The View from 84

Majestic Denali, photographed from the train moving south from Denali National Park to Anchorage. I'm not sure about the name of the river. The camera was a Canon EOS 6D and the lens was a Canon EF 75-300mm f4-5.6. It took a liberal application of the Clarity slider in Photoshop to make the mountain stand out as much as it does. I was probably 30 miles away at the time. Taken on our 50th anniversary trip in 2015.

 My apologies for failing to post Friday. It was my 84th birthday.

Birthdays are always a good time to pause and take stock of one's life.

I'm grateful to have lived this long. Nothing is ever certain, of course, but I was hopeful that I might have a long life, because my father lived to be 90, and my mother to 91. Good genes count.

One of my heroes is the great, probably the very greatest, architectural photographer, Julius Schulman. He retired in his 80s, got bored, and went back to work until his death at age 98, getting around on a walker with an assistant to carry his large-format camera and tripod.

I still enjoy commercial and architectural photography, but don't expect to be doing much more of them because of the changes we've made in our lifestyle. Our house was sold last January and our home is now wherever we park our RV.

I photographed what will probably be my last wedding on April 25th. The principal photographer with whom I've worked since 2013 is winding down her wedding business and transitioning into another field, and I don't feel like breaking in a new principal shooter. And again, of course, there's the matter of having no fixed location. I've always enjoyed photographing weddings and will miss doing them.

None of this means I'm about to get out of the photography business. One of the specific reasons I chose this career was that I wanted to do something no one could make me retire from.

So, as some doors close, others open. I'm currently working on a second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia, and have an open offer from W.W. Norton to do Backroads and Byways of Tennessee. (My editor does not know how old I am, which is probably a good thing.)

Also, there are magazine articles to write, many places I haven't yet seen, to be photographed, and my own book projects to finish, especially Lost Barns of Rock City. Like Robert Frost, I hope to have ". . .miles to go before I sleep."

 

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone