A Pair of Old Mills

I've often mentioned my love of old mills. Here are two of my favorites, both of them in Georgia.

Starr's Mill

Starr's Mill is on Whitewater Creek about nine miles south of Fayetteville, Georgia, From the town square, take GA Hwy. 85 south. The mill will be on the right side of the highway.

The first mill at this site was built by Hananiah Gilcoat sometime before 1825, but it was Hilliard Starr, who owned the property from 1866 to 1879, whose name stuck. The first two mills were of logs, both of which burned. The current mill, built by William T. Glower in 1907, was in service until 1959 and at one time included a cotton gin and a dynamo that generated electricity for Senoia. There are some beautiful old mills in Georgia, but I rate this as one of the top two or three.

Not as well known, but in a beautiful setting, is the Ragsdale Mill.

Ragsdale Mill

From the town of Homer, north of Gainesville, Georgia, take GA Hwy. 51 for two miles and turn left on Damascus Road. Go a half-mile and slant right on Mt. Olivet Road. In a bit over a mile, you will pass the Mt. Olivet Methodist Church, built c. 1868. Continue past the church for 0.2 miles. Mt. Olivet Road becomes gravel and goes down a steep hill. Near the bottom of the hill, on the right, is the entrance to the mill. This is private property, so please observe the sign on the gate and call the owners before entering.

The first mill on Nail's Creek was built sometime before 1837. The Reverend Francis Marion Ragsdale, who founded the Mt. Olivet Church as an anti-slavery congregation and pastored it for many years, bought the mill site from his father in 1853 and built the mill in 1863. The millstones were imported from France and brought into Savannah by blockade runners slipping past U.S. Navy ships guarding the port.

Sit a bit and enjoy. This is one of the most serene and beautiful places to which my Georgia travels have taken me.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020) 

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

A Man of Vision

Founder/CEO of a High-Tech Recruitment Company

The concept for this portrait was the brainchild of Michael Largent, long-time friend and frequent client. (He says we've done more than 50 projects together. I wasn't counting.) When I first met him he was a gung-ho young newspaper photographer.

Michael has had a long and distinguished career as a graphic designer, creative director, owner of his own design agency, and now, professor of graphic design at a college. At the time of this particular project he was the Director of Marketing for a recruitment firm (headhunters, in other words) that specialized in staffing for the IT, engineering, and telecommunications fields. The purpose of the portrait was to portray the founder/CEO of the company as a man of vision.

The camera used was my Calumet-Cambo 4x5 view camera with a 210mm f5.6 Rodenstock lens, chosen because the movable front standard of a view camera allowed me to control the depth of field. For those who aren't familiar with this type of camera, I'll explain:

A View Camera

A view camera consists of two standards mounted on a rail. The front standard holds the lens and the rear standard holds the ground-glass focusing screen and sheets of film in a special holder. By tipping the top of the front standard forward the depth of field is increased, and by tipping it backward, the depth of field can be reduced. Which is what I did in this portrait.

The subject was placed several feet from a gray wall. A fairly contrasty main light was set to the subject's right, and behind him and aimed to slant along the wall was a second light partially covered with a yellow gel. The subject was wearing a yellow tie specially chosen by Michael to fit the color scheme.

I  took readings with a Minolta incident light meter, then focused, put a Polaroid film holder on the camera, and made a few Polaroid test prints to make sure we were in the ball park. When the final Polaroid looked good, I exposed one sheet of 4x5 Fujichrome 100 color transparency film. That piece of film in its holder was marked and set aside. It would be processed first and evaluated, then all the other film we shot would be processed in one batch, with the processing time adjusted as needed if the test sheet indicated over or under exposure. That was the way we did it in those days. Cumbersome? Yeah, but we didn't have any better way to do it, and actually, got quiet good at it.

I exposed 12 more sheets of film, then called it a wrap. The CEO was patient during the process (not something CEOs are known for), but Michael and I both felt he had reached his limit. The photo at the top of this post was the best one, and Michael and I both felt we had achieved our goal.

When the CEO got up from the posing stool he took off the yellow tie and gave it to Michael. "I hate this tie," he said. Michael still wears it sometimes.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

When Did You Retire?

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

Or, are you retired? Or, you’re retired, aren’t you? Or, when do you plan to retire?

These are various forms of the question I'm asked frequently as people note my apparent age. The answer to all is no. I haven’t retired, I’m not retired, and I have no plans to retire.

One of the conscious factors in my mind when I chose my profession was that I wanted a career that no one could make me retire from. If I had spent my life working in some other field I might be interested in retiring, but I’ve spent my life doing something I love. Why would I want to retire from that? I’m a photographer. I can still photograph. I’m a writer. I can still write.

I no longer solicit commercial or architectural photography, but occasionally someone offers me a job and I take it. I no longer book weddings on my own, but have kept my hand in the game as a second-shooter for an Atlanta photographer since 2013 and hope to photograph many more with her.

Meanwhile, there are books to be created. There are articles to be written and illustrated. There are a myriad fascinating things to see and do. There are places to go where I haven’t yet been, plus many more I would love to revisit.

One of the Lost Barns of Rock City. Probably my next book.

I’ve taken note of the statistic: everyone who retires dies. And often sooner than he should have. My philosophy is this: Think young. Thinking old will kill you.

My father, an electronics technician, Bible scholar, part-time pastor of small churches, avid photographer, and father of seven children, passed away at the age of 90. He was always active, always pursuing all kinds of knowledge, always looking ahead to the next thing, even after a serious health condition laid him low when he was 89. The last day we spent together, in January, 2000, just a month before he died, we spent the day shopping, even though we had to find a restroom about every hour because of the persistent diarrhea that weakened his heart and finally killed him. But what were we shopping for? A computer system, so he could go online to sell his antiques. He never gave up.

My goal in life is to emulate my father’s faith, courage, and perseverance. So no. I haven't retired and I have no plans to do so.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what you read, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone