Some North Carolina Magic...

I've been re-editing pictures this week that I published several years ago on one of my previous websites. First time around they were sized for the resolution of the monitor I had at the time. They looked okay then, but the monitor I use now has much higher resolution and the computer is not as limited with respect to storage space. Ergo, these pics, when you see them will be higher res and, I hope, easier to appreciate.
 

The pictures I concentrated on this week were taken in the Smoky Mountains, mostly in 2003 and 2004. Living in Marietta at the time, it was always a pleasure to drive up into the mountains to visit friends and take pictures. The Blue Ridge Parkway stretches a pretty long way with pictures worth taking around almost every curve. But I have to say that easiest way to use up film - some of my shots were shot on Ektachrome - or, these days, fill up a compact flash card is to spend an afternoon at the Mountain Farm Museum adjacent to the Okonaluftee Visitors Center of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. You make the drive, park your vehicle, and wander around clicking pictures off all afternoon - or all morning if you live close enough and are of that persuasion.

 Now, the combination of digital photography and a good editing program is what we in the aerospace industry refer to as a "force multiplier". And, to illustrate my point, I've selected four pictures for today's post, all derived from the same shot. So, when you go to a place like the Visitors Center, shoot fifty or a hundred frames in an afternoon, return several times over the years, and tease multiple pictures from your "good shots", you end up with plenty of images to supply your blog, should you choose to publish one.

That said, there's not a lot more to add other than that the Visitors Center is on US 441 north of Cherokee and one curve above the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The river alongside the Mountain Farm Museum is the Oconaluftee River, which rises in the Smokies, flows past the Visitors Center and merges with the Tuckaseegee River east of Bryson City.

These pictures - or this picture if you want to think of it like that - were/was taken 19 October 2003. The autumn color wasn't really special that weekend, or maybe it was a bad year for color, but I have to say that there was enough, reflected by the river, that I was pleasantly surprised.  But for that, you'll have to wait for the next post. . .