Sadly it has been awhile since I have done any photography. Blame it on being busy, gas prices or just not feeling like it. It is a 3 day weekend with no plans and gas prices are down. So there is no excuse. Besides I am leaving on a big trip for Colorado to do nothing but photography so I need to get out and learn if I still have it.
I picked the wrong time for Cades Cove, labor day weekend. I arrived before sunrise about 6:57. The park does not open the gates to Cades Cove till sunrise 7:08 and there was already a line of cars. Oh no I thought a bunch of slow driving morons who stop in the middle of the road instead of using the pull offs. The weather was not that great either. It was very foggy and that is not good for landscapes. I like light fog it adds to a photo but this was so foggy you could not see the mountains. So much for scenics unless the fog breaks up though I did do a few scenics. There is other stuff to photograph so I drove around.
On Hyatt lane there was a good sized buck on the road 
with some nice fog to add to the photo. I got a few so so shots of him but not many. Missed when he jumped the fence and he was gone in a flash. Still a lot of fog and no mountains. I drove to where the cabins are after the visitor center to see if I can salvage at this point what I thought would be a wasted trip.
Drove up to the Dan Lawson place and wow 3 turkey in the field who were not shy. I was able to get pretty close without disturbing them. I worked with them for about half an hour. Most of that time was spent staying still and letting them get closer to me. They came within 20 feet and with my 300mm lens I was able to get some decent photos. 
Only thing missing would be the turkey fanning his tail but they were only interested in eating.
I have photographed Cades Cove many times but I have not paid much attention to Carter-Shields cabin. I have taken a few photos of it
like the one here but not much thought was given to the photos. When I look at photos of Cades Cove on the internet of Carter-Shields cabin have been the best of the Cades Cove cabin photos. If the light is good and the fog isn’t so thick you can’t see it I decided I would spend a lot of time with the cabin.
Arrived at the cabin and wow no people around, good light and no fog. I spent a lot of time with the cabin experimenting with composition and angles. I love to use wide angle and get close to a foreground object. With this it was an old tree stump. I had my tripod about 1.5 feet off the ground and just 8 inches from the stump. I bet when people passed by they thought I was a nut photographing a stump when there is a nice cabin sitting there. Hey I was photographing the cabin. I got some decent images of the cabin. Next spring I am going to photograph it again with some nice dogwoods blooming.
All in all it was a good trip and I still remembered where the shutter button is on my camera. Also no trip is wasted. If the conditions are not good for the photography you had in mind there are other ways to get photos.
