Autumn in the North Georgia Mountains

 

On November 5th, 2008, I went ramblin' along  the North Georgia backroads northeast of Ellijay and south of Blue Ridge to photograph the fall color. It was the peak of the season, and altogether a most memorable day.

I was inspired to show these photos by friend and fellow photo-blogger Dennis Mook (https://www.thewanderinglensman.com/) who has been running a series of his own fall photos on his blog. His are better than mine, but I'm putting these out in hope that you might receive some enjoyment from them.

Since these were all taken in the same area with the same camera and lens -- a Canon EOS 5D Classic and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens -- I'm posting them without any further captions or comments.

 

 

 

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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS 5D camera     Canon EF 24-85mm lens     travel photography     North Georgia mountains lens     fall color     autumn

More about Mail Pouch Tobacco Barns

Non-traditional paint job on Mail Pouch barn in Belmont County, Ohio.

 Since I brought up the subject of Mail Pouch tobacco barns a few days ago, I thought I would write a bit more about them. Some quick research showed me I was wrong to say there were never any Mail Pouch barns in Tennessee, but truthfully, I've never seen any in my extensive travels around the state.

The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company of Wheeling, West Virginia first began painting "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco" on barns in 1897. By the 1960s there were more than 20,000 Mail Pouch barns in 22 states. Most of the ones still in existence are in the Midwest and were painted by Harley Warrick,the last of the Mail Pouch barn painters.

Noble County Ohio, probably Ohio Highway 147 near Batesville.

Beginning his career just days after returning from World War Two, he criss-crossed the Midwest for nearly 50 years, painting and repainting the red, yellow, and black Mail Pouch signs. When he finally hung up his brushes in 1992, it was the end of Mail Pouch Tobacco barn painting – and the end of an era.

Another Mail Pouch barn on Ohio 147 in Noble County.

When I was working on the Rock City Barns book I photographed Mail Pouch barns whenever I found them, accumulating enough to make a good start on a book.

There are quite a few Mail Pouch barn fans, mostly in the Midwest, and they have an organization called The Barnstormers devoted to preserving the barns. Their annual meeting and picnic is in Harley Warrick's home town. I attended one in 2003, hoping to interest them in supporting my efforts to publish a book of the barns. They looked at my Rock City Barns book with polite interest; in fact, some of them had copies. But at that time they were mostly interested in a book that Harley Warrick's son was working on. So nothing came of my trip except photos of more barns that I found along the way. Here are some of them.

Indiana Highway 135, north of Corydon.

Photos: These pictures were all made with my first digital camera, the six megapixel Canon EOS 10D and Canon EF 28-105 and 20-35L lenses.The photos are all from 2003 and my notes are a little sketchy. I've identified the barns as best I could, but I can't swear my captions are exactly correct.

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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Mail Pouch Tobacco barns     Canon EOS 10D camera     Canon EF 28-10 lens     travel photography     Canon EF 20-35L lens     old barns

Celebrating My Mother

My mother in her late 60s.

My mother's birthday was October 31st. She was born Louise Frances Goodman in Lawrence County, Indiana in 1914 and passed away in 2006 at the age of 91, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

Herself the oldest of nine, all of whom she outlived, she was the mother of seven, of which I was the oldest.

Called “one of the last of the pioneer women,” she  grew up in a one-room log cabin that my grandfather covered with clapboards and divided into two rooms. He also built a lean-to on the back that served as kitchen and dining room. 

In 1979 my mother and I revisited the home where she grew up.

 In 1934, she married Byrl Jenkins of Bedford, a union that lasted more than 65 years, produced seven children, and stood as a monument of love and faithfulness to all who knew them. In 1945, Mom and Dad moved us to a primitive farm in Martin County, where they rebuilt a decrepit farmhouse while heating and cooking with wood we cut ourselves. Lighting was by Coleman lanterns until the arrival of electricity in the 1950s.

Mom and her dear friend Brownie, who lived to be about 18.

My mother was a devout follower of Jesus Christ from her childhood and was known for her strong faith and life of quiet saintliness.She was a constant reader and a fine writer with a quiet but deep sense of humor.

Mom in her 80s.

Growing up on our backwoods farm, I learned to be skilled with axe and saw and working with farm animals and horse-drawn machinery by the time I was twelve. I consider myself exceptionally blessed to have been given such parents and to have had what was essentially a 19th century upbringing in the 20th century.

Photos: These photographs were made with various cameras, but all were on film. Scans were made with the Minolta-DiMage 5400 or the Epson Perfection 4990 scanners.

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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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     family photography     Minolta-DiMage 5400 scanner     Epson Perfection 4990 scanners

A Mail Pouch Barn in Tennessee

Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn. Tennessee Highway 33, Union County. 

 I had been wanting to do some ramblin' 'round in northeast Tennessee, so on Tuesday I set out in my trusty old Chrysler Town and Country van to see what I could see.

Cruising north on Tennessee Highway 33, I chanced to look up a small side road and saw something that should not have been there: a barn freshly painted with a Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco sign.

I've photographed Mail Pouch barns all over the midwest, where they are still a familiar sight. But as far as I know, there were never any south of the Tennessee-Kentucky line. Also, the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company, owners of the Mail Pouch brand, went out of the sign painting business in 1992. So this was obviously an owner-painted barn, and a very well done one, at that.

From there, I went on north to the Cumberland Gap area. I'll write more about that later. It was altogether an enjoyable day, doing one of the things I love best.

A fine Mail Pouch barn in its natural habitat -- southern Indiana.

Photos: The Tennessee barn was photographed with my new (to me) Fuji X-T3 and the Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens. The Indiana barn was photographed in the late 1990s with a Canon EOS A2 camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100, scanned with the Minolta-DiMage 5400 scanner.

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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   film photography     Canon EOS A2 camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     travel photography     Minolta-DiMage 5400 scanner     Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     Fujichrome 100 film     old barns

The Backroads Traveler: Two More Covered Bridges

 The Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge, Upson County, Georgia.

 About twelve miles south of Thomaston and a mile or so off U.S. Highway 19 is the Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge. Built in 1892 by the firm of Herring and Alford, the bridge is 96 feet long and uses the Town lattice truss design.

After being destroyed by a flood in 1994, the bridge was rebuilt on the creek bank in 1997 by Arnold Graton of New Hampshire, who used a team of horses to pull the restored bridge into its place over the creek. It is no longer open to traffic, but parking and a picnic area are available at the bridge.

The Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge, Meriwether County, Georgia.

 

Going south from Fayetteville on Georgia Highway 85 (one of the state's more interesting highways), turn left on Covered Bridge Road for about a mile to Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge. Dating to the 1840s, this is Georgia’s oldest covered bridge and is one of the few still in use. At 391 feet, it is also the longest, if one includes the approaches. The covered portion is about 140 feet long, using Town lattice construction with criss-crossed planks held together by approximately 2,500 wooden pegs. It was built by the legendary Horace King, a freed slave and master bridge builder. At one time, much of the traffic in the Deep South crossed its streams on bridges built by King, but time moves on, and the Red Oak Creek bridge is the last one of King's bridges still in use.

 

(Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

 

Photos: The Auchumpkee Creek bridge was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera with the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. For the Red Oak Creek bridge I used an Olympus E-M5 with the Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm lens. Both cameras are digital.

 

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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS 6D camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     travel photography     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm lens     Olympus E-M5 camera     covered bridges

The Backroads Traveler: Two More Mills

 The Skeenah Creek Mill. Georgia Highway 60, Fannin County.

Thirty-one miles of winding road north of  Dahlonega is a little gem that's probably visited by too few people: it's the Skeenah Creek Mill, located at the Skeenah Creek Campground.

In 1832, Willis Rabun Woody moved his family to this beautiful, remote valley called "Skeenah" by the Cherokees. The name means "Big Bear." Ten years later, in 1848, he built the little mill that still stands on Skeenah Creek. Although the mill is not currently in operation, it is in good condition and could be restored. 

The mill is behind the campground, and even if you're not camping, the gracious people who own the property will welcome you to visit the mill. However, if you should happen to be taking this tour in a camper, you could hardly find a more delightful place to set up and spend a few days. Call Mark and Terry at 706-838-5500 for reservations.

Lee and Gordon Mill, Chickamauga Creek, Chickamauga, Georgia.

 In the northwest corner of the state is the Lee and Gordon Mill. Built by James Gordon on Chickamauga Creek in 1836, the mill was in operation until 1967. After being dormant for years, Frank Pierce, long-time mayor of Chickamauga, bought the property in 1995 and began a six-year process of restoring the building and the dam. Now fully operational, the mill and general store are a fascinating museum of an earlier century. The mill and general store are open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and 1–5 p.m. on Sunday. By all means call first! The mill is also a popular venue for weddings and other events. 

(Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

Photos: The Skeenah Creek mill was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Canon EF 28-105mm lens. For the photo of the Lee and Gordon mill, I used an Olympus E-M5 and a Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm 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 $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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS 6D camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     travel photography     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens     Olympus E-M5 camera

Finding My Voice

Rock City Barn GA-12

GA Hwy. 42, Monroe County, Georgia

Canon EOS A2, Canon 28-105 f3.5-4.5 EF lens

 

(This is a repost from March 4, 2020.)

 

In the absence of any clear idea of what they hope to achieve, photographers often sub-consciously seek to define themselves by their equipment. It can be fun for those who can afford it, but it avoids the real question: Who am I as a photographer? What is my passion? Until you can answer that, you "ain't gonna get no satisfaction." Because ultimately, it's not the tools nor the act of photography that counts. It's the subject, your relationship to it, and your feelings about it.

 

The photographer who finds his voice, his niche, his passion, most likely will also find that he can do whatever he wants to do with a relatively small amount of equipment. An exception, of course, would be the photographer whose passion is birds in flight, action sports, or auto racing. But for myself, I can do everything I want to do with a few Fuji bodies and three or four lenses; equipment which is also sufficient for the occasional commercial gig I get.

As I've said several times (but who's counting?), I found my voice, my passion, in photography in the early 1970s, but did not recognize it for what it was until years later.

I have always been drawn to the old, the abandoned, the worn out, the passing away. Abandoned buildings, abandoned cars – whatever man has used, worn out, and discarded -- fascinate me, because they speak of worn out lives, lived and discarded with neither name nor history.

 

FOR SALE (Unidentified Auto from the Mid-1930s)

U.S. Hwy. 411, Gordon County, Georgia

Canon EOS A2, Canon 28-105 f3.5-4.5 EF lens

I am especially drawn to the remnants of mid-twentieth-century roadside culture because I lived it. In the 1950s and '60s I hitch-hiked the two-lane highways of America. I saw the Rock City barns, the Mail Pouch Tobacco barns, the roadside fast-food stands built to look like giant chickens or hot dogs, the wigwam motels. Like Tennyson's Ulysses, "I am a part of all I have met." Or more accurately, all I have met is part of me.

 

I admire the work of nature photographers such as David Meunch and the late Galen Rowell, but am much more drawn to the work of the great observers of the human scene, such as Elliott Erwitt, Robert Doisneau, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. I wish I could do what they do. I've tried, and I know I will never photograph insightful slices of life as well as they do. But I have a niche of my own, and I can be content. Rather than photographing nature or the human condition, my passion and my role is to document the interface between nature and the crumbling works of man.

 

(Both photos made with 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 $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.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   Georgia     Canon EOS A2 film camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     travel photography     Fujichrome 100D film