The Great Smoky Mountain National Park
     A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Smoky Mountains with my girlfriend Ashley and some friends of ours. I had a totally awesome time even though we got rained on a little bit (just kidding, we got drenched to the point where I thought my rental lens was going to be ruined). I rented a Canon 24-105mm f4 L for this trip. The lens was mounted to a 5d Mark II. The following are images taken with this kit on my journey in the Smokies.
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| A joyful view of Happy Valley from that Look Rock thing.  | 
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| The Smokies from a lookout on the way to Look Rock. | 
 On the way back to camp, I had the driver drop me off about a mile from our cabin so I could shoot this creek. We stayed in a really nice cabin courtesy of Westley Woods Church Camp.
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| This tree is located right next to the creek pictured above. | 
 Still on day one, we started hiking to view the phlox. It was a six mile hike into White Oaks Sinks (I think that's what it's called).
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| Some private property on the way into the Sinks. | 
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| Some vegetation above a bat infested cave! | 
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| Phlox:what we came here for. | 
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| My beautiful girlfriend. | 
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| Bob Hayes, one of the coolest dudes you'll ever meet. | 
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| Shooting Stars, Falling Stars, I'm not sure. | 
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| My girlfriend and and her good friend. | 
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| Curly ferns! | 
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| An atypical tree growth among the phlox (my girlfriend thinks it looks like a swan). | 
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| I had a difficult time framing the Phlox as I do any time I try to shoot in a new environment. | 
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| Bob, Ashley and Jessica.  Michael(Snow) is also in this photo, can you find him? | 
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| With lightening and thunder nearby(not to mention pouring rain), I had but one opportunity to set up this shot before having to bail. | 
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| Some deer bask in the Jesus light on the Cade's Cove bike trail. | 
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| This is an operational mill in Cade's Cove. | 
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| Inside the mill, the 24-105 image stabilization came in handy for this longer exposure of the gears. | 
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| Pennies dropped into the mill. | 
      On the final day of our trip, I took a stroll through the woods and took advantage of some nice light. Thanks for reading!