Some Favorite Photos Posted in 2025

Jan. 28: An island of rocks and trees in a field in Middle Tennessee.

I decided to lead off the new year with a recap of some of my favorite photos I published in 2025. I hope you like them.

Feb. 24: My tree ornaments. I count five male cardinals and one female at our feeders.

March 14: Abandoned House, Armuchee Valley, Georgia.

 

April 14: Old gates on George Queener's GDQ Ranch, McLemore Cove, Georgia.

 

May 9: W. L. Coker's New River General Store, TN Hwy. 116, Anderson County.

Strangely enough, this obscure, non-descript building in the middle of nowhere got more views than almost anything else I posted in 2025.

 

June 23: Gulf Station. Georgia Highway 169, Tatnall County. 

 

 

 July 9: Loading our first camper for one of our first camping trips.

 This is my favorite of all the photos I posted in 2025.

 

 July 23: Louise in our '66 Corvair Corsa in the northeast Georgia mountains. 

 

August 6: Louise and me, with two sons, two daughters-in-law, two granddaughters, one grandson-in-law, five great grandchildren, and one dog (Georgia) celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary. 

 

 

September 19: Pedicab driver waiting for a customer. Charleston, SC, 2007.

 

November 26: Thanksgiving tableau, Fannin County, Georgia.

 

December 19: Blue on Blue. Florida beach scene, 2007.

 

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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    personal photography     travel photography    art photography    family photography    photographic prints for sale 

I've Never Owned a New Car

The 1987 Chevy Blazer at Rock City barn AL-11. U.S. Hwy. 11, DeKalb County, AL.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the day with our son Don, who lives here in Knoxville. Our daughter-in-law Kim cooked a great Christmas dinner and we enjoyed seeing grandson Devlin and granddaughter Marlee and their significant others.

But to get back to our topic -- I bought my first car in 1956, when I was 19 - a slick 1950  Ford V8 coupe purchased with a $500 loan from my grandmother. Since then, I've owned more cars than I can count -- and all of them were bought used. Owning a good car was important to me, but owning a new car never was.

I drove many of those cars to high mileages and most of them served me well. The only outright lemon was a Dodge Aspen sedan I bought in the late '70s.

At the time our son Rob was born in 1961, we had an NSU Prinz, a tiny German car that we named "Baby Buggy." It was lots of fun, but didn't prove very durable over the long haul.

Barbara, my first wife, passed away in 1963, and in 1965 I married Louise. We embarked on our honeymoon in a 1959 Volkswagen. 

Away on our honeymoon in our '59 Volkswagen.

Then there was the 1963 Plymouth Belvedere that we bought while Louise was in school at Florida State. A great road car. We routinely made the 490 mile trip from Tallahassee to Miami in six hours -- in the bad old days of very restrictive speed limits. You can see it here.

After her graduation, we moved back to Miami, where we later sold the Plymouth and bought a '62 Chevy II Nova wagon from friends. We drove that car when we moved to Chattanooga in 1970 and drove the wheels off of it for the next six years with no problems. In 1972, before the first great hike in gas prices, we drove it to Miami on about $12.50 worth of gas!

Before I forget, I need to mention the photo at the top. That 1987 Chevy S-10 Blazer took me nearly 35,000 miles in 15 states as I searched for Rock City barns for my book. The transmission gave out in northern Indiana when I was nearly finished. A year or two later I sold it to my garageman for $2,000. It had 235,000 miles on the odometer.

That's enough for today, but I'm not finished with this topic.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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    used cars     1959 Volkswagen    1963 Plymouth Belvedere    1962 Chevy II Nova    Chevy S-10 Blazer    1950 Ford V8 coupe    1960 NSU Prinz

Was This Always the Plan?

The empty tomb. Jerusalem, Israel 

Who shows a picture of a tomb at Christmas? Well, I do, because in the deepest sense that's what Christmas is about. I expect most people would prefer to think about the baby in a manger. Seems all cozy and comforting, doesn't it?

Unless you grew up poor on a farm, you probably have no idea what a cold and incredibly filthy place that stable was, and how unsuitable as a birthing place for anyone, let alone a king. 

But his birth, necessary and important as it was, was not the goal.

His life, which he lived perfectly and without sin, was not the goal, although that goal was ever before him.

His death, cruel and unjust, was a necessary step. For on that horrible cross he bore in his own body every sin you and I have ever committed or ever will commit. But even the cross was not the goal.

The tomb itself, where his body laid for three days, was not the goal. 

The goal, from all eternity, was the empty tomb. God raised Jesus from the dead; the ultimate proof that Christ's sacrifice had been accepted by the Father and our debt was paid in full. This is the gospel, as stated clearly in I Corinthians 15, verses 1-5: "That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."

When Jesus went to that cross, he bore in his own body your sins and mine. He paid in full the debt of our sin and now offers you and me eternal life as a free gift.

What does he ask of us? He asks only that you and I accept the fact that we are sinners in need of a savior, and that we receive Jesus by faith as the savior we need.

My prayer is that if you have never received Jesus as your savior, you will do so on this Christmas Day.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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    digital photography   Jesus Christ    Jerusalem   Canon EOS 5D Classic camera    Israel    Canon EF 24-85mmm lens    Bible history   Salvation     Resurrection of Jesus     the empty tomb