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Image for the Asking: The Ace of Sycamores
Story and image by Don McGowan
In reflecting on the teaching of the photographic process as it relates to the composition of images, I have understood that what is involved distills itself into two primary aspects: elements and principles; and that within these primary groupings there are a number of sub-groupings, all of which are rightly
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Image for the Asking: Liquid Gold
Story and image by Don McGowan
Perhaps the reason I am so attracted to the music of a flute is that the notes of this instrument remind me of tumbling water. And one of the primary reasons I am so intensely drawn to these old mountains of the blue mists is because of my love of water. Who knows, maybe there actually is some kernel of
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Image for the Asking: Waking Up the Cove
Story and image by Don McGowan
The great open valleys of the Smokies—Cataloochee in North Carolina; Big Cove in Qualla Boundary; and Cosby, Tuckaleechee, and Cades Cove in Tennessee—are self-contained microcosms of the diverse human history of this wonderful land. Ongoing research and discovery is continuously adding to our
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Image for the Asking: Hark, What Light
Story and image by Don McGowan
According to most recent accounts there are 848 miles of maintained trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including 71 miles on the Appalachian Trail. These miles are scattered wonderfully across GSMNP from edge to edge and from high to low.
In the extreme northeastern corner of the park, just
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Image for the Asking: A River
Story and image by Don McGowan
There are nearly 2,900 miles of streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That’s roughly the distance between Asheville, North Carolina, and the Colorado National Monument, just south of Fruita, Colorado, and back again; and nearly 600 miles of that number are suitable for fishing. The watersheds
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Image for the Asking: Snail Eating Up the Forest
Story and image by Don McGowan
They are easily overlooked and often quite readily ignored. They often leave a slimy trail wherever they go, which doesn’t necessarily endear them to a lot of people. Yet they are an important part of the web of life in these old mountains, and if you are willing to be completely honest with yourself, they
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Image for the Asking: Why Come It’s Not a Holler Hardwood Forest?
Story and image by Don McGowan
The dictionary of Appalachian English, courtesy of Wikipedia, assures us that a “cove” is a “valley between two ridges.” It goes on to explain that a “holler” is a “valley between two hills.” Now since ridges and hills can be, and on occasion have been, mistaken for
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Image for the Asking: Standing Still behind a Cloud
Story and Image by Don McGowan
Benjamin Morton was a Knoxville businessman, and from 1924 to 1927, he was also the mayor of the city. Such an ardent conservationist and a great supporter of the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park was he that an overlook of considerable magnitude on the Tennessee side of the mountains was named in his
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Image for the Asking: Now You See Me; Now You Don’t
Story and Image by Don McGowan
I will always consider one of the singular highlights of my career to have been the opportunity to be a very small part of the elk reintroduction to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I took pictures.
The great bulk of the credit for the work to reintroduce these magnificent creatures lies in the dream and
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Image for the Asking: The Place of the Balsams
Story and Image by Don McGowan
With all of the diverse vegetation that covers Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it is sometimes easy to overlook what is underneath. The under layers of all of that biota are rock strata from the basement of time.
Well, let me be completely honest here: the basement of time that I am referencing has a date on
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