Dec. 26

Congratulations to Thomas Kotzur, whose sunrise image of Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains generated the most votes in this week’s It’s A Snap travel photo contest.

Kotzur captured the picture during a five-day vacation in Townsend, Tenn., a small town just outside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. “I’ll take off on my own and take pictures” at least one day per vacation, Kotzur said.

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Photography in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park can be challenging because of a hanging haze caused by vehicle traffic and pollution from nearby cities. “For some reason that week, it was just crystal clear,” he said.

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Kotzur woke “way before dark” so he could make the hour-long drive to Newfound Gap, and he liked what he saw when he arrived. “I screeched to a halt and got everything together to start taking pictures,” he said. “The sun was just beginning to come up and [was] streaking through the clouds.”

Despite submitting the top-rated photo for this week’s contest, Kotzur remains modest: “I don’t even pretend to be a photographer — I just like to take pictures.”