Cades Cove.

I’ve lived in Gatlinburg, TN since 2007. In a bid to simplify our lives, my wife R.L. Gibson, my son Oscar and I decided to write a list of places we wanted to live.  At the top of the list was Paducah, KY because of the Artist Relocation Program, Nashville because of the vibrant downtown music scene, and Gatlinburg for the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. We visited each town, and for many reasons (none of which should diminish the loveliness of the losers), Gatlinburg won.

We moved to a tiny 900 square foot, furnished ski chalet on top of a mountain. Bought a 4-wheel drive and sold almost everything else we owned. We took the theme ‘simplify our lives’ to the extreme that summer: 1 car…no cable…no telephone. The only thing we didn’t sell were all things artistic. How did we entertain ourselves? The trusty Olympus Digital Camera.

I decided to tackle Cades Cove, one of Gatlinburg’s most popular tourist destination inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as a challenge–to see if maybe I could photograph something there that the millions of yearly visitors had missed. Click the image below to see just a small sampling of the result: Cades Cove.