Illusion

I was looking for something else, but came across these pictures which I've always liked. One Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2002, Gillian and I grabbed our cameras and took the Suburban up to the Smoky Mountains to see what we could see. As usual, we headed north through Ellijay and Blue Mound, Murphy and Andrews then, just before entering the Nantahala Gorge, we turned north and headed up through Robbinsville towards Fontana Lake, and back east towards Bryson city. I think these pictures are of the Little Tennessee River, though I wouldn't bet my camera on it.

The thing that intrigued me about our roadside view of the river, and what these shots attempt to show, is the initial confusion and possibly even a little vertigo induced by looking down through the leaves from the riverbank and seeing clouds in the Carolina blue instead of the fast-moving, rocky stream you typically find in the Smokies.

 

Of course, the sky and clouds are simply reflections in an unusually wide section of the Little Tennessee on a bright day devoid of even the slightest hint of a breeze. It's interesting to me that, looking at the pictures, you can concentrate on the leaves and determine that you're looking down through the branches - then allow yourself to notice the sky in the background and experience that confusion again.