Badger can’t draw anything more than a stick figure and painting skills are equally abysmal.

For those reasons, with the right conditions, photos like the one featured require no drawing and no painting. Thank goodness.

One of the best places to capture images of sunrises and sunsets is Max Patch Mountain which straddles the Tennessee/ North Carolina line. The 360-degree view at elevation 4629’-feet has made the Patch a preferred personal destination since my days at Knox Central High School – over a half century.

The featured image was taken on a cloud-covered evening just before dark as a thick fog lifted just in time for the scene to develop in a spectacular way. There was just enough diffused light on the tree, which was enhanced by a glaze of rime ice, to make for an unusual photograph.

Under normal circumstances, that’s just a high elevation tree bordering the Bald. With the help of nature’s twilight dynamics at Max Patch, the tree became a centerpiece in a work of art.

I’m forever grateful for the ability and willingness to hike to locations where the conditions provide a view that is as beautiful as it is unique. Thank the heavens that my camera overcomes my lifelong deficiencies by drawing and painting the landscape for me.

Thomas Mabry – Honey Badger Images

Many of the HoneyBadgerImages are on display at instagram.com/honeybadgerimages.