The Flickr Cloudsaroundmountains Image Generatr

At a roadside pullout location along main loop road in the Cades Cove area at the Wet Bottom Trailhead with a view looking to the southeast taking in the setting of a grassy meadow with ridges and peaks in this part of the Western Great Smoky Mountains. This is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

At a roadside pullout location along Sparks Lane in the Cades Cove area with a view looking to the east taking in the setting of a grassy meadow with ridges and peaks in this part of the Western Great Smoky Mountains. This is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

At a roadside parking area location along main loop road in the Cades Cove area with a view looking to the northeast taking in the setting of a grassy meadow with ridges and peaks in this part of the Western Great Smoky Mountains. This is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the John Oliver Place Parking (with the cabin area off in the distance in the image left of center).

While in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park at a roadside pullout along Sparks Lane. The setting is looking down this graveled road to the south with some trees lining the road and the ridges and peaks coming off the Western Great Smoky Mountains with Cobb Butt in the distance. The idea for this image had come from several sites I had visited before this trip. The idea to be in the center of an unimproved road, get down low, and capture an image looking straight ahead with trees and mountains as a distant backdrop. For this image, I use the LiveView LCD screen on my Nikon Z8 Mirrorless Camera to line up for composing and then focus a short ways down the road.

The rest was later making adjustments with control points in DxO PhotoLab 7 to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

A setting looking to the southwest while taking in views across a grassy meadow and walking back along a trail from the John Oliver Cabin. This is in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My first thought when I composed this image had been to focus on what I thought might have been a black bear wandering around the forest on the other side of the meadow. I later shifted the composition to capture a look across that meadow and frame a view beyond the forest with the mountain ridge (Cobb Butt, Cobb Ridge) as a distant backdrop.

I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation in DxO PhotoLab 7. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 7 where I added a Polarization, Foliage, and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured.

Has given the waves their melody
The caption used is from a poem by W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems
A setting looking to the northeast while taking in views across a grassy meadow with ridges and peaks of the Western Great Smoky Mountains (Scott Mountain and Pinkroot Ridge) as a distant backdrop. This was at a roadside pullout along Sparks Lane in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The look I wanted to capture with this image was the grassy meadow and the way certain grasses were bending with the wind blowing that morning. I chose to keep the horizon more or less leveled-on. The rest was metering the image to not blow any of the highlights in the skies above that were kind of partly cloudy and overcast that morning.

While in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park at a roadside pullout along Sparks Lane. The setting is looking east across a grassy meadow and farmland with ridges and peaks of the Western Great Smoky Mountains as a backdrop. In composing the same image, while I did want to include some of the meadow to my front as foreground interest, my focus was on the sun beginning to rise into the skies that morning. As the skies were slightly overcast, I found it a little bit easier to meter the image to not blow any of the highlights from the sun and skies while still being able to later pull out the more shadowed areas in the forest and mountains. While I had thought about pulling back on the focal length to capture a wide angle view, I chosen instead to zoom in with a focal length a little, having portions of the mountain ranges on both sides of the image with the sun in the sky above, but still centered in between.

I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation in DxO PhotoLab 7. I then exported a TIFF image to Nik Color Efex Pro 7 where I added a Polarization, Foliage, and Pro Contrast filter for that last effect on the image captured.

A setting looking to the south-southwest while taking in views down and across a river valley with the West Prong Little Pigeon River. This is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What I wanted to capture with this view was to take advantage of the high ground that I was located on while also angling my Nikon Z8 Mirrorless Camera slightly downward. I felt both would allow me to minimize the negative space that I felt was present with the overcast skies while bringing out more of a sweeping view across this river valley to the ridges and peaks of the Central Great Smoky Mountains with Chimney Tops off in the distance.

Upon the top of that same craggy ridge
The caption used is from a poem by William Wordsworth, from The Prelude.
While at a roadside pullout along the main park road on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The view is looking to the north-northwest to ridges and peaks of the Eastern Great Smoky Mountains with Anakeesta Ridge. Given the low clouds that were along the mountain peaks, I chose to minimize those overcast skies and focus the image on the spurs and ridges coming off the main peaks. I liked the layers that they brought out with the tree lines and the way the spurs and ridges seemingly came after the other. The rest was metering the image to so that I could capture some of the details present in the overcast skies while still being able to pull the more shadowed areas along the mountainside later in post production.

While on the main park road just beyond the Newfound Gap in the Tennessee portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The setting is looking to the south up a nearby mountainside with evergreens and other types of trees present. A low cloud ceiling was present with clouds seemingly moving across the mountainside during that storm. While I was disappointed to not see the full grandeur of the mountains that day, I did like the idea of capturing clouds moving across the mountainside as it reminded me of images I’d seen with Ansel Adams in Yosemite Valley. Because of that idea, I decided to convert at least one of the images captured that day to Black & White.

A conversion to black & white using Silver Efex Pro 7 where I made some adjustments to color filters to bring out a much richer tonal contrast for the final image.

A view across the tundra landscape in this part of Denali National Park, looking to the southwest and foothill mountains and peaks of the Alaska Range, with the hidden in clouds, snowcapped peaks of Denali rising above. While I could have worked some angles in composing this image, I decided to keep more of an even, leveled on view and have some "negative space" above the portion of Denali hidden in clouds. My feeling is that the centered up view had more of a balance. I could also clear up some of the clouds working with the ClearView Plus tool in DxO PhotoLab 3, The rest was I did some making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation for the image captured.

While on a bus ride from the North Face Lodge along the main park road in Denali National Park & Preserve. This was a view looking to the southeast with Denali and other snowcapped peaks hidden in clouds.

While along the main park road just before coming to the Eielson Visitor Center in the national park. This view to the southeast and across the glacial plain with tundra and braided rivers to snowcapped peaks of the Alaska Range. I decided to slightly angle my Nikon SLR camera downward in order to capture more of that sweeping view across this tundra landscape and have the snowcapped mountain peaks in the upper portion of the image and bring out more of the grandeur of this setting. I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation while playing around as I learned how to work with DxO PhotoLab 3.

A view looking to the south while enjoying a bus ride from the North Face Lodge. What drew me into this image wasn't just the mostly hidden clouds view to Denali, it was the wide open space of this wilderness setting in the national park with the evergreen trees that stretched off into the distance and a braided river cutting across before then coming to tundra at the foothills of the Alaska Range. Obviously then comes the snowcapped peaks with Denali in the image center, but there was also the way the blue skies seemed to clear out above it all and that little bit of orange and red glow in the clouds from the sun rising to the east.

This was a view looking to the west-northwest while taking a break hiking up a mountainside along the Little Coal Creek Trail in Denali State Park. When a friend and I had stopped at the north viewpoint before starting on this hike, Denali had been out, but the angles with the foothills had minimized taking in the full “alpenglow" of the mountain peak with the morning sunlight. It was only later as we hiked up the mountainside and cleared the forested area that we were able to take in the views people often imagine seeing of the Great One, Denali.

I did some initial post-processing work making adjustments to contrast, brightness and saturation while playing around as I learned how to work with DxO PhotoLab 3 that I’d recently purchased after moving away from Capture NX2.

In Joshua Tree National Park at a roadside pullout looking to the southwest and across a snowy landscape with Joshua Trees and other desert plant-life. I liked the layered look of this national park landscape with the snow covered foreground, leading up to the mountainside that was partially hidden in storm clouds moving in.

While walking around and taking in views along the shoreline of Fishercap Lake with a view looking to the east-southeast to some nearby ridges and peaks with Allen Mountain, Wynn Mountain, Grinnell Point, from left to right. This is in Glacier National Park. My thought on composing this image was to focus on this end of the lake and use that along with the ridge coming off Grinnell Point as a way to frame a look beyond to more distant mountains. I also wanted to expose this image so that I didn't lose any of the details present in the overcast skies that somewhat hid the peaks and mountains. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 7 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

From a roadside pullout along the main park road in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. The view is looking to the southwest to ridges and peaks of the Northern Lewis Range (Allen Mountain, Wynn Mountain, Cracker, Mount Siyeh) hidden in clouds from the overcast skies that morning.

A setting looking to the southwest while taking in views at a roadside pullout along the main park road in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. My thought in composing this image was to zoom in with the full length and center the ridges and peaks of Grinnell Point in the image. I also wanted to expose this image so that I didn't lose any of the details present in the overcast skies that somewhat hid the peaks and mountains. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 7 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.