Described by the National Park Service as “A Drive Through History,”  “The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile drive through exceptional scenery and 10,000 years of North American history.  Used by American Indians, ‘Kaintucks,’ settlers, and future presidents, the Old Trace played an important role inAmerican history.  Today, visitors can enjoy not only scenic drive but also hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping.”

I took a drive down a portion of The Trace on a misty November Saturday morning.  Even though the trees weren’t at their peak color, heavy rain was in the forecast and I was afraid the leaves would be soon be dropping off the trees as a result of the rain.

As one might imagine, The Trace offers overlooks to beautiful rural Tennessee vistas.

Leaf ‘color’ was present, but spotty.

Fortunately traffic is light – and slow – on The Trace.  The roads are wide with plenty of room to pull off.  And pull off I did!  I probably pulled off on the side of the road nearly every 5 miles or so.  I kept wanting to enjoy each special nuance the various groves of trees displayed.

My camera and I explored various techniques to express the beauty that nature was presenting.   The  swipe…

Intentional camera movement…

Some of the fun took place at home on the computer.

This is the portion of the original image that made me ‘sigh,’ so I decided to turn it into an image all its own.  It’s often interesting to ‘mine’ images or find a ‘picture within a picture.’

I found it fascinating how cropping an image would alter the perception of the original image.  One presentation is not necessarily better than another; just different.

And to complete this rewarding Saturday morning photography outing, lunch at Puckett’s in Columbia.  All of this made for a very good Saturday morning drive!