Tanawa Trail Footbridge - The September 2014 Calendar Photo

The Tanawa Trail is a 13 1/2 mile hiking trail in the North Carolina mountains that parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain.  This footbridge is easily accessible from one of the many trail access points along the parkway.  It's been some time since I made this photo, but I think this is on the section of the Tanawa trail that goes to Rough Ridge.

Tanawa is the Cherokee name for fabulous hawk or eagle.  On this day the scene was a fabulous painters pallet of warm fall colors.  To the east the sky was becoming overcast which obscured the grand vistas, but created really nice conditions for taking photographs in the woods.  

There are any number of ways to photograph this bridge.   If you do a google search for Rough Ridge Bridge and look at the images you will see the compositions others have come up with.  I like this angle because it shows off the beautiful arch of the bridge and the stone column in the center.   In the fall the creek is reduced to a small trickle, which shows up as a black section under the bridge.  For the photographers who are interested in the more technical points this was taken with a full frame DSLR, 17mm, f/22.  This image is an HDR image created from three different exposures to capture the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

This photo brings to mind quiet walks to peaceful places.   The busyness of life can wear us down and we need to get away to these quiet places to recharge.   Luke recorded that Jesus would slip away to a quiet place to pray.   What better place to pray than in the midst of God's creation with no distractions to compete for our attention.

I'll be selling the 2015 edition of my calendar this fall.  For information see the previous blog post - http://thesiggins.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-polls-are-open-its-time-to-vote-for.html  Stay tuned for more information on how to order a calendar.