National Parks benefit from Digital Cameras.

When talking with a National Park official of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park almost 2 weeks ago I suddenly had a realization about how much the proliferation of digital photography has helped the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and for that mater all national parks in the United States.

The funny thing is that all these years traveling in national and state parks around the country hiking trails, fishing, boating, and horseback riding in all the nooks and crannies of these parks that it took until now to realize how tremendous the positive effect of this new technology.

As you can see by yesterday's article on littering in the Smokies, I hate litter bugs. Whether I am hiking on a trail or snorkeling on a reef, I clean up trash when I see it. Over the years I have picked up trash of all sorts from beer cans to old shoes and hundreds and hundreds of 35mm film canisters, empty Kodak and Fuji film boxes and my fair share of used flash bulbs, flash cubes and flash sticks.

While most serious nature photographers that visit our national parks are great protectors of the environment, many amateur and professional photographers have been careless over the years and tossed or lost photographic trash on and around trails and waterways within our national and state parks and forests.

I also gave great thought to all the chemicals used in the manufacturer of the film itself and as well as the processing and the printing let alone the plastics, metal film and cardboard used in the packaging of 35mm or other size photographic film.

All is not golden however with digital outdoor photography. The excessive use and improper disposal of batteries can be a huge environmental disadvantage of digital cameras. The chemicals and the heavy metals inside the common household battery can do far more damage to the environment and its inhabitants than the cardboard and plastic packaging ever could.

The environmental damage of the batteries from digital camera could very easily be avoided by simply having enough rechargeable batteries on hand. Not only would this save any photographer a bundle over the lifetime of the camera, it would greatly reduce the environmental impact of digital photography to virtually zero.

I close with a quick outdoor digital photography tip for those photographing the great outdoors in the Smoky Mountains. Turn your flash off when taking pictures during a snow fall or foggy weather. Both snow and fog reflect your flash making for very poor pictures.

Here's to taking great pictures in one of the most beautiful places in the world - the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the surrounding areas in the Smoky Mountains!

Help stop litter in the Tennessee Smokies!

Someone listened about one of my biggest pet peeves -litter - and now there is something you can do about it as the state of Tennessee now gives you the power to report litter bugs in the Smokies and all over the state!

Littering is not only filthy, selfish behavior, it is a crime. The penalties might not be monetarily as stiff as I wish they would be, but the community service for even first time offenders is fitting to the crime.

Tennessee law states that first time offenders will have to pay a $500 fine and are required to pick up the mess they made as well as other litterbugs in public places for anywhere between 40 hours on up to 6 months. Get caught littering again and your fine is $1,500 and you may also be ordered to clean up wherever you littered and spend up to 6 months cleaning up of the offensive litter or work in a recycling center.

So what can you do as the law abiding no littering Good Samaritan in Tennessee? Now if you see some offensive jerk throw something out the window of their car or litter in any way the highways or byways of Tennessee call (877)-8-LITTER (877) 854-8837 and provide the required information that can lead to the arrest and conviction of the offender and you can earn as much as $250!

The information you need to supply is:

• Make, model and license plate of the vehicle
• Location, time and date of the littering incident
• What type of litter the offender tossed from the vehicle or dumped

What happens next is the new StopLitter statewide anti-litter campaign takes over and the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) sends a letter to the registered owner of the offending vehicle reminding them of the severity offender of the law and warning them of the consequence of future offenses and provides the offender with a portable ashtray or trash bag.

Personally I feel as though they should save the money rather than sending these trinkets to offenders or they should be billed for these souvenirs that they earned for such disgusting and offense behavior.

The director of the StopLitter campaign Allison Teeters has been quoted as saying that it is more effective deterrent that the sate is contacting the litterbugs rather than local entities. She goes on to say "If churches, businesses, and schools would get together to pick up litter, they can make a positive impact." and that "We provide gloves, bags, and litter pickers for free. ... We are about enabling citizens to take action, and for them to decide a clean community is important."

I strongly agree that if an area is clean and litter free, often it is a deterrent to people who may litter not to do it. If an area is riddled with trash or graffiti for that matter people often don't care as much.

Please help keep the Smokies and all communities clean and put this phone number into your cell phones speed dial today - I bet you will use it within months! The Smokies and I thank you for doing you part in keeping this beautiful area clean of litter and trash.