Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Why I Prefer Zoom Lenses. Some History.

Hang Gliding. Lookout Mountain, GA. Vivitar Series One zoom.

This is pretty much a dead issue these days, but when I began in serious photography in 1969, zoom lenses did not have a good reputation. They were slow, and not very sharp. I did not have a zoom lens for my Nikon cameras, and when I dumped the Nikons and bought into the Olympus OM system, I bought a complete set of prime lenses ranging from 21mm to 135mm, but only one zoom, a 36-70, which was handy, but not especially good.

My first good zoom was a Vivitar Series One 70-210mm f3.5, which I used on my Olympus cameras to photograph the World Cup International Hang Gliding competition on Lookout Mountain for Glider Rider magazine in the early '80s.

A man of Mayalan, Guatemala. Early morning. 80-200mm Vivitar zoom.

Time passed, and zoom lenses continued to improve. In 1989 I used another Vivitar, an 80-200 f4, extensively in my documentation of the remote mountain village of Mayalan in Guatemala.

I later had a Tokina 100-300 mm f4, which I used in my documentations of several African countries and in Eastern Europe in 1990. It was a very fine lens, but large and heavy. When I went to India and other Asian countries in 1992, I took only four prime lenses -- 24, 35, 85, and 180.

In 1993, when I moved from Olympus to Canon, I began to use zoom lenses most of the time. A particular favorite was the 80-200mm f2.8L, known as "The Magic Drainpipe." A great lens, but when it developed a mechanical problem, I switched to the light and very sharp 70-200 f4L. For mid-range zooms, I mostly carried the Canon EF 24-85 f3.5-4.5 or the EF 28-105 f3.5-4.5, a lens not highly rated by some, but which was used for at least half the pictures in my Rock City Barns book. No one ever said the pictures were not sharp enough.

As the couple kissed, the priest grabbed the bouquet and waved it around.

This is my all-time favorite wedding photo. It was made in a cathedral in Atlanta, using the Canon EF 70-200mm f4L zoom lens on my old Canon EOS 5D Classic camera.

When I switched to Fuji in 2017 I tried several different combinations of lenses before settling on a kit of two primes and three zooms. The 27mm mostly stays glued to my X-Pro1 for casual walking-around photography, and the other prime is a 60mm f2.4 macro, which is a special lens for close-up work. The 16-80mm f4 is the lens that stays on my X-T3. and my telephoto zoom is the 55-200mm f3.5-4.5. A 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 stays on my X-T20 as a backup or when I don't want to carry anything heavier.

Zooms nowadays are plenty sharp, at least for the kind of photography I do, and it's much easier to carry a pair of zooms than a selection of prime lenses in various focal lengths. Also, I find the ability to zoom very important in framing each photo exactly as I want it. I could always change perspective by moving closer or backing away (what some call zooming with the feet), but I often find that only a zoom will give me the exact perspective I want.

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 $3.95 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.

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

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

Tags: photography Nikon cameras Canon EOS 5D Classic camera Canon EF 70-200mm f4Llens Fuji X-T3 camera Vivitar Series One lens Olympus OM film cameras Fujinon XF 60mm macro lens Fuji X-T20 digital camera Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens Fujinon XF 60mm macro lens Fujinon 27mm lens hang gliding Guatemala wedding photography travel photography Canon EF 28-105mm lens

Monday, March 10, 2025

Louise says "Thanks!"

Louise and Bridget, around 1990.

Louise asked me to convey her thanks to all of you who posted kind words, "Happy Birthdays" and good wishes on my blog about her 80th birthday.

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

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

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

Cameras Get Better; Pictures Don't

The sacrifice before the alter. Syracuse, New York, 1974.

Blog Note: This is a piece I wrote in January, 2020 and am now re-posting with different photos. These photographs were made while on a project in Syracuse at a time when I was going through some personal and spiritual struggles. _____________________________________

As the great photographer Ernst Haas is reputed to have said to Bob Schwalberg (European editor of the now defunct Popular Photography magazine) when Schwalberg was enthusing over the latest equipment developments, "Ach, Schwapselberg, why is it that cameras keep getting better but pictures don't get any better?"

Pictures indeed have not gotten any better, but we are in the closing stages of a great sea change in photography.

Photography is essentially a product of the modernist era and was perfectly suited to expressing the ideals of that philosophy, which implicitly included optimistic humanism. Photographically, this reached its zenith in Edward Steichen's great "Family of Man" exhibit and book. The influence of optimistic humanism continued strong in photography for many years, although we gradually forgot why.

Now we are well into the postmodern era, and support for optimistic humanism has greatly eroded. There has been a crashing loss of faith in man. Who today would say with Hamlet "What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals?"

Instead of being seen as an heroic figure with unlimited potential for progress (the twin-lens reflex camera, by the way, was the perfect instrument for expressing this heroism because the viewpoint was usually one of looking up at the subject), man is now seen in a negative way as a threat to the environment and a creature for which we can have, at best, only tentative hopes. Man has been deconstructed, and this is the reason nature, landscape, and environmental photography, although they have always been with us, have now come to the fore. The idea that "the proper study of man is man" has been largely abandoned, and where it continues, it is often the study of people living in primitive cultures, as in much of Chris Ranier's excellent work; people who are living closer to and presumably in greater harmony with the environment. This also accounts for the recent spate of books about "Native Americans."

The great humanist photographers Robert Doisneau, Elliott Erwitt and Fritz Henle are dead, as is Henri Cartier-Bresson who exited this life dabbling in water-colors. B.A. King, least-known but one of the greatest humanistic photographers, spent the last 20 or so years of his life using his camera to advocate environmental concerns. These men and many others were part of a movement that produced much of our greatest photography, but is on its last legs. As a Christian, I consider modernism and optimistic humanism to be flawed philosophies, but they nonetheless created a climate in which great photography was produced.

The watcher on the wall. Syracuse, New York, 1974.

Photography is about reality, but the influence of postmodernism has caused many to loose their hold on the concept of reality. This is reflected in the trend to computer alteration of photographs, which loosens the connection between photography and reality and threatens to break that connection altogether. From that moment, photography, as photography, will be dead. It may continue to be a nice hobby, a more-or-less profitable commercial activity, and a pretty plaything, but its power to inspire a sense of wonder will be gone. A virtual reality is no substitute for the real thing.

___________________________

The photos were made with a Konica Autoreflex T and Kodak Tri-X film.

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

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 Konica Autoreflex T camera Kodak Tri-X film Syracuse, New York humanistic photography Edward Steichen Family of Man exhibit and book Henri Cartier-Bresson Elliott Erwitt

Friday, March 7, 2025

80 Years of Louise

Louise Devlin Jenkins at age four.

Tomorrow Louise will be 80. Amazing!

It has been my privilege to share life with her for nearly 60 years. I'm not going to write much in this post; just share some photos of the beauty that has enchanted me since we first met.

The verdant Louise. Miami, 1969/70.

Louise with our children. Miami, 1969/70.

Louise at Deer Run Farm around 1990. Ready for anything!

But Louise is much more than just a pretty face. She is one of the most courageous people I know; also one of the most caring and compassionate. She is a person of deep faith. Her adventurous spirit matches my own. She's always good to go, ready to tackle any challenge; so we've been blessed with an interesting and eventful life together, even though she has had spinal issues that resulted in multiple surgeries.

Louise on boat cruise, Sr. Thomas, U,S. Virgin Islands, 1994.

Louise at 67. Her staff photo for her church music directors job.

Extremely intelligent and multi-talented, Louise earned two Bachelors and a Master's degrees, had a 36-year career as a nurse and nurse practitioner, was a teacher, and a church choir director. She even served as the video cameraperson on two of my European documentary projects.

Louise at 77 (with Georgia). When we were still living in our camper.

Louise at 80 tomorrow (March 8).

These photos were made with many different cameras over the years, and I have many, many more I could have shown. The photo of "Verdant Louise" was made with my first Nikon F, and the photo of Louise with our children was made with an old, roll-film Polaroid Land camera. For the most recent portrait, I used a Fuji X-T3 and the Fujinon 16-80mm lens.

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

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 Nikon F camera Polaroid Land camera digital photography Fuji X-T3 digital camera Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens McLemore Cove family portraits

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Three in a Row

Apparently the owner was having a yard sale the second time I photographed this barn. When I first found it, there was a row of smaller sheds built onto the left side of the barn which made the sign a little more difficult to see.

Blog Note: I've been working on a post about my 1992 trip to Asia and got my days mixed up. I still have a half-dozen slides to scan before I can post that story. So I'm repeating a post from November, 2020. The Asia trip will post next week.

When working on the book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, a box of age-yellowed file cards was my guidebook to finding the old barns with "See Rock City" signs. The very cards that once were used by Clark Byers and his crew of barn painters themselves.

When I began the project I assumed that all the barn locations were included on the cards and that there were no others. However, as I traveled around the southeast and midwest on my search, I found about 20 barns for which there were no file cards. They had been lost from Rock City's records. I called them "lost barns."

My usual way of traveling to a barn location was that if there was an interstate that paralleled the old highway where the barn was (presumably) located, I would drive the interstate to save time, get off at the nearest exit, photograph the barn if it was still there, and get back on the interstate.

After my Rock City Barns book was published in 1996, I began to receive postcards and letters about other lost barns. I tracked them down and photographed them as I had opportunity.

One afternoon as I was driving down Interstate 24 on my way home from Nashville, it occurred to me that there were stretches of highway that I might have overlooked because of getting on and off the interstate instead of driving the old roads to see what might be there. I immediately got off I-24 south of Murfreesboro, went over to U.S. Highway 41, which paralleled the interstate, and headed south. I found the first unlisted barn in less than a mile. And not only that -- it was one of the very rare barns with the message "T'would be a Pity to Miss Rock City."

And then I found another one a half-mile or so south of that, both on the left side of 41.

If I had been watching carefully I would have found a third barn just another half-mile south, but on the right side of the road. As it was, I didn't learn of it until years later, when Brent Moore, who has interesting blogs at http://seemidtn.blogspot.com/ (See Middle Tennessee), and http://see-rock-city.blogspot.com/ (See Rock City), told me about it. I photographed it in 2014 and again in 2019. As you can see, it deteriorated considerably in five years.

The first two photos were made with a Canon EOS A2 with the 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 EF lens and Fujichrome RDP100 film. For the third one, I used a Canon EOS 6D digital camera, probably with the EF 24-85mm lens; and for the bottom photo, a Fuji X-T20 with the Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens.

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

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 Canon EOS A2 camera Canon EF 28-105mm lens Fujiichrome RDP 100 film digital photography Canon EOS 6D digital camera Canon EF 24-85mm lens Fuji X-T20 digital camera Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens barns See Rock City barns Tennessee

Monday, March 3, 2025

Nostalgic for McLemore Cove

Sunset over Lookout Mountain. From our home in McLemore Cove.

Recently, Louise and I have been increasingly missing our home and little farm in northwest Georgia's McLemore Cove.

When we sold our property and moved into a fifth-wheel RV, it seemed like the right thing to do. And, given our ages and the state of Louise's health, it probably was the best decision. After our two years of RVing, we now have a nice home in Knoxville, with family members nearby. But we greatly miss the active, outdoor life we enjoyed for 33 years. If we were there now, I would probably be busy cutting and splitting firewood or doing some of the other, endless things that seemed to need doing on a farm.

I'm sure Knoxville is a place with lots of interesting things to do, but so far, we haven't found them. Or maybe they're not the kinds of things we're interested in doing. Our life here is easy, but uneventful.

We miss having deer in our backyard on an almost daily basis.

Today (Monday), we're going to drive over to the Smokies and prowl around. We'll probably drive the Cades Cove Loop Road again -- we never seem to tire of that -- and maybe, on a March Monday, there will not be much traffic. Maybe we'll even see a bear! If there's time,we will go up to Clingman's Dome, and after that, there's a restaurant in Pigeon Forge that we like. We've been coming to the Smokies since the early 1970s, and have always enjoyed it, except for the times when the traffic has been unbearably dense.

A young bear in a tree on the Cades Cove Loop Road.

Well, we are where we are, and I do believe it's for the best. I'm 87, and Louise will be 80 this coming Saturday. We are grateful for the life we have had, but we do miss it.

I even miss removing the dead trees that fell across Sourwood Lane.

The photos were made with several different cameras over 30 or more years. The sunset sky was photographed with a Pentax 6x7 medium format camera fitted with a Takumar 105mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100 in 120 size.

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

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

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

Tags: photography McLemore Cove film photography Pentax 6x7 camera Pentax Takumar 105mm lens Fujiichrome 100 film Georgia Great Smoky Mountains Cades Cove

Friday, February 28, 2025

Photographing Interiors

The Clubhouse at The Manor Apartments, Atlanta.

(Reposting a blog from four years ago.)

As a small-market professional photographer for most of my working life, I had to deal with a wide variety of genres and be reasonably proficient in all, or at least most, of them. Advertising photography, product photos, location photography for annual reports and corporate brochures, business and personal portraits, weddings, architecture and interiors, editorial photography for magazines, photographing and writing audio-visual productions -- one never knew what the next project might be. And I enjoyed it all. Just about everything was an interesting challenge. One of the things I especially enjoyed about commercial photography is that it's an endless sequence of interesting problems to solve, but if I failed to solve them the world would not end.

Of course, if I had failed very often to solve them my career might have come to an untimely end.

But I mostly solved them, and enjoyed the process.

One area in which this is especially true is photography of interiors, which is all about staging and lighting. Usually the interior designer or an art director handled the staging, but the lighting problems were mine and mine alone to solve.

However, in the photo of the clubhouse at The Manor Apartments in Atlanta, I was on my own. No interior designer, no art director. But staging was easy -- I just moved a few chairs and pillows around and turned on some lights. Lighting was fairly simple also. I always carried a compact case with three portable studio strobe lights. I set one at camera position and the other two on the right side, about ten feet apart. They are hidden by the leaves of the tall plant on the right edge of the photograph.

That by the way, is an example of simple problem-solving. If you want to hide something from the camera, use some sort of found object that looks as if it would naturally be where it is -- in this case, the plant, which I moved into that position. It was originally much farther to the right and out of the picture.

I like this photo and have used it in my architecture portfolio, but it has one glaring fault which you would probably not notice if I didn't point it out -- there's no fire in the fireplace! If I had balled up a few sheets of newspaper and lit them in the fireplace it would have made the room come alive in a way that it doesn't now.

That probably wouldn't have happened if a designer had done the staging, but apparently that was something the building contractor didn't budget for.

My camera for this project was the Pentax 6x7, with the wonderful 45mm lens. Film, as always, was Fujichrome 100 in 120 size.

Probably the greatest of all architectural and interior photographers, and one of my heroes, is Julius Shulman, who retired in his mid-80s, got bored after awhile, and went back to work until his death at age 99, going around with a walker and an assistant to carry his camera.

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

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

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

Tags: photography photographing interiors film photography Pentax 6x7 camera Pentax Takumar 45mm f4 lens Fujiichrome 100 film photographic lighting

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

A Little More about Photographing Birds

As I think I made clear in my previous post, I'm not a bird photographer, except incidentally. If I see something interesting, I'll photograph it, but I don't go looking for birds to photograph, as serious bird photographers do.

My brother Phil is one such, and he does exquisite work with birds, as do Dennis Mook and Dave Hileman, both of whom I mentioned in my previous post.

These guys all photograph birds from the smallest to the largest -- eagles, cranes, herons, etc. Phil has an exceptionally beautiful series of hummingbirds, as well as the eagle I've posted here before. And all three of them have lenses with sufficient range to do the job. It appears that lenses for serious bird photography start at about 600 mm equivalent and go on from there as far as your budget and ability to carry the weight will take you. And even then you may have to do some cropping

A pair of pileated woodpeckers, seen from my kitchen window.

Speaking of cropping, I looked out my kitchen window one morning several years ago and saw a pair of pileated woodpeckers working on a tree about 30 yards away. The longest lens I own is a Fujicron XC 50-250mm, which is a 345mm equivalent when fully extended. That's what you see in the photo above. Interesting, but not close enough.

So what to do? I cropped.

Pileated woodpeckers. Cropped version.

Even severely cropped, the photo is sharp and would easily make a reasonably good 12x16-inch print.

Barn swallows under our deck.

Sometimes, though, you can get bird pictures with very little effort. For quite a few years, barn swallows raised broods of fledglings under our rear deck. All I had to do was step out the basement door and snap photos of these disgruntled young fellows.

Both the woodpecker and barn swallow photos were made with a Fuji X-T20.

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

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

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

Tags: photography photographic techniques bird photography Fuji X-T20 digital camera Fujicron XC 50-230mm lens digital photography birds woodpeckers

Monday, February 24, 2025

For the Birds

Mr. Cardinal. On the dogwood tree by my back porch.

A post on a lighter note today.

We have been putting out bird feeders for so long that I can't remember when we started.

A friend and fellow blogger posted his own picture of a cardinal recently, causing me to wonder why I hadn't been doing that. So when we had a few inches of snow earlier this month, I picked up my Fuji X-T3 and Fujicron 55-200mm telephoto zoom lens and took a seat by the back door -- inside, of course, shooting through a glass storm door, because it was cold, and because I didn't want to scare the birds.

My "tree ornaments." I count five male cardinals and one female.

I really like this photo of my tree ornaments. We get a lot of cardinals at our feeders here in west Knoxville. We also get many smaller birds -- chickadees, wrens, lots of purple finches, and occasional goldfinches and bluebirds. We also get frequent visits from red-wing blackbirds and woodpeckers, both downy and red-bellied. Even an occasional blue jay or flicker. They are much fun to watch.

The "ornaments," by the way, were photographed with a cell phone. It was all I had nearby at the moment, and it did the job.

Mr. Cardinal grabs a beakful.

We also unwillingly fed our friendly(?) neighborhood squirrels until I found a way to squirrel-proof the birdseed feeders. However, squirrels are smart and persistent. They eventually found a way to take my suet feeder down and open it, leaving it empty and wrecked.

A female red-belly woodpecker sneaks a few seeds.

Photographing birds at our feeders has been fun. It's also a good way to keep in practice with my long lens, which I don't use a lot, and it's a good way to enjoy photography as an enhancement to my life at times when I can't get out and about as much as I would like to.

I'll never be an accomplished bird photographer like my brother Phil or my photo-blogging friends Dennis Mook or Dave Hileman. But that's okay. I don't aspire to be. I'm content to do happy-snaps of the birds at my feeders.

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

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

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

Tags: photography photography techniques cell phone photography Fuji X-T3 digital camera Fujicron 55-200mm lens digital photography birds birds feeders

Friday, February 21, 2025

On the Life of a Great Man

Byrl Thornton Jenkins on his 90th birthday. October 5, 1999.

This portrait of my Dad was made on his 90th birthday, October 5, 1999, on the front porch of his home, holding his Bible, and with a background of fall foliage. I used a Hasselblad 500CM and 150mm f4 Zeiss lens with Fuji NPH color negative film rated at ISO 320. I love this photograph because it shows the basic sweetness of the man.

Today is the 25th anniversary of his passing.

Dad was a polymath. An electronics technician by profession, he was also a keen student of the Bible who pastored small churches for much of his adult life. But his learning went far beyond the Scriptures. An Eagle Scout in his youth, he had only two years of college but read and studied deeply in many fields -- nature, medicine, philosophy -- he could discourse intelligently on almost any subject. As a writer, he wrote voluminously on Biblical subjects. He was a lover of classical music and was a concert-level whistler.

At his funeral, the pastor, who himself had advanced degrees, said "Mr. Jenkins was probably the most intelligent man I ever met."

He was also an avid photographer and camera collector; infecting both me, his oldest son, and Phil, his youngest, with the photo bug. Phil is a bird and wildlife photographer of great ability.

My father in his mid-80s. Always looking ahead.

Dad was was always young, always looking ahead to the next challenge. At the age of 89 he was operating two flea-market mall booths. On the last day we spent together, just a month before he died, we spent the day shopping for a computer system so he could go online and sell his antiques. Yet Dad was sick. About a year before, his small intestine telescoped into itself and only emergency surgery saved his life. From that point on he had persistent diarrhea, taking his weight down a good 50 pounds. As we shopped on that last day together he had to look for a restroom just about every hour. But he never quit.

Dad passed away on February 21, 2000. As I reach my late 80s, the goal of my life is, as it has always been, to emulate my father's faith, courage, and perseverance.

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

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

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

Tags: photography family history film photography Hasselblad 500CM Zeiss 150mm f4 lens Fuji NPH color film

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

A Lifetime of Great Dogs: VII

Georgia, 10/16/2014. The day she came to us.

Blog Note: If you're getting a little impatient with all the doggy posts and have been wondering "When is this guy going to get back to photography?" I have two things to say: First, this will be the last post about dogs for a while. Second, what I have been doing all along is giving an object lesson about one of the very most important functions of photography: using it to document and enhance your life.

After the deaths of Rusty and Honey, Louise and I grieved for them. Especially Louise. I said, "Let's ask God to send us a new dog. So we prayed.

Our farm was about a half-mile back on Sourwood Lane, a private road that branched off Andrews Lane in McLemore Cove. Back in the spring, Louise had seen a small, orange, long-haired dog hanging around the entrance to our lane, but couldn't entice her to come. Debbie and Jeff, who lived across Andrews Lane from our property were able to get her to come live with them. They named her Georgia. She had a litter of four puppies, which they gave away. Sadly, in early fall, Debbie died suddenly.

Georgia would go constantly from room to room looking for her friend. To make things worse, she was not yet housebroken. Jeff determined to send her to the pound, and told his mother. She said, "No, don't do that," and called Louise. And that's how Georgia came to live with us, just three weeks after Honey died.

She is, we think, a long-haired Chihuahua with a mixture of Corgi and perhaps some Pomeranian. Mostly, she is herself. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as the saying goes.

How's that for a dog's life?

She has been with us for more than ten years now, and is a full member of our household, sleeping between us in our king-sized bed. She enjoyed living in our 5th-wheel trailer, and is now enjoying dominating the other dogs in our townhouse community. Although she is at least 11, possibly 12 years old, she is as frisky as ever and shows few signs of aging. We hope she will be with us for a long time to come.

She knows she has it good.

Photos were made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera and the Olympus Zuiko 45mm lens or the Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens.

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

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

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

Tags: photography digital photography Olympus E-M5 digital camera Olympus Zuiko 45mm lens Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens family history dogs Chihuahuas

This blog is about photography, about travel, and about life. I write about the tools, techniques, art, and philosophy of photography, some of the places I've been, things that have happened in my life, and whatever else crosses my mind. I write the blog I would like to read, if someone else were writing it. 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.

Photographs and text © 2011-2024 David B. Jenkins