8/20/2010, Fri // The Smokies:

Below are some recent pictures taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park ---- the most visited national park in the United States. It consists of the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains. I wish I saw the kind of mist found here, in my last two trips to China. The "smoke" is supposingly created by the abundance of raindrops and thus high humidity. The sky is always cloudy, making it ideal to be included in the photos; and also, the magical hours of photography ---- sunrise and sunset, are usually best with some clouds... and so, we did photograph sunrise and sunset!

I didn't have to boost up the color saturation and vibrance too much when messing with my raw files ---- unlike my last two trips to China. The high humidity, mist and rain really helped bring out the hue and also not creating too much contrast/shadow due to direct sunlight. Overall, the weather was better than I could ever hope for!

Here are some advantages of going to trip not with traveling agency ---- I can use a tripod, no one tells me what to do, I can stop/go anywhere and in any order, I can spend however much time I want and I can control my time!

There are some pictures with very little differences, but they usually have some decisive factors that make me not able to choose...

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