I spent part of last week photographing wildflowers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was my first time attending the annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage – it definitely won’t be my last. I spent five days learning about and photographing incredible wildflowers.

I started photographing wildflowers last spring on our trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some of my favorite flowers I photographed last year were the White Trillium (they turn pink as they age), Red Trillium and the Painted Trillium.

This year, I was able to photograph two more types of trillium – yellow trillium and sweet white trillium.

I saw yellow trillium in several areas of the park last week. I hadn’t realized that when the yellow trillium blooms – the petals are narrow and erect – rather than spread out on many other types of trillium.
I photographed this yellow trillium on Porter’s Creek Trail.

Yellow Trillium (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Frequently, I saw several yellow trillium plants grouped together. This set of five yellow trilliums were photographed on the Chestnut Top Trail.

Five Yellow Trillium (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

The Sweet White Trillium looks very similar to a White WakeRobin or White Erect Trillium. The difference is that the Sweet White Trillium has a purple center – and a very sweet smell. I photographed this Sweet White Trillium along the Cove Hardwood Trail.

Sweet White Trillium (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

I had a great time photographing the wildflowers in the Smokies. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting more of my wildflower photographs to our blog.

We’ve started printing some of our photographs, including many of my wildflower photos, on canvas and stretching them on stretcher bars. The canvas adds a level of texture and depth to the photos. Some of the flowers are so lifelike on the canvas that it seems as if you can almost pick them. If you’d like to see how they look on canvas, please come see us at one of our shows.