GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

It’s only the first day of Spring, but never too early to be thinking about where to go. By mid-April flowering dogwood trees and early morning fog combine to produce wonderful scenes in a national park that deserves to be savored slowly. Straddling Tennessee and North Carolina, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a traveling photographer’s delight.

A telephoto lens can compress the rolling hills at sunrise or sunset. And a super wide-angle lens can be used with strong foreground objects, like trees with a delicate lacy patterns, to contribute to the feeling of being on the floor of a moist, cool woodland forest. This park is highly recommended, especially if you live on the eastern seaboard of America, where historic Blue Ridge Parkway stretches from Virginia to Tennessee.