Good Evening to all.

My name is Gavyn and my wife, daughter, and I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the border between Northeast Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Our property is at 3400 ft elevation, so we escape the summer heat of the southeast. We border the Cherokee/Pisgah National Forest, a 1.15 million acre national forest. We are within walking distance of the Appalachian Trail and many spring fed creeks. There are over 20 named waterfalls within a 90 minute drive of our house. I do a lot of day trips and short hikes because of the nearness of a tremendous amount of photo locations.

We are the host to a number of deer, turkey, and grouse that frequent our property. My wife has planted trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers that attract butterflies, birds, and other critters. We have had deer born on our property two years in a row, this year twins! We have had as many as 30 deer at one time in our backyard, and now we are regularly hosting 10 turkeys every day. We put out corn for them all year, but increase the amount in the winter. We do get some impressive snow from time to time and the deer and other wildlife struggle to find food. (No, I don't hunt so I am not baiting them.)

We all shoot with Nikon equipment. We each have a DSLR but I still shoot with black and white film as well. I also do the occasional outing with an iphone, but always have a camera close at hand.

I am a retired professor of physics, my wife, mathematics. Our daughter has her BA in History. Go figure.

I look forward to being a member of this forum. I plan on learning a lot and hope I can provide some useful input myself.

Happy Photographing.

Gavyn