The Pentax 6x7 in South Korea

The Farmer's Dance is a traditional ceremony performed at planting and harvest seasons. These days it is performed mostly at festivals.

 A Camera with Soul in Seoul. 

 In 1992, I received an assignment from Compassion International, a Christian relief agency, to document some of its work in India and South Korea.

Like the somewhat better known World Vision, Compassion has a sponsorship ministry that enables people in the U.S. and other first world countries to sponsor disadvantaged children and young people in other countries. 

With me on the trip was Douglas LeBlanc, the editor of Compassion Magazine. My job was to make photographs to accompany the articles he would write. Doug turned out to be a very good travel companion and we have remained friends, even though we haven't seen each other for years. We keep in touch by email from time to time and he  comments occasionally on this blog. 

I carried a kit of two Olympus OM cameras and four lenses, all Olympus Zuikos: the 24mm f2.8, 35mm f2, 85mm f2, and the 180mm f2.8. No zooms on this trip. Plus about 110 rolls of Fujichrome 100D film.

A newly-wed couple at a Buddhist shrine seeking a blessing on their marriage.

Being young (just a 55-year-old kid), strong, and stupid, I also packed a separate case with a big Pentax 6x7 and a bunch of 120 Kodak Ektachrome EPP film. I don't remember why I didn't use Fujichrome -- maybe I got a better price on the Kodak. Also, there wasn't any good reason for carrying two separate systems -- it was just something I wanted to do, was able to do (young, strong, and stupid, remember), so I did it.

The bulk of my work on this trip was done with the Olympus equipment. I used the Pentax some in India, not a lot, but it was in South Korea where the big gun came into its own.

I described the Pentax as a camera with soul, and I have to say that if I ever owned a camera with soul, it was the Pentax 6x7. Big, heavy, loud, and totally reliable, it had plenty of personality. And it also gave me the highest percentage of keepers of any camera I've ever used. Of course, with only ten shots per roll of (expensive) 120 film, I was very careful with my focus and exposure. 

Shortly after arriving in Seoul, Doug received a call from his wife. His father was seriously ill, and it was necessary for him to return home immediately.

After several days of being taken in and around Seoul by the Compassion staff to make photographs and gather information for Doug's articles, I had an afternoon off which I used to make some pictures on my own. There was some kind of festival going on, so it was a target-rich environment.

Another Farmer's Dance scene.

More to come in my next post. All photos, of course, were made with a Pentax 6x7 camera, a 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens, and Kodak Ektachrome EPP film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 1992-2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     Ektachrome EPP film    Fujichrome 100D film     travel photography     Seoul    Pentax 6x7 camera     Takumar 105mm f2.4 lens     South Korea     Farmer's Dance     Kodak

The Jenkins Family Goes Camping

 

 Loading our first camper for one of our first camping trips.

(Click on any picture to see an enlarged version.)

This slide was made on an inferior film (probably Ferannia, sold by 3M). It is not very sharp. The colors were faded and washed out, but some work in Photoshop fixed that. Whatever its photographic faults may be, the picture is absolutely precious to us. 

The year was 1969. The scene was our home in Miami. We were loading our first camper for one of our first camping trips. 

Eight-year-old Rob, or Robbie, as we called him then (he's a very distinguished college professor and author these days) is holding one-year-old Donny (now a successful businessman). Louise is packing things in the trunk of our 1963 Plymouth (a really good car).

Our camper was a Ted Williams model, sold by Sears. We bought ours used for about $400, as best I remember. It was small and light and easy to tow, but the top opened out to a big tent that was plenty roomy for us.

The body of the camper was accessed by two large doors, one on each side. In the compartment on one side I built a set of shelves to hold non-perishable foods and cooking utensils. On the other side, I placed a crib mattress and it became Donny's bed, as you can see below. We also had a chest-of-drawers, with drawers for clothes for each of us. When traveling, we simply slid the chest into the compartment and closed the door.

Donny's bed/storage compartment in our Ted Williams camper.

 

Louise's "kitchen."  Camping on Lookout Mountain near Rock City.

 

We definitely got our money's worth out of our little Ted Williams camper, with trips to the Keys, the Everglades, Florida state parks, and more. In the summer of 1969 we spent a month camping on Lookout Mountain and two more weeks at Fall Creek Falls (Tennessee) State Park. When we moved to Tennessee in 1970 we lived in the camper until we found and bought a house.

 

I had only dimly remembered many of these scenes/events from the early years of our family. The pictures brought everything back. Carry your camera and use it. It's a memory-making machine.

 

I believe these photos from the spring/summer of 1969 were made with a Petri rangefinder camera with an f2.8 lens, my best 35mm camera at the time. That fall, I was able to upgrade to a Nikon F.  However, I did use the Petri to make the first picture I ever sold. But that's another story.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     3M Ferrania film    camping   Ted Williams camper     Nikon F camera     Petri f2.8 rangefinder camera     Lookout Mountain     Rock City     Fall Creek Falls State Park

More about Film: Black & White

 The Dreamer: First Presbyterian Sunday School, Chattanooga.

Some ramblings about black and white films.

Over the course of 35 years as a film shooter, I used a great many black and white emulsions. Kodak's Plus-X and Tri-X, of course, and some Pan-F.  I shot a lot of Tri-X. Didn't everybody? But it was never my favorite film. Too much grain, unless I shot it at 200 and reduced the developing time. Might as well shoot Plus-X to begin with. 

Between Tri-X and Ilford's HP-5+, I preferred the Ilford. I also used Ilford's FP-4 and liked it, as I did Ilford's chromogenic films XP-1 and XP-2 for their ease of use and smooth rendition. However, I preferred films I could process myself.

In my early days in photography I was hooked on the style of unobtrusive observer/available light photography popularized by such workers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt in the photo magazines of the day. Consequently, I was always trying for all the film speed possible. I pushed my films by rating them above the factory recommended speed and extending the development time. I also tried HP-5 and Tri-X in a number of developers, such as Diafine, Acufine, and Acu-1, which promised enhanced film speeds. Nothing worked to my satisfaction, because with speed, you get grain. And I don't much like grain. 

Also, I never used Agfa's Rodinal developer, which seems to still be popular more than 100 years after its invention, because again, I don't like grain. YMMV.

After some years, I gave up on the speed race and mostly shot fast films in medium format cameras, where the grain didn't show as much. I also learned to light, which helped a great deal.

Later in my film-shooting days, I settled on Kodak's T-Max 400 film for 35mm use because of its good speed, excellent sharpness, and unobtrusive grain structure. 

I used the very popular Kodak D-76 film developer for many years, mixing a gallon at a time and storing it in a brown glass bottle in my darkroom. Eventually, I noticed that my developed negatives were becoming denser when shot at the same film speeds. What I found is that D-76 gains strength over time when mixed in large quantities and stored. The solution: mix smaller quantities as needed (inconvenient, as D-76 is a powder, not a liquid); or change developers. 

I changed to T-Max developer, which is a liquid and can be mixed in small quantities I found the quality of T-Max-processed negatives to be as good as those processed in D-76, so I stayed with it until the end of my days in film.

We had so many things to choose from and so many different ways to do things. Photography is simpler these days and not nearly as much fun.

 

Three church leaders in my studio: First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga.

The black and white photos in this post are from scanned prints. The negatives are in storage and would take some excavation to find, so I can't say for certain what films were used. I do kinda think, however, that the photo at the top may have been made on Ilford's XP1 chromogenic film. The camera for both photos was probably the Canon EOS A2.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     film processing    Kodak Plus-X film    black and white film     Kodak Tri-X film     Kodak Pam-F film     Kodak D-76 developer     Ilford HP-5+ film     Ilford FP-4 film     Ilford XP-1 film     Ilford XP-2 film     Kodak T-Max 400 film     Canon EOS A2 camera     Kodak T-Max developer     Agfa Rodinal developer

More about Film: Color

Louise and Donny at Pioneer Day Fair. Miami, 1969.

 This post is mostly about films I've used and places I've been, so if that doesn't interest you, it's okay to tune out now.

Color Transparency Film

I settled on Fujichrome 100D as my transparency (slide) film of choice in 1986-87 and used it until moving to digital in 2003. When I was traveling internationally on photojournalism assignments in the late 1980s and early '90s, I would often board a plane with a carry-on bag containing five or six 100-foot rolls of Fujichrome 100 film in canisters, a daylight loader, a changing bag, and a bunch of empty, reloadable cassettes. I occupied myself on those long trips by loading the bulk film into 36-exposure cassettes, so that I would arrive fully ready to shoot. (Each 100-foot bulk roll gave me nineteen 36-exposure rolls.)

I used Fujichrome for Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, traveling 35,000 miles in fifteen states in the mid-90s. The book was published in 1996 and won numerous awards. It was the most significant accomplishment of my career.

Color Negative (print) Film

My main use for color negative film was weddings. Until the mid-90s, I photographed two or three weddings most years, whenever someone would ask me, but I didn't market for weddings. I mostly used whatever film Kodak was selling at the time. 

That all changed around 1996-97, as I noticed that my commercial business was declining somewhat and began to explore other possibilities. 

Until then, I had been using medium format cameras for weddings because the quality of the available 35mm films wasn't all that great. However, Fuji introduced two game-changing new 35mm films: Reala (100-speed) and NPH (400-speed). The quality was comparable to medium format films of just a few years ago.  16x20 prints from 35mm Reala easily matched my best Hasselblad prints from 1990.  

In a comparison test of 22X enlargements from Reala, NPH 400, Fuji NPS 160 and another 160 speed portrait film, viewers consistently picked NPH as second only to Reala in sharpness.  In a 20 x 30 print it has slightly more grain than the 160-speed films, but it's noticeably sharper. I standardized on Fuji NPH for wedding photography and used it until digital changed the world.

Next time: Black and white films

The above photo was made on 35mm Kodachrome-X, the predecessor of Kodachrome 64. The camera was a Nikon F (original), my first really good camera, and a Tamron 135mm f2.8 lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     Kodachrome X film    Fujichrome 100D film     Fuji Reala film     Fuji NPH film    Nikon F camera     Tamron 135mm f2.8 lens

Films I Have Known

Some of the films I've used over the years.

 

As I said in my previous post, I photographed on film for 35 years before switching over to digital photography in 2003. It's safe to say I burned through thousands of rolls of many different kinds of film in those years. Some of them are in the picture above. 

In the early years, when I was still a teacher and yearbook sponsor obsessed with photography, I bought many out-of-date rolls of Kodachrome X, the predecessor to Kodachrome 64, and Kodachrome II, the predecessor to Kodachrome 25. I still have many of those slides, and they still look good. 

In 1970, we moved to Chattanooga. Throughout that decade I shot many rolls of Kodak's Ektachrome 200, especially after I began working for Continental Film Productions in 1972. 

In those days I could buy rolls of Agfa black and white film in 120 size for 25 cents at a local discount store. I shot many rolls of it in my Rolleicord and Yashica TLRs and developed it in Diafine at my kitchen sink. It was easy to do because Diafine's processing temperatures were not critical.

After I opened my own business in 1978, I continued using Ektachrome 200 for color work, gradually moving to Kodachrome 64 in the early '80s. K-64 was a beautiful film, but had to be sent out for processing. Which was expensive, and required several days turnaround time.

In 1986 and '87, I did two major audio-visual projects for a local college and began using Fujichrome 100D film. It offered several advantages: the colors were rich, rivaling K-64's; it was 1/3 stop faster; I could send it out to a lab or process it myself, which I had been doing with Ektachrome 200 for a long time; and I could buy it in 100-foot rolls and load it into cassettes myself, which was a major saving.

I stayed with Fujichrome 100 as long as I continued to use film.100D eventually morphed into two films, Provia and Astia, which are still available. Provia has what many would consider purer colors, but I prefer the warmer color rendition of Astia, which is more like the original 100D. I never cared for the exaggerated color saturation of Velvia and shot very little of it.

Actually, I would have been content to keep using film for the rest of my life. The move to digital was a business decision forced by my competitors, who were able to offer clients faster service as well as lower prices because they no longer had to charge film and processing fees.

 

I'm finding that I have much more to say on the subject of film than I realized. I haven't even begun to talk about black and white. I'll continue this discussion in my next post.

 

(The boxes of Kodachrome X and Ektachrome 200 came from my souvenir shelf.) 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     film processing    Kodachrome X film    Agfa black and white film     Kodachrome II film     Kodachrome 64 film     Kodachrome 25 film     Ektachrome 200 film     Fujichrome 100D film     Fujichrome Provia film     Fujichrome Astia film     Fujichrome Velvia film     Rolleicord TLR camera     Yashica TLR camera

The Joys (?) of Doing It Yourself

Film Processing Equipment

If you can bear with the ramblings of a senior flatulent (a few of you will get that), I'll tell you how it was back in the day when film was all we had.  

First, let's see what's in the picture. In the front are a few rolls of hand-rolled HP5+. The yellow things are two empty cassettes, ready to be loaded from the 100-foot roll of film in the daylight film loader, which is the black box with the red cap. The stainless thing on the left is a processing tank, and on the right are two 35mm film reels. The tank holds two of them or one 120 reel. I also have a larger tank that holds four 35mm reels or two 120 reels.

The long black tube in the rear is a Unicolor Film Drum. It can be used to process black and white film, but I only used it to process color slides -- seven rolls of 35mm or four 120 rolls at a time. I used it in a homemade water bath (a restaurant bus tray) with a fish-tank heater to regulate the temperature.

My photographic obsession began in 1968. Over the next 35 years I shot many thousands of rolls of film (not to mention some sheet film). Some of the film, including all color negative, was sent out for laboratory processing, but much of the color slide film I processed myself, using Unicolor or Kodak chemistry. I also processed all the black and white film in house.

Being thrifty (okay, cheap), I saved a lot of money over the years by buying my black and white and slide film in 100-foot rolls and loading it into cassettes myself. (You can do it while watching TV.) This, by the way, is something you can still do. The equipment is still available, as are many black and white films. Color is more problematic.

But it all ended in 2003, when I bought my first digital SLR. I've shot a few rolls of color transparency since then, but sent them out for processing. 

Do I miss it? I miss the days of shooting and processing film keenly. Would I go back to shooting film? No. It's far too expensive to shoot color these days, and I'm a color photographer. I could shoot and process my own black and white film at reasonable cost, and I love black and white. But color is the way I see. So no, no going back for me. YMMV.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    film photography     film processing    Film processing equipment     black and white film     bulk film loading

Composition by Serendipity

 The church at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, Georgia. 

 

I could not have planned this composition. I would not have thought of posting two worshipers, in those positions, one on each side of the aisle.

 

Even if my mind could have conceived such a thing, it's not likely two people would have been there, dressed identically, and even more unlikely I would have thought of arranging them in this particular way -- or that they would have been willing to do as I asked.

 

No, this is all serendipity's doing. Remember her? I've written about her many times. She is the photographer's best friend.

 

 All I had in mind was making an architectural photograph of the church interior. It was serendipity who took over and arranged for two people in hoods to sit on opposite sides of the aisle to make the picture something more than an architectural record shot. 

According to Mr. Webster, serendipity is "an apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally." I can't do much about controlling fate, maybe, but I've found serendipity to be a most agreeable muse, and one who can be courted by the photographer who is willing to spend some time with her. I wrote extensively about her here.

  

The truth is, I owe serendipity for some of my very best photographs. All I have to do is be ready and recognize her gifts when she presents them.

 

The above photograph was made in the late 1990s with a Canon EOS A2 camera, the Canon EF 20-35mm f2.8L lens, and Fujichrome 100D film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography     Conyers, Georgia     Rockdale County, Georgia     Canon EOS A2 camera      Fujichrome 100D film     film photography     Catholicism    Monastery of the Holy Spirit     serendipity

The Weed that Ate the South

 

Buried under Cudzu. U.S. Hwy. 19, Lumpkin County, Georgia.

Visitors from the northern states who happen to travel the back roads (i.e. non-interstates) of the South are frequently surprised to see some kind of green vine that grows along the roadside, clogs the ditches, hangs from trees, covers small buildings and abandoned houses near the road, and sometimes, covers whole fields. It's cudzu, the invasive weed that ate the South.

It wasn't intended to be a weed, of course. With the best of intentions, cudzu (also spelled kudzu) was imported from Japan in the late 19th century for erosion control and as a cattle feed. My Dad, always a visionary, planted some on our farm in southern Indiana for both purposes around 1950. It was a bit of a gamble, because cudzu wasn't supposed to thrive in colder climes. But over the years, some we planted in a "wash" (eroded area) took hold slowly and grew, eventually covering that end of the field and traveling across the road to invade a neighbor's field. Years later, two of my brothers, who bought the farm from our Dad, leased some acreage to a farmer who finally managed to root out the pesty vine. 

Ours was the only cudzu I ever knew of to grow north of the Ohio river. In the South, as any traveler knows, the evil weed still covers large areas.

As for cattle feed? Our cattle never got hungry enough to eat the stuff.

Photo: Canon EOS 5D Classic, Canon 24-85mm USM lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     cudzu     Georgia     kudzu     Canon 24-85mm USM lens     Indiana

Abandoned

Abandoned office. Maysville, Georgia Highway 98. Hall County.

An ongoing theme of my photography, at least since the early '70s, has been abandonment. You may have picked up on that if you've been reading this blog for a while. As I say in my artist's statement, located in the upper left corner of this page:

"My domain is the old, the odd, and the ordinary; the beautiful, the abandoned, and the about to vanish away. I am a visual historian of an earlier America and a recorder of the interface between man and nature; a keeper of vanishing ways of life."

That may sound somewhat grandiose, but that's what I attempt to do with my pictures. I've always been drawn to things that are old, run-down, abandoned. Things that are physical records of lives lived mostly in obscurity.

 I don't know why this is. It's not as if I were abandoned as a child or anything. But there were several old, abandoned houses in the country neighborhood where I grew up, and I liked exploring them, even though there was nothing much to find except old rags and bottles. Maybe the experience somehow permanently warped me!

Gulf Station. Georgia Highway 169, Tatnall County.

This Gulf station doesn't look all that abandoned. The roof is in good shape and the building looks as if the gas pumps could be reinstalled and the business reopened tomorrow. But gas hasn't sold for $1.05 per gallon since around the turn of the century and Gulf has been out of business for many years. Also, the little sign in the window says "CLOSED."

It may not look as rundown as the little office building in the top photo, but it's definitely abandoned, and therefore of interest to me.

The photos: The office was photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Classic; the Gulf station with a Canon EOS 20D. Both pictures are from my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Gulf Oil Company     Georgia     old and abandoned     Canon EOS 20D camera     run-down buildings

Sunset Riders

Young riders at the Georgia International Horse Park, Rockdale County
 

In 1997 I was commissioned by the Conyers-Rockdale County, Georgia Chamber of Commerce to make photographs for advertisements and a booklet promoting the area as a great place to live, work, and do business. I spent about a week or ten days there, as best I remember.

One of the most prominent features of Rockdale County is the Georgia International Horse Park. Conceived in the early 1990s by leaders in the city and county, it was the site of the equestrian events in the 1996 Olympics. It continues to host a wide variety of events on its 1,139 acres, including horse shows, festivals, rodeos, dog shows, concerts, banquets, picnics, obstacle course races, weddings, mountain bike races and much more. The venue also features bike trails, horse trails, a nature center and an aboretum. The park was selected as the "Official Best Outdoor Venue in Georgia" for 2019.

The county is the smallest in land area in the state, but offers some unique features. One of them is Panola Mountain State Park, a 100-acre granite outcrop similar to Stone Mountain, but smaller and more pristine, with a rare ecosystem. Park rangers lead educational hikes where visitors can learn about the plants and animals found here. The park also offers archery; boating (with boat rentals); fishing, hiking and running on forested fitness trails; and paved trails for biking, roller-blading, and dog-walking.

Another feature of note is the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. Founded by Trappist monks in 1944, it took 15 years to build the Abbey Church and other buildings, while the monks lived in a barn on a nearby plantation. A harmonious blend of tradition and modernity, the simple yet dignified architecture of the church reflects the lifestyle of the monastic community.

Abbey Church at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Rockdale County.

Today, the monastery is not only a home for the monks, but also a retreat center and a place where anyone can come for an hour, a day, or longer to rest and meditate. 

Exhibits and films in the visitor center introduce the lives of the monks. You can see the stained-glass windows in the Abbey Church, learn about bonsai at the Monastery Garden Center, shop the Abbey Store, take a prayer walk, or follow the lakeside Stations of the Cross.

Photos: Young riders: Canon EOS A2, Fujichrome 100D film; Monastery Chapel: Canon EOS 6D (digital).

Adapted from my books Georgia: a Backroads Portrait and Backroads and Byways of Georgia. 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 6D camera     Georgia International Horse Park       Conyers, Georgia     Rockdale County, Georgia     Canon EOS A2 camera      Horseback riding     Fujichrome 100D film     film photography     Panola Mountain State Park     Monastery of the Holy Spirit

A True Classic: The Canon EOS 5D

 The Canon EOS 5D Mark I (Classic). You can do a lot with 12 megapixels.

My first digital camera was a six-megapixel Canon EOS 10D, which I bought in 2003 for the princely sum of $3000, the most I have ever paid for a camera, even to this day. However, that six-megapixel 10D convinced me that the future was digital when it proved itself capable of making a 16x20 print as good as my medium format film Pentax 6x7.

I used the 10D for a year or two, but was never quite happy with the autofocus, so I moved on to the next generation 20D, which had an eight megapixel sensor and was a much-improved camera in every way.

In 2006, I ponied up $2600 for a new 5D. It was a good deal, because most places were selling the 5D for $3000 at the time. It had all the good features of the 20D, plus a new twelve megapixel CMOS sensor and more.

That camera was my constant companion for the next seven years as I photographed architecture, weddings, portraits, and commercial assignments, carried her to Israel in 2010; as well as rambling around Georgia for several years, culminating in a week-long drive around the perimeter of the state, making many of the photographs that would become my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.  

I had a good selection of lenses for the 5D, but most used were the 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 USM and the 70-200mmf4L

Sadly, by 2013 my friend was becoming too heavy for me (she hadn't gained weight, but I was 76 by this time) so I replaced her with a smaller, lighter Canon EOS 6D with twenty megapixels and automatic sensor cleaning. (Dust on the sensor was an ongoing nuisance with the 5D.) 

The 5D at work: Face-off in south Georgia. Highway 122, Ware County.

Greatly loved by photographers of all kinds, but especially wedding photographers, the 5D has gone through four editions. Each edition was improved in various ways over the previous ones, but yet, like an old girlfriend you can't forget, the original 5D still has her charms.

She is a true classic.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon 24-85mm USM lens       Georgia     Canon 6D camera      Canon 70-200 f4L lens     Canon EOS 10D camera     Canon EOS 20D camera

I Never Photographed for National Geographic. . .

Carrot farmers in northern Guatemala bring their produce up to the highway to sell.

. . .but I did get a portfolio review. And not many people get that far. Working for the Geographic was, in those days, the pinnacle of photographic success.

Actually, I got the review through the influence of my friend Don Rutledge, probably the greatest Christian photojournalist of the 20th century. He was friends with the Director of Photography at the Geographic, and asked him if he would look at my portfolio, which consisted of a tray of slides showing my best journalistic work from around the world. I dropped it off at their office in Washington D.C. 

A few weeks later, my tray of slides was returned by carrier, along with a very nice letdown letter. The editors praised my work, and complimented me on the way I used light in my photos.

They also said that it took about three years to train a photographer to shoot in their style (I was already past fifty by that time), and that they were up to their necks in photographers, but only ankle deep in ideas.

Not having any story ideas to suggest to them, I quietly gave up on my ambition to be a National Geographic photographer. The compensation was that not long after, I was commissioned to photograph and write Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, my greatest achievement.

I'm showing the particular photograph at the top of this post because my friend, the graphic design artist Michael Largent, took one look at it and said, "That's a Geographic picture! 

Although I did a lot of different things in my career as a photographer and enjoyed them all, my heart was always in photojournalism and I always regretted that I never got to work for the Geographic. 

The photo: Olympus OM2n, 24mm Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100D film. 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    film photography     Olympus OM2n camera     Zuiko 24mm lens       Guatemala     National Geographic magazazine     Don Rutledge, photographer     Rock City Barns: A Passing Era

Sunset Light

Sunset light on a little, south Georgia farm shed. U.S. Highway 1, Bacon County. Sometimes the light is subtle. . .

 Photography is about light. In fact, as I've written before on this blog, the word “photograph” comes from two Greek words: photos, which means “light,” and grapho, which means “to write.” So to photograph means to write with light. The best light for photography usually comes in early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low, bathing everything in a rich, golden glow and casting long shadows which reveal texture and form. 

 Learning to see and use light well is the most important skill in photography. For me, it has been the most difficult skill to acquire and I'm still working at it. A true master of photography can find ways to use almost any kind of light,

Some photographers prefer evening light, but I often find my best pictures early in the morning. There's a different, softer quality of light, a calm freshness in the air, and both people and nature seem more relaxed and approachable. 

But sunset can serve up some beautiful light also, and when I find it, I'm always happy to use it. 

. . .Sometimes the light is bold. Salem United Methodist Church, Georgia Highway 201, Whitfield County.

Adapted from my limited-edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.

The photos: Shed: Canon EOS 5D Classic, Canon 24-85mm USM lens. Church: Canon EOS A2 camera, Canon 28-105mm USM lens, Fujichrome 100D film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon 24-85mm USM lens       Light     Georgia     Canon EOS A2 camera      Canon 28-105 USM lens     Fujichrome 100D film     film photography