Trust in the LORD with all your heart.

The photo for October on my 2014 calendar is from Unaka Mountain Road in the Cherokee National Forest and Unicoi County in Tennessee.  This 12 mile long road windes its way over and around the mountain.   According to Encylopedia Briticanica the Cherokee Indians named the mountains Unaka (“White”), probably in reference to a persistent white haze or to some white rock formations.

On this day the colors were anything but white.   Fall was ablaze with warm yellows, oranges, and red interspersed with some green leaves trying to hang on for a few more days.  You can tell by the leaves on the road that the fall days were growing short and soon the mountain would again be white with the first snows of winter.

I used one of the most powerful shapes in my composition.  The s-curve is a great graphic element that adds interest and pulls the viewer into the photo.  In this case I had the road start in a corner and avoided putting it dead center in my photo, which is a sure way to create a photographic dud in landscape photography.   One thing I wish I had tried was to climb on top of the car, which would give me a better view of the s-curve.  I always come up with great ideas for improving a photo long after I took it.  I guess that's the way I learn.  It sure takes a long time that way.

Exchange Place

The small photo on the calendar page was taken just a few miles from our house at Exchange Place.   It is a great place to wander around and shoot, particularly in the fall.  On this day I had to place to myself and spent a couple hours wandering around and poking my head in any open building looking for a photo that would tell the story of Exchange Place in the Fall.

Once you're on Unaka Mountain Road you have very few decisions to make.  There are only a handful of short side roads, but they all lead to dead ends.  You either have to continue to the end or turn around and go back.  It makes navigating the mountain easy.

Life is not always so simple.  Every day we are faced with multiple decisions that have to be made.  Some are small, yet others are significant and can have a major life impact.  We find ourselves struggling to gather information, study all the angles, and make our decision.   That's the hard way.  If we listen to Solomon's wisdom, don't try to figure it all out on our own, but trust the Lord  he will show us which path to take.   We don't have to know it all.  We have someone on our side who already knows it all and will show us the way to go.  All we have to do is listen and trust.

It's time to be thinking about a calendar for 2015.  I've place an order for the first batch of 2015 calendars.  If you want one just drop me an email to r.siggins@charter.net.   They're only $15, all the profit goes to Hope Haven Ministries, and I'll even ship to you.

We Just Think We Have A Plan

The forecast for this past Saturday was for clearing skies and less humidity.  My friend and photographer buddy Jim Rigsby and I decided we were going to head to the mountains to take pictures of the sunrise.  We made plans to meet at 5 AM and drive up to Beauty Spot in Unicoi County TN.  Beauty Spot is one of the high mountain grassy balds similar to Roan Mountain and Max Patch.  At 4,400 feet above sea level we expected to see a great sunrise with some patchy clouds.  By 5 AM we were on the road and executing our plan.

On the way we noticed you could not see any stars in the sky.  A little while later it started to sprinkle, then rain, then we saw lightning ahead.   By the time we hit Johnson City it was raining hard and when we got to Unicoi it was still raining, maybe even harder.   Being outdoor photographers with nothing else to do at 5:30 AM on a Saturday we kept going.  When we started up Unaka Mountain Road it had gotten so foggy it was difficult to see to drive up the single lane dirt road to Beauty Spot.  We arrived to find several people camping and a few others sitting in their cars.  Obviously we weren't the only nuts on a quest for a sunrise this foggy wet Saturday.

We hung out there for a while waiting and wondering what we were going to do.  I had been through there the day before with another photography buddy Harold Ross and knew there was a second bald a little ways up the road called Deep Gap.  I remembered lots of wildflowers along the road and some interesting looking trees in the grassy field.  We decided that we weren't going to see the sun come up and we might be able to find something to shoot up there.

By the time we got to Deep Gap it was light enough to walk around without a flashlight.  It was still very foggy and raining off and on.   These turned out to be the best conditions for photography we could have had!  I think we spent two hours wandering around the bald and along the road taking pictures of trees and flowers in the fog.  The fog gives everything a soft even light with no harsh shadows to deal with.  The color of flowers and green leaves viewed close up were vibrant when compared to the muted colors that faded to white in the distance.

There were Black-Eyed Susans, Pale Touch-Me-Nots, Spiderwort, Tall Ironweed, Goldenrod, and lots of ferns.  It was a pleasant surprise to find so many wildflowers this late in the season.  Harold and I had seen many others along the road the day before.  We decided it was all the rain we have been having for the past 5 weeks that resulted in a bumper crop of summer wildflowers.

At one point the sun broke through the clouds and for the first time we saw that there was a high ridge above us.  With visibility at about 100 yards we had no idea it was there.  We were hoping for some sunbeams shining through fog in the woods but these clearing skies only lasted a few minutes then we were socked in again.

After a couple hours we went on down the Unaka Mountain Road to Red Fork Falls.  We stopped at this great little cascade along the way before getting to the falls.

Foggy overcast days are the best conditions for taking pictures of waterfalls.  Unfortunately, it also results in wet slippery rocks.   We made our way down to Red Fork Falls and then on down a ways further to a couple smaller falls.   The really tall falls are exciting to see but it's the smaller ones that make better photographs.

It took a while to climb down and back out and we were muddy, sweaty, tired and very hungry by the time we got back to the car.  It was time to call it quits and head to Unicoi for burgers.

Saturday didn't work out the way we planned.  We didn't see the sun at all, let alone the sunrise.  What we got was even better than we had planned.  Perhaps God was saying, don't let the rain discourage you.  Go on up the mountain and see what I have in store.  It will be beyond your plans!  That's the way life is.  We think we're in control but in reality we're not.  All it takes is a little rain to derail our best plans.  Sometimes it's something much bigger, discouraging, and more than we can handle on our own.  But, God has a plan and all we have to do is trust and keep heading up the mountain to see what he has in store for us.

Here's a shot of Red Fork Falls from Friday afternoon with Harold. 

I want to thank Harold Ross for taking me up to Red Fork Falls and across Unaka Mountain on Friday and Jim Rigsby for going with me on Saturday.  I had two of my best days in less than 24 hours.

All of these photos are available for purchase in my Unaka Mountain Gallery.