I love the Smoky Mountains. There are photographic opportunities everywhere you look. Landscapes, wildflower, wildlife; you name it, and the Smokies probably have it. Without a doubt, the Smokies are a photographer’s delight. If you like to photograph historic buildings, again, the Smokies will not disappoint. One of the easiest historic buildings to reach is Mingus Mill, which is located on the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The mill was built in 1886, completed in three months, cost $600 to construct, and still stands today at its original site. What is interesting about this mill is how it operates. When I think of gristmills, I usually think of buildings with large rotating water wheels on the side that provide the power that operates the grinding equipment.
However, this mill used a water turbine instead of a traditional water wheel. The water turbine made the mill more efficient and required less water to mill the grain, but it is certainly not what I think of when I think of gristmills. I am sure most people feel the same way.
When I shot this image of Mingus Mill several years ago, I was hoping to capture some early autumn color behind the mill. For three to four weeks leading up to my mid-September trip, the weather would have surely been cooler in eastern Tennessee than it was at my home, and the cooler temperatures would cause the leaves to start changing color. Or, so I assumed.
Unfortunately, I found my assumption was completely wrong. The leaves were nowhere close to beginning their annual transformation. They were as green as ever, so I knew I was not going to get the image I had originally envisioned. But, I thought I might be able to do something with it once I got home.
After I did the basic processing in Lightroom, I still wasn’t satisfied. It was a nice picture, but it was still a picture of the mill against green-leafed trees. I wanted something that had some autumn color.
I wasn’t sure exactly how to accomplish this until I stumbled upon a solution: Color Efex Pro from the Google Nik Collection. This piece of software provides numerous sets of filters that can make a photograph look absolutely stunning. As I began to experiment with these filters, I clicked on one called Indian Summer and was immediately amazed. As soon as I clicked on the filter, the leaves changed to a bright orange color. Even the reflections of the leaves in the windows changed.
I adjusted the filter’s effect by adjusted the various setting and sliders until I finally got what I had originally visualized – an image of Mingus Mill surrounded by fall foliage.