This Is New

After evening chapel at the Church of God hospital, Abak, Ibom, Nigeria.

Asking the question "What's New" in my previous post led me to ask myself another question: what is photography?

I love to talk and write about the art of photography, the philosophy of photography, and photographic equipment. Those are great subjects, and fun to talk and write about. But they don't answer the basic question: what is photography?

The answer I came up with is that for me, photography is making and showing photographs. That's all. The things I mentioned above are the trappings of photography, but, enjoyable as they may be, they are not the thing itself. Making and showing photographs. That's it. That's all.

But, you say, "Do I have to show my photographs?" I'm sure some may disagree with this, but yes, I think you do. Photographs are communication. They are meant to be shared, and if you don't share them the process is incomplete and they risk becoming only artistic onanism. Sorry.

So, I think I've answered my own question about the value of what I do, as posed in the previous post. I make and show my photographs. And I also write about them. That's what I do.

If my definition doesn't work for you, no problem. Find one of your own. My photography and writing may not be world class, but that's okay. I make photographs and show them, and for me, that's what photography is all about. 

My special thanks to those who wrote encouraging comments in response to  my last post.

Photo: Olympus OM2n, 100-300mm Tokina lens, Fujichrome 100 film.

Check out 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 me 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    travel     film photography   Olympus OM2n film camera     Tokina 100-300mm lens    Africa     Nigeria    Church of God

What's New?

Gossiping at the harbor, Vernazza, Cinque Terra, Italy.

 What's new? 

Not much new around here. And that's the problem. Unlike the Italian ladies above, I'm having a little trouble finding something new to talk about.

Some years ago, in the heyday of photography magazines, I read that most magazines recycled their content about every five years.

Well, I've been posting this blog for almost five years now, and I have a better understanding of their problem. Frankly, it's becoming more and more difficult for me to find something new to write. 

I still have plenty of Rock City barns, small towns, covered bridges, old mills, old houses, old cars, and courthouses to write about. But I would like to make more of my posts specific to photography. Maybe that's unrealistic.

So, let me ask my loyal readers (assuming they exist). What would you like me to write about? I could use some direction.

According to Blogger statistics, this site gets four to six thousand hits a month. But I get very few comments. If fact, this blog averages less than half a comment per post.

If you have any thoughts about things I might write about, please post a comment. I realize the commenting process on Blogger is somewhat laborious, so post as Anonymous if you like, then, if you don't mind, sign your name at the end. (But that's a request, not a requirement.)

Thank you for your help.

Photo: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 24-85mm lens. (Probably.)

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 me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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    travel     Canon EOS 20D digital camera     Canon EF 24-85mm lens    Italy    Ciinque Terra     Digital photography

The Backroads Traveler: Darien, Georgia

Shrimp Boats in the Altamaha River, Darien.

Darien, Georgia is an interesting small city with a long history. Founded by Scottish highlanders under the leadership of James Oglethorpe in 1736, it was laid out according to the plan Oglethorpe had established in Savannah, and is the second oldest planned city in Georgia.

In 1863, Darien was raided by a troop of Union soldiers from a garrison stationed on St. Simon's Island. The town was looted and burned in a senseless action that had little military value, coming as it did a year before Sherman's "March to the Sea." Ironically, Darien had been anti-slavery from its earliest days and had actually passed a resolution condemning slavery in 1775.

 

Ashantilly Historic Site.

The original house on this site, known as "Old Tabby," was built circa 1820 as the mainland home of prominent planter and legislator Thomas Spalding. It burned in 1937 and was rebuilt and restored as an ongoing project by William G. Haynes, Jr., an artist, letterpress printer, and environmentalist. Mr. Haynes passed away in 2001, but in 1993, he donated the property to the Ashantilly Center, which carries on his legacy through cultural and educational events and workshops "to provide a vehicle for continuing education, scientific advancement and charitable endeavor which focus on the natural and built environments integral to the Georgia Coast."

 The Adam Strain Building.

At the corner of Broad and Screven Streets, on the bluff above the Altamaha River, is the Strain Building, a two-story stuccoed-tabby cotton warehouse built  about 1813. It was the only structure other than the Methodist Church to survive the 1863 Yankee raid.

Just down the hill toward the waterfront on Screven Street is Skipper's Fish Camp. Louise and I enjoyed some really good shrimp on their covered deck.

 

The Darien United Methodist Church

John Wesley visited Darien in January, 1737, but it was not until 1836 that a Methodist church was organized. The cornerstone for a church building was laid in 1841, and it was the only church to survive the 1863 attack, even though the Federal troops tried twice to set it ablaze. It was finally destroyed by a hurricane in 1881 and was replaced by the present sanctuary in 1883.
 

 

Rice Mill Smokestack at Butler Island Rice Plantation

The plantation at Butler Island began in the 1790s, when Revolutionary War hero Major Pierce Butler began planting rice in the Altamaha Delta, a location that provided perfect growing conditions for the crop. When he died in 1822, his grandson and namesake Captain Pierce Butler took over the operation, and by the 1850s it was one of the largest plantations in the South.

Today, all that's left of Butler Plantation is the 75-foot Smokestack of the steam-powered Rice Mill, dating from 1820.

Cameras and lenses: The shrimp boats, Ashantilly, the Methodist church, and the rice mill were all photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera. For the boats and Ashantilly, I used a Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens, for the church and the rice mill smokestack, the lens was a Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm. The Strain Building was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens.

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 me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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    travel     Olympus E-M5 digital camera     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens    Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm lens    Canon EOS 6D     Darien, Georgia    Shrimp boats      Georgia coast     Ashantilly     digital photography     Butler Island plantation     Altamaha River

More Thoughts about Film

 Launching a hang glider from McCarty's Bluff, Rising Fawn, Georgia.

 

Clarence Spindler and his Rock City barn. U.S, Highway 41, Gibson County, Indiana.

 Goat herder, rural Bulgaria.

 What do the above photographs have in common?

Answer: they are all scans from film originals.

I've been a photographer for 55 years. For the first 35 of those years I shot film. And although I've done some significant work (to me, at least) since then, including a few books, I consider those years with film the best and most significant years of my career. It was those years spent practicing the discipline of film that made me the photographer I am.

What did the discipline of film teach me?

First, it taught me to get it right in the camera. Not to shoot and hope that I could fix it later in Photoshop.

Second, it taught me to make every shot count. Film wasn't as expensive then as it is now, but it still wasn't cheap.

Third, it taught me to work each situation until I was sure I had something good before I moved on.

Fourth, it taught me to be very precise in my exposure technique. Slide film has, at most, a half-stop latitude for over-exposure and maybe one stop for under-exposure. Most of the time I metered each situation with an incident meter, which measures the light falling on the subject, rather than the light reflected from the subject, as your in-camera meter does, and I then bracketed a half-stop over and under that reading.

Although I shoot digital now because it's easy and each exposure is essentially free (and because I'm maybe getting a bit lazy in my old age), the discipline of film still serves me well. In fact, what I seek to do with each of my digital photographs is to make them look as if they had originated on film. Because that's the look I prefer.

About the equipment: The hang-gliding scene and the Bulgarian goat herder were photographed with Olympus OM system film cameras. I used Kodak Ektachrome film for the hang-gliding and Fujichrome 100D for the goat herder. For Clarence Spindler, I used a Canon EOS A2, Fujichrome, and a light amber filter. All film was 35mm.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available for $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of any of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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      Olympus OM film camera         Fujichrome 100D film        Canon EOS A2 camera      hang-gliding     Bulgaria     35mm film     Rock City barns     Kodak Ektachrome film     hang-gliding

Thinking about Film

Aspens and Lodgepole Pines at DeMotte Campground north of the Grand Canyon.

 

My film cameras and film stock.

For a number of years I've been keeping a few rolls of film in my refrigerator. (Refrigerated film will last a long time without changing color.) You can see what I have -- three rolls of Fujichrome Provia in 35mm, a roll of 35mm Fujicolor 400, three rolls of Fujichrome Provia in 120 size, and three rolls of 120 Fujichrome Astia.

The photo of the aspens and pines at the top of this post was made with the Autocord, the camera in the center, above. That was way back in 2018, on our wonderful camping trip west.

Six years is a long time to go without shooting any film. No excuse. Digital photography is just too easy, and cheap. Film is more difficult. It requires more precision, and it's expensive. But, no excuse.

What brought all this on? A few days ago, I noticed my film sitting in the refrigerator and thought hmmmm. Also, my 87-year-old body is giving me a few hints that it may not last forever. As I thought about it, I knew I didn't want to go the old folks home or to my grave with that film still in cold storage. Maybe this fall's colors will give me inspiration to take out the film and shoot it up.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available for $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of any of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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      travel          Fujichrome Provia film        Minolta Autocord camera    Twin-Lens Reflex     Fuji Astia film     120 film     35mm film

The Georgia Backroads Traveler: Two Courthouses

 The Romanesque Revival Macon County Courthouse, Oglethorpe.

The Macon County Courthouse in Oglethorpe, Georgia, was built in 1894. Although Oglethorpe is currently a sleepy place with a population of about 1300, things were once much different. In the mid-1800s it had a population of 16,000, making it one of the largest cities in Georgia. It missed becoming the state capitol by just one electoral vote. Things are much quieter these days.

I used a nifty little software program called PT Lens to make the vertical lines parallel in this photo. Current versions of Photoshop have this feature built in, but I'm too stubborn and too cheap to pay a monthly subscription fee to Adobe for something I can work around and get by without. 

The Romanesque Revival Henry County Courthouse, McDonough.

Another Georgia courthouse in the Romanesque Revival architectural style is the Henry County courthouse in McDonough. This style was very popular in Georgia's courthouse-building boom years of 1890-1910.

This is one of my favorite compositions. I love the way the courthouse is framed by the flowers and statuary of the downtown square park. The photograph was made with a Minolta Autocord twin-lens reflex, my favorite camera, and Fujichrome Provia film in 120-size. Unfortunately, the high cost of film and processing keeps me from using the TLR much.

By the way, while many Georgia counties have their courthouses located in the downtown squares of their county seat towns, many others are located off the square, with the square itself being a city park.

About the equipment: the photo of the Oglethorpe County courthouse was made with a Canon EOS 6D digital camera with the Canon EF 24-85mm lens. The Henry County courthouse was, as I said above, photographed with a Minolta Autocord twin-lens reflex and its 75mm Rokkor lens, loaded with Fujichrome Provia transparency film.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available for $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of any of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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      travel      Georgia      courthouses      Canon EOS 6D camera     Fujichrome Provia film        Minolta Autocord camera    Twin-Lens Reflex    Canon EF 24-85mm lens

More Preaching about Noticing Things

Above the crowd. U.S. Highway 441, Clinch County, Georgia.

 It occurred to me last night that it's been a while since I nagged  my readers (both of them!) about my favorite photo-subject: noticing things. 

Actually, noticing things will benefit more than just your photography. It's also important in all of life. When your eyes and mind are open to everything around you, your entire life will be enriched. 

Noticing things benefits others, too. As the great American photographer Tony King said, "The photographer is like the kid who discovers something really cool -- a new kitten, perhaps, or a birds nest with the fledglings still in it -- and runs to tell his friends to come see what he found."

Photographs can give us new insights, kindle our sense of wonder, and increase our appreciation of the world around us.

The Best Iron Works in Town. Orange Walk Town, Belize.

 But it all begins when we open our eyes and minds and notice the things around us. As the great New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a whole lot just by lookin'." (Did you know that Berra is the most quoted person in the English language? Yes, even more than Shakespeare. Look up some of his sayings. You will be amazed.) 

About the equipment: The tree standing above the crowd was photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens; the Best Iron Works was photographed with an Olympus OM2n film camera and the Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens on Fujichrome 100D film.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available for $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of any of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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    travel     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Fujichrome 100D film    Georgia    Olympus OM2n camera    Orange Walk Town    Canon EF 24-85mm lens    Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens     Belize    Yogi Berra quotes