First Photo Sold

Because of the invention of digital cameras, I take a LOT of photographs when I'm on my hiking, backpacking, camping, and kayaking trips. Just because I take so many damned photographs, I sometimes take ones that are pretty good. And every year I sell several images. Sometimes I will donate an image to a good cause or to a project I like.

But the first photo I ever sold was one that I took of the old fire tower on the summit of Mount Sterling in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

And so...here it is, from a winter backpacking trip I took into the Great Smoky Mountains backcountry by myself in 2005.

The Mount Sterling fire tower. The Park Service seems to be allowing this one to deteriorate through benign neglect. They may be using it as a beacon of some sort (witness the power line in the background), so they may be willing to leave the frame intact and to allow the cab to fall apart. I did climb the tower and was going to go into the cab, but when I opened the trap door, the flooring of the interior looked so rotten that I decided not to chance it.

This was the view from the top of the staircase (and just beneath the cab). These are the highest peaks in the northeastern section of the Park, including Mount Guyot, the second highest peak along the spine of the Smokies.