Yoder Images

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01/12/2026

The obligatory shot of Hyatt Lane in freezing fog

Although I've probably seen it a hundred times by now, it's hard to resist pulling over and taking at least one shot of Hyatt Lane on a frosty morning. Especially when freezing fog puts the frost all the way into the tops of the trees, like it did on this morning back in December. Fog has an amazing way of transforming familiar scenes into completely new ones, so I always feel like I am coming away with something different than before.

If you are interested in viewing my full gallery or purchasing prints, please visit my link in the comments.

12/22/2025

I'm way behind on photos, so I'm just getting around to this one. Taken 10/12/2025.

11/12/2025

Smoky Mountain Aurora - 11/11/2025

This was my third time trying to photograph the Northern Lights in the Smokies. Even though I wasn't able to get the picture I had in mind, this was definitely the strongest display of aurora I have seen, and something I will never forget. The first substorm stopped just as I started shooting, and I was moving from one location to another when the second substorm hit, so I had to scramble to try to capture it. The lights got so bright that it overexposed my pictures and I had to stop in the middle to change settings. So, this timelapse only shows the last half of the storm, from about 11:43pm to 11:54pm EST. Although the camera is able to capture more than our eyes can see, the colors and light pillars were easily seen with the naked eye. For reference, the field of view here is 104 degrees wide, so this captures the entire Northern sky.

Timelapse of 90 images at 14mm, f/2.8, 6 sec, ISO 800

09/08/2025

Summer Sunrise
8/31/2025, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

To view my full gallery or purchase prints, please visit the link in the comments.

07/28/2025

Cades Cove Methodist Church, as seen from Rich Mountain, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 7/24/2025

My friend Dan and I had been wanting to shoot this scene for a while now, and finally got a chance this week. When we got to the overlook, we were disappointed to find there was only one small spot you could stand and see the church through the trees, and that one spot was covered in poison ivy! So, we practically set our tripods on top of one another and avoided the ivy as best as we could. Dan has mastered the art of deep-space nightscapes, but I had a blue-hour twilight scene in mind, so we were still able to walk away with totally different images even though we ended up shooting from the same spot.

This image was created from three different exposures and blended together in Photoshop.
Foreground: 70mm at f/9, 0.4 sec, ISO 640 (captured at the beginning of blue hour)
Church lights: 70mm at f/4, 15 sec, ISO 2500 (illuminated inside by Dan with a flashlight)
Stars: 70mm at f2.8, 6 sec, ISO 5000 (captured at the end of blue hour)

To view my full gallery or purchase prints, please see the link in the comments. Also, be sure to check out the link to Dan's page, too!

01/14/2025

Lunar Occultation of Mars, 1/13/2025

I'm sure those with real telescopes were able to capture much better images than I was, but I was happy with the results of my amateur attempt to capture Mars passing behind our Moon.

11/04/2024

Pure mischief.

10/22/2024

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) and the Milky Way setting behind the Dan Lawson Barn in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Taken 10/20/2024.

Although the comet has faded considerably as it continues to travel further from the Earth and our sun, I could still make out a few degrees of the tail with my eyes starting at about one hour after sunset (in Bortle Class 4 sky conditions). The long exposure of the camera was able to capture a 10-15 degree long tail.

To reduce noise and achieve proper focus and depth of field, the foreground and sky were exposed separately. The foreground was captured during blue hour at 24mm and f/8. The sky was captured after dark at 24mm and f/2.8 using a sky tracker to counteract the rotation of the earth and allow for the sky to remain sharp during the 45sec long exposures. I stacked 5 exposures of the sky using a median filter to reduce digital noise and eliminate trails left from satellites and airplanes.

Fun fact: The wood grain pattern in my logo was created using a closeup photo of one of the pieces of wood siding on this barn. I wonder if I could find the same board again?

www.yoderimages.com

10/16/2024

Here's my attempt at a time-lapse of the northern lights from last week. There was a substorm that caused an eruption of lights for about 30 minutes, and this was captured right before they died down. Taken 10/10/2024 on Sparks Lane in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

www.yoderimages.com

10/15/2024

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) setting over the Little Tennessee River. Taken 10/14/2024.

I was pleasantly surprised at how visible the tail was to the naked eye tonight. The location I was at had very little light pollution (Bortle Class 3), but that probably didn't matter much with the nearly full moon in the sky. Even still, at around 45 minutes after sunset, I could begin to see the head of the comet about 15 degrees high in the western sky. At around 60 minutes after sunset, I could see about 10 degrees of the thin dust tail with my eyes, which was more than I was expecting. With the long exposure from the camera, the head was much more pronounced, of course, and I was able to get about 15 degrees or so of the dust tail.

50mm at f/2, 5x4 sec, ISO 3200

To view my gallery or purchase prints, please visit:
www.yoderimages.com

Address

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Townsend, TN
37882

Website

http://www.yoderimages.com/

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