Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Clingmans Dome Sunrise

I knew exactly where I wanted to shoot sunrise in Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- Clingmans Dome.  The new photographer friend I made at Morton Overlook the previous night validated my decision.  He advised against making the half-mile walk to the top of the observation tower, recommending instead setting up at the far end of the parking lot.  So again, I followed his suggestion.

Like I said before, it's hard to go wrong when you follow the advice of a local.  I was there early enough to get the pre-dawn shot I'd visualized in my mind -- rows of shadowy mountain ridges against a colorful sky.

To the east, some of the area's namesake "smoke" was rolling up and over the mountains.

What I originally thought was a lake to the south turned out to also be "smoke" -- or rather, a valley full of fog.

The colors in the sky were not fading as quickly as I had thought they might.  Plenty of time for a more panoramic take on those ridges.

The actual sunrise came gently -- almost meekly.  This three-image HDR blend makes the sky much more vivid than it actually was in person.  I actually had to reduce the vibrance and saturation in Lightroom to something a little less "hyperreal."

I'd been fussing with my circular polarizer that morning and the previous evening, blaming it for unwanted lens flares in some of my shots. So I took it off when I left, but then pulled over to take another crack at the clouds that were continuing to pour in.  I did get less lens flare, but I also got some pretty bland color.  So after a thorough cleaning, back on the camera the polarizer went. :)

A rewarding half an hour to be sure.  I even got to see Comet Neowise, which I mistakenly thought was Venus until a nice stargazer gently corrected me.  All of this before 7 a.m., no less!