The leaves are a little late turning colors around here so I decided to go up to the mountains in North GA to shoot some fall scenery. We had hiked Tallulah Gorge over the summer so I new it would be a likely spot for some fall color and water shots. I got up around 6:00 a.m. and drove to Tallulah. I arrived around 7:30 and went to a spot with an overlook and a country store. I took a few photos here  but the light was not right yet. I did get an interesting shot of the store which I converted to black and white

After photographing the overlook I headed into the park and went to a trail I had not hiked previously. In an effort to get early light shot of the gorge I went on a seldom used trail on the north face. I quickly ran out of trail and the view was obstructed by too many trees, so back up to the main trail. Along the north ridge there are several overlooks that provided decent views. However the contrast was way too much so getting that early light shot was not the quality I had hoped for. I did get some decent light on the south face of the gorge.

After hiking a mile or so I turned back to take on the steps to the bottom of the gorge, all 500+. At the bottom I found a great waterfall and down stream color that met my expectations. I wish I had brought a tripod but knew this was a tough set of stairs and a long hike up the south side. I shot this scene using a very wide angle lens and a moderately wide lens. The wide lens had more sunlight at upper left and more contrast so did not work as well as I had hoped. This one required a bit of post processing to bring out the beauty. The shot was slow so has some motion in the leaves which makes it look less sharp.

I climbed back up the south side of the gorge and hiked around back to the parking lot. Overall I covered about 3 miles with 30 pounds of gear on my back. I got 5 good shots and gained some experience in using my camera again.  I felt the thrill I had felt before when shooting knowing I was capturing a moment in time and witnessing the beauty of nature waking up in the morning.  Below are some other shots of the area.