Sometimes the picture picture you intend to get and the one you fall in love with at a given location just aren’t the same.

Whenever I go to Chattanooga, I prefer to get off the interstate at Fort Payne, Alabama and take the scenic route along the top of Lookout Mountain. Believe it or not, even though it is associated with Chattanooga, most of Lookout Mountain is actually in Alabama. The Little River flows along the top of it, carving out the Little River Canyon. Besides being very beautiful, the area also offers excellent white water rafting.

As you can imagine, any river that runs on a mountain is bound to have waterfalls; and the Little River is no exception. On the West Fork near Mentone you can find DeSoto Falls. It is quite impressive, dropping into a canyon of its own in the rocky terrain. I always like to stop there to try to photograph the falls and enjoy their setting.

What, you may ask, does any of this have to do with the rather placid, peaceful photograph accompanying this article? The small lake pictured is immediately above the falls. As usual, I had gone straight down the trail to the viewpoint for the falls. I took a few shots; but I was short on time, so I headed back to the car. At the last minute, I looked back towards the lake and immediately was struck by the contrast of the red boathouse and its reflection with the green foliage and pale flowering shrubs. Time or not, I just had to capture that image. It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures ever.

The point of all this is that sometimes we get so caught up with the “big picture” or the location we’re “supposed” to be photographing that we risk missing equally beautiful opportunities along the way. I always recommend stopping to look in all directions as you travel. You never know what you may be missing right behind you.

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