Frozen Head

I'm awaken at 5:00 by the phone call from the automated system. The day of a friendly voice on the other end is gone. I snooze till the alarm goes off at 5:30. Get up, get ready, and head for the CDI (Campbell Digital Institute.)

I'm a couple of minutes early for our 6:30 call, and am talking to Janie when the others arrive. Soon we're off for Frozenhead State Park, about 1/2 hour away. The down side is, that since I've left the hotel, it has started to rain. Not hard, but it is raining. We forge ahead, less Carol who is really not interested in pure nature photography. It's the guys morning out.

On the ride up we converse on topics from printers to why Bill left his medical practice to become a photographer. (I learn later in the day that Bill has not totally quit the practice of medicine...he spends 3 to 4 nights a month working the Emergency room. It pays the car payments and the children's college fund. But the real dream is to go to National Geographic one day and say: "Got an expedition? I'm a doctor and a professional photographer. I could fill both roles on your expedition.")

Our ride takes us by Brushy Mountain State Prison, the prison that once housed the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King.

And Bill is a professional. We've been walking less than two minutes when he spies a purple leaf on a fern and puts Al to photographing it. I continue on up the trail and begin to work some ferns and a small waterfall just off the trail. We had hoped for more water in the creek, but it is not to be...even with a slow rain falling. I guess I spend half the time shooting and the other half talking to Dr. Bill. I really like this guy. We seem to have a lot in common and converse easily.

One result of our conversation: I will probably leave Oak Ridge on Friday evening and go to Townsend TN to attempt to get up early and be in Cades Cove for an early morning shoot on Saturday. I'm going to try and get a reservation in Townsend shortly.

After a couple of hours working the dreary forest, we head back down the trail to leave. I still have my camera with the wide angle lens mounted out and on the tripod. So I stop on the bridge over the stream to snap the last couple of shots before we leave. These will turn out to be the best shots of the day...with a little hep from Photoshop.

We spend the morning and most of the rest of the afternoon working photos in Photoshop. Here a couple of good shots begin to emerge from the mix.

I invite Al to lunch at Krystal with me, but he declines. Not a Krystal man I guess. So I'm off for this unique culinary fare. I eat three, with some fries and a drink. The stomach holds. If Krystals don't do me in then nothing will. I guess I'm cured of whatever was ailing my stomach.

During dinner I'm back to the hotel to get some equipment ready for the evening session, laptop among them. The evening session is to be a run of Photoshow Gold, a piece of software that allows you to build slide shows of your work. It looks like it may be worth a shot. At the end of the evening session, I have a trial version installed and am playing with it.

Trying to get my iPod music to work with the show, I put on a Harry Chapin song. Shortly there after our conversation turns to music. We talk...Harry Chapin, James Taylor, George Winston, and so on.

I finish the evening session at 9:45, leaving the others behind to close up shop. Tomorrow we meet again at 6:30 to go to Norris Dam for the daily shoot. Another early morning call.

Now, for the picture of the day......