Photography on a cloudy days has several advantages. The lighting is more even, contrast is minimized, colors appear more vibrant, and a serene and tranquil mood can be created. However, caution has to be exercised when including the sky in the frame because it will often appear as a blank, featureless, distracting expanse in the final image. Several years ago, I took a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Driving through Cades Cove one morning, I stopped to photograph this path leading to the John Oliver Cabin. Because the sky was overcast, extreme contrast was eliminated and the colors of both the grasses and dirt path appeared more saturated. As expected, the sky recorded as a textureless and distracting background. To address this, I darkened that part of the image which had the added benefits of increasing the apparent vibrance of the foreground, as well as, adding to the sense of peace and tranquility I felt as I stood there. My settings were 50mm, 1/10 sec, f/22, 200 ISO.