So, naturally I pulled out my camera—in this case my iPhone—and took some video, which you can view below. But I also got to contemplating the possible meaning of this highly unusual bear activity during this highly unusual year. I decided to do some research, and found some possible meanings.

The spirit of the bear is a strong source of support in times of difficulty. It provides courage and a stable foundation to face challenges. When the bear shows up as a spirit guide in your life, it’s perhaps time to stand for your beliefs or your truth.

Black Bear symbolism is about introspection. In particular, the Bear meaning is letting you know that it is time to go inward and explore the notion of your very existence, like hibernation. Therefore, with this spirit animal, you must delve deep into your heart to find the significance of your path and journey.

The bear is emblematic of grounding forces and strength. This animal has been worshiped throughout time as a powerful totem, inspiring the courage to stand up against adversity. As a spirit animal in touch with the earth and the cycles of nature, it is a powerful guide to support physical and emotional healing.

I hope you enjoy the video, featuring our Smoky Mountain black bear family!

Mt. LeConte is the third-highest Smoky Mountains peak, but to me it represents the skyline of the Smokies. As you approach from the north, Mt. Leconte is a Smoky Mountains landmark seen from 50 miles away, or further on a clear day. As you travel around the Gatlinburg area, there is LeConte, above you in the sky, showing you different views.

What is known as the Mt. LeConte massif is actually 5 peaks, with four of them over 6000 feet. West Point (6,344 ft), High Top (6,593 ft), Cliff Tops (6,555 ft), Myrtle Point (6,200 ft) and Balsam Point (5,840ft) comprise the majestic Smoky Mountains view that we all know and love. The topo map below from 1949 shows the details of the area. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The north side of the mountain rises a full mile from its base to the summit, making it the tallest mountain in Tennessee by that measurement. Storms that plow into this massive barrier dump immense amounts of rainfall into the watershed, fostering the diversity of plant-life for which the Smokies are famous, such as the amazing green rocks along the Roaring Fork.

The photo above was taken from high on Shields Mountain, about 10 miles north of the Smoky Mountains.  And the photo below was taken from the Campbell Overlook on the Newfound Gap road, looking up to an early snow on Balsam Point.

The mile-high mountain also creates a weather phenomenon called “mountain wave winds.” Those of us living on the north side of the slope are familiar with the howling, near-hurricane-force winds that are generated when a storm front passes over Mt. LeConte from the south.

The William Britten Gallery of Smoky Mountains pictures is open and ready to welcome you on your next visit to the Smokies. Please stop in and say hello and browse all of my photos.

The incredible photo above was taken by Dutch Roth during a hike to Rainbow Falls on February 16th, 1958. The photo below, also by Dutch Roth, was taken on the old Indian Gap Highway on February 22, 1947. Exactly 64 years ago today!

Both photos used with permision of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Collection, University of Tennessee Libraries.

This time of year in our Smoky Mountains we are all itching to say good-bye to winter and welcome springtime and the wildflower season. These are my candidates for the best early spring wildflowers that may be found in March after some warm days and a bit of rainfall. Follow the links below for more information. Click on any of the pictures to start a slide show.

First is Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) which gets its name from the reddish sap of the root which was used by settlers for dye. The picture above shows the delicate bloom of this wildflower. Look for Bloodroot near the Porters Creek trailhead or the Cove Hardwood Trail.

Below is a picture of Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana), which is fairly common and might be seen as early as late February.  Try the looking along the Chestnut Top trail.

Another petite charmer of the bare March woodlands is Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba). This tiny white, pink, or lavender bloom can be found in early March when no other wildflowers are to be found. A sure bet to find it is the Cove Hardwoods Trail.

Next up is Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) which is actually a dwarf shrub. I have seen this near the top of the hill on the Chestnut Trop Trail, and it is also reported to be found along the Abrams Falls Trail.

The picture below is Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), which might be my favorite early spring wildflower.  It’s always a treat to find this one, or it’s cousin Squirrel Corn. The trick is to look for the distinctive shaped leaves and then poke around for the blooms.  The Cove Hardwood Trail is another sure bet for this one.

Those are my picks for the Smoky Mountains best early spring wildflowers. As always, if you get a chance please stop in at the William Britten Gallery on Glades Rd in Gatlinburg. All of my Smoky Mountains pictures are on display there. If you are a Facebook user, you can get my daily Smoky Mountains news and photos by becoming a fan of the William Britten Photography Facebook Page.

This time of year can be absolutely breathtaking in the Gatlinburg area. Both of these images show a winter panorama of the Smoky Mountains with Mt. LeConte center stage. They were taken from a ridge way out on Upper Middle Creek Rd. about 10 miles or so from the Smokies. A long telephoto lens was used.

Please stop in for a hot cup of coffee or tea and to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

The image above was taken from the footbridge that leads to the Ramsay Cascades trail in the Greenbrier section of the Smoky Mountains. This wide panorama was created from five vertical panels joined together with a photostitch technique. And each vertical panel was created by combining four different exposures. So, the entire image that you see above is a photostitch of 20 exposures!  Click on the image above to see a larger version.

Visitors in my gallery often comment on how much easier digital photography is, compared to the old film days.  I would say that the way that professional photographers utilize digital cameras is much more complex than it was with film!

Almost every image that I work with is taken with 4 or 5 exposures, taken at different settings.  This is often referred to as “bracketing” but to me it is simply a collection of exposures made for various parts of the scene. For example, in the image above, the whites of the water needed a specific exposure setting, while the shadows in the rocks and woods required a very different setting.  Digital allows me to take many exposures of the same scene, and combine them later to give each area of the picture its own perfect exposure. At first this seemed cumbersome, but now it is an established habit when I am out working.

I often turn my camera to the vertical position and sweep across a scene, taking 3, 4, or 5 separate vertical panels, each with 4 or 5 exposures as described above. It takes some concentration to do this quickly and accurately, so that the scene does not change too much as you work your way across.  After each panel is finished by combining the multiple exposure settings, the entire panorama is photostitched together using software. Photoshop has a built in “photomerge” for this, or I also use a program called PTGui.  When a scene is changing, as it is with the flowing water above, the panoramic software has a challenge to blend the water from panel to panel to make it all blend into one image.  Wow! This is a lot of work. And digital was supposed to be so easy!

One final comment: to get a good panorama that will photostitch together well requires that your tripod stay level while you rotate across the scene. I use a special tripod head attachment from Really Right Stuff to enable this. I also use a special bracket from the same source that allows me to position the “nodal point” of the lens directly above the tripod center. In this way the camera body rotates around the lens, creating perfect panoramas.

Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

Many photography books advise you to carefully compose a scene in your mind, and then carry out that vision with your equipment. However, I don’t do it that way! When I go out looking for stunning Smoky Mountains photos and hope to find a candidate to add to my Gallery, I’m usually gathering hundreds of photographic pieces for later evaluation. Surrounded by beauty such as you see on this page, it’s quite overwhelming. There are photos every way you turn! My strategy is to get into the moment, really feel it, not think it. Let the camera roam around and find what it likes.

Sometimes it will be weeks later before I get around to sorting and evaluating. The two photos here are good examples of how I work to create a best-selling photograph from all the pieces that were gathered before. The image below is quite nice. Gorgeous autumn leaves on a foggy day, with a road in the scene. But it doesn’t rise to the level that is required to really touch the patrons of my Gallery enough to want it hanging in their home.

The image above is just a short rotation to the left of the one below. The road has disappeared, and the woods have become isolated and prominent. Without the road and the short grass as reference points, the scene has become grander, and more mysterious. There are layers of color and contrast which are enhanced by the fog. There is so much going on in foreground and distance that your mind gets caught up examining the scene, and while doing that you begin to feel the emotions that come along with those details.

I’m always drawn to images that have layers of detail near and far. With my printing techniques, these images often take on a three-dimensional quality.  The image above is a candidate, and will be printed in a few sizes to see how customers react. Sometimes the mood of an image strikes a universal chord in people, and they respond.

If you’re visiting the Smokies, please stop in to see this image and my complete display of Smoky Mountains photos at the William Britten Gallery along the historic Arts and Crafts Trail along Glades Rd. in Gatlinburg.

After a snowfall followed by frigid temperatures, I was out at the Ogle Place along the Roaring Fork in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On this morning I was trying to keep feeling in my fingers with the temperature around 9 degrees!

Photographing scenes like the ones above and below presents a challenge of extreme lighting conditions. The sun had begun to light up the snow, producing very bright highlights, but the shadow areas on the porch were still very dark. The range of light is simply too much for the camera to record.  So, a couple of strategies were used for these pictures.  First, about 4 exposures were taken–some over exposed and some underexposed–and blended together. Second, I converted the image to black and white, and blended that in with the color version.  Since these images have little color anyway, this technique serves to add some texture to the snow, keeping it from going to solid white.

The iconic Ogle Cabin nearly burned during the fires of November 2016. The fire came right up to the back porch, which would be to the left in the photo below.

If you’re in Gatlinburg, please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery on glades Road.

The route to Grotto Falls is one of the sweetest Smoky Mountains waterfalls hikes.  Not much more than a mile in length, this hike has a gem at the end, with many opportunities for photos.  As the sign above indicates, it’s a part of the Trillium Gap Trail which goes on up to Mt. LeConte.  The hike starts from a parking area along the Roaring Fork Motor Trail (stoplight number 8 in Gatlinburg).

I hiked up to the waterfall in late November, just before the Roaring Fork Motor loop closed for the winter. Grotto Falls is especially nifty because the trail goes behind the falls, as seen in the photos above and below. And an added bonus, the llama pack train that carries supplies to LeConte Lodge can be seen on the trail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday … leaving at dawn and returning sometime between 3:00 and 5:00.

Please stop in and visit me out on the Arts and Crafts Loop along Glades Road to see the complete display of photos of Smoky Mountains scenes at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

We might be right on the edge of December, but it’s not too late for a dip in the old hot tub!  The air has a chilly nippy feel, but the water in the tub is steaming up my camera lens!

No need to daydream … come on down to the Smokies. Gatlinburg has the million holiday lights turned on, and almost a million hot tubs. It’s a great time of year for a visit.

If you do come, please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

This footbridge is one of the special places in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains. It crosses the Ramsay Prong of the Little Pigeon River at the beginning of the trail that leads up to the Ramsay Cascades waterfall, and from there on up to the Appalachian Trail. Standing on this footbridge affords a beautiful view either upstream or down. A great place to just stand and be still, listen to the endless sound of the water flowing down out of the mountains.  A few days ago I posted an image taken from this bridge.

Above is a view from the same vantage point in winter. Even on a day like this, look at all the footprints of hikers on their way up the trail!  The silence and solitude on this day were breathtaking. So was the frigid air.

And the photo below, there I am on the footbridge, looking tired after the grueling marathon of October in the Smokies.

Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

This is one of those special times. The Rosy Fingers of Dawn seeping into the sky above the Smoky Mountains.  The cabins coming to life, greeting the day with their own lights. You can just stand here for a while and watch the moments unfold, with the light changing by the second until finally a blast of sun’s rays shoots over the mountain tops. These moments are nearly indescribable in their awesome simplicity.

There’s nothing finer than to be out with my camera, hoping to capture a bit of the Smokies’ spiritual grandeur.  Stop in for a visit at the William Britten Gallery along the historic Arts and Crafts Trail on Glades Rd. in Gatlinburg. My complete display of Smoky Mountains photos might offer a Smokies Moment for you to take home with you.

Lynn Camp gets its name from a logging camp of the Little River Lumber Company in the 1920s. The old railroad trace provides a wide, flat path that is popular for horseback riding.

I love to walk along the old railroad grade beside the Lynn Camp Prong in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s especially attractive in autumn, but any season is worth the trip.  From Gatlinburg, take the Little River Road towards Cades Cove. Just past the Townsend Y, turn left into the Tremont area. Keep going straight, the road will turn to gravel and end with a parking area for the trail.  Cross over the footbridge and take the trail to the left.

Several of my favorite images were taken along the Lynn Camp, including Smoky Mountain Monet and Smoky Mountain Magic.

Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mountain Photography at the William Britten Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.

It seems like every year as we move from August to September, all the signs suddenly point to the end of summer.  In these Smoky Mountains photos of buck deer in Cades Cove, you can almost feel what they feel.  The easy days are slipping away … the days of fattening up on lush grass as they graze in the moonlight of a warm night. Soon the grass will be brown, the leaves gone, the wind cold. The two young ones above may not remember what’s to come, but the old guy below does.

But then again … soon it will be mating season! There is that silver lining at least.

No matter what the time of year, please consider a visit to the William Britten Gallery to see my complete display of Smoky Mountains photos. I’m located along the historic Arts and Crafts Trail on Glades Rd. in Gatlinburg, TN.

William “Fighting Billy” Tipton was Revolutionary War veteran and the first of the Tipton clan to acquire land in the Smoky Mountains. This was in the 1820s under Tennessee’s Land Grant program.

Colonel Hamp Tipton, a veteran of the Civil War, built the two story cabin above in the early 1870s. Miss Lucy and Miss Lizzy were Hamp’s daughters and worked as schoolteachers in the Cove.

The Tipton Place is one of the best examples of the settlers homesteads along the Cades Cove loop road in the Smokies. There’s a stand of old-fashioned bee gums in the back yard, and across the road is a double-pen corn crib and a fine example of a cantilever barn.

The barn pictured below is actually a replica of the original.

Please stop in and visit me to see the complete display of Smoky Mtns Photos at the William Britten Gallery along the historic Arts and Crafts Trail on Glades Road in Gatlinburg, TN.