NORTH CAROLINA and TENNESSEE

In October 1999, I visited a friend in Atlanta and my grandparents in South Carolina. On the way back to Austin, I planned to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway from northwestern North Carolina down to Tennessee, culminating in a visit to Smoky Mountain National Park. And so I did, through three days of unremitting heavy rain and dense fog, both of which are somewhat annoying when you're on a photography vacation. I took an awful lot of worthless photos while trudging through mud and standing on granite precipices, but I took a few good ones, too. I hope these are the good ones.

Leaf on granite, western North Carolina (71k)

I suppose a poet could compose something dramatic to complement this shot, but he isn't me. I like it.

Linville River, western North Carolina (78k)

Ditto.

Linville Falls, western North Carolina (60k)

Nothing beats the thrill of standing on a thin, slick chunk of granite, perched 20 feet above more granite, in a rainstorm, looking through a perspective-bending 20mm lens.

Leaves on black rock, Tuckaseegee River, western North Carolina (85k)

Taken during a fifteen-minute rainless stretch.

Horses near Laurel Springs, North Carolina (67k)

The first shot on the trip.

Leaves, western North Carolina (46k)

Can't remember exactly where I was. I remember thinking that quitting my job to take pictures of leaves in a cold rain was not my brightest idea.

Linfield Falls, western North Carolina (82k)

Two waterfalls in one picture. Economy.

Linfield Falls, western North Carolina (70k)

So I like waterfalls.

Sunset, Little River, US 321 west of Gatlinburg, Tennessee (72k)

The last shot of the trip. I could glimpse a phenomenal sunset over the mountain ridge, but I was driving on the eastern side of the ridge and couldn't find a place to take a decent picture. I finally drove through a pass and found a dam from which to shoot. The sky was almost dark; I overexposed the hell out of the film and hoped for the best. The result looks far better than the sky did at the time.