Bill and I have returned home after a weeklong photo trip. We’d hoped to post a few posts to our blog while we were on the road – but things just didn’t work out the way we’d planned.

Black Bears at Cades Cove (c) 2008 William Lawrence

We had a wonderful trip, photographing a variety of subjects in several southern states.

• Butterflies at the Butterfly Rainforest in Gainsville, Florida
• Birds, wildflowers and landscapes at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia
• Wildlife, waterfalls and landscapes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee
• Landscapes along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia

Meigs Falls (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

We also found a few great places to eat.

We plan on resuming our regular blog posting schedule this week. We’ll be posting lots of photos from the trip in the coming weeks, along with information on some of the places we photographed.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the first two photos from trip – a black bear mother and cub at Cades Cove and Meigs Falls – both photos were taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.