Amateur or Professional?

 

Architectural photography. The Chanticleer Lodge. Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

 If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you have probably picked up on the fact that I'm happy with my career choice. But that doesn't mean it's been all roses and lollipops. I've had to take on a wide variety of projects to make a living -- travel photography, studio and advertising photography, architecture and interiors, weddings, portraits, annual reports, magazines, books, and more. Fortunately, I enjoyed most of it and am grateful for all of it.

Over the years I've been questioned many times by people who thought they might like to get into professional photography. What I've told them is that getting established in photography is about as difficult as getting established in the performing arts. In other words, very difficult indeed. And while it's possible to make it really big in music or the theater, very, very few people ever make it big in photography. A few do. Many more scratch along, barely making a living, and still more realize they could make a better living doing something else and throw in the towel.

My life in photography has taken me to many interesting places and given me many fascinating experiences. My own evaluation of my career is that artistically, it has been a moderate success; financially, that I would not have lasted if Louise had not been willing to work in her own career as a nurse to supplement our income. Fortunately, she has been able to travel with me on some of my projects.

My advice to aspiring photographers is that unless you have such a driving, burning, desire to be a photographer that you can't imagine doing anything else, you have little chance of making it in the profession. If you can conceive of doing anything else, you should probably do that instead. And you will soon learn the hard way that sales ability is at least as important as skill with a camera.

An Executive Portrait: CEO Paul Syek.

As a high-schooler, my grandson Devlin was quite interested in photography. During his sophomore and junior years, I took him to professional photography seminars because I wanted him to get a glimpse of the inner workings of the profession. He realized that he was interested, but not that interested. Now, as a college student, he makes some side money with his photography and is happy with that.

To sum up: It has long been my observation that anyone with reasonable skills can pick up some money doing photography as a sideline. But when one depends upon photography for his/her living, it can be very difficult indeed. 

The photographs: Great Room at the Chanticleer Lodge: Canon EOS 5D Classic camera, Canon EF 24mm f3.5L tilt/shift lens. CEO Paul Syek: 4x5 Calumet film camera, 150mm Caltar lens, 4x5 Fujichrome 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 $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    film photography     Canon EOS 5d Classic camera     Canon EF 24mm f3.5L tilt/shift lens      Fujichrome 4x5 film     Chanticleer Lodge    executive portraits     architectural/interiors photography    photography as a career    

The Kindness of Friends

65 Miles to Rock City

US Hwy. 127, Bledsoe County, TN

Olympus OM2n, 60-200 f4 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100

 

Reposted from September, 2021.

In late summer of 1993, Louise and I were going through an especially difficult time. The contractor who was building our home had just gone bankrupt, holding 82 percent of our money and leaving us with a house that was not 82 percent finished.

Our friends John and Ann Huckaba took note of our discouragement and invited us to come with them on a Sunday afternoon outing to Crossville, Tennessee to see a performance at the Cumberland County Playhouse.

Afterward, we ate at the excellent restaurant at Cumberland Mountain State Park, then walked down to the lake. Naturally, I had a camera with me, so I made a few photos of canoes pulled up on the dock.

Driving home on U.S. Highway 127 in rich evening light, we passed a barn with one of  Rock City's ubiquitous signs. I asked John if he would stop so I could make a picture. He did, and I did, resulting in one of my favorite Rock City barn photographs.

This was more than a year before I actually began commissioned work on my book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, but I was already gathering photographs of the barns as I found them. Having a number of good barn photos to show Bill Chapin, the president of See Rock City, Inc., was what actually sealed the deal on the book project. 

Canoes at Cumberland Mountain State Park

Cumberland County, TN

Olympus OM2n, 60-200 f4 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100

It was a refreshing and encouraging day for Louise and me. We will always be grateful for the kindness of friends. And because I had a camera with me and my eyes were open to noticing things, I have two of my favorite pictures to help us remember the day.

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 2021-25 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    film photography     Olynpus OM2n camera     Olympus Zuiko 60-200mm lens       Fujichrome 100 film     Crossville, Tennessee    Cumberland County Playhouse     Rock City barns     Cumberland Mountain State Park     Rock City Barns: A Passing Era     canoes     barns

The Backroads Traveler: Three Great Northeast Georgia Mills

 The restored Healan Mill, Hall County.

 Featured in today's post are three beautiful old mills located in a relatively compact area of northeast Georgia between Gainesville and Clarkesville.

First is the Healan Mill, on the headwaters of the North Oconee River at 5751 Whitehall Road, off U.S. Highway 23 north of Gainesville. It has been fully restored as the centerpiece of a new Hall County park.

Built by William "Billy" Head in 1852 and originally known as Head's Mill, the mill has gone through a series of owners during its colorful history -- Heard, Shore, Hyde, and Turner were some of the names -- and finally, it was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Healan, whose name stuck. During the Civil War, the legend says that Billy Head and his wife used a hollowed-out log under the mill wheel to hide gold and silver from raiders. Later, around the turn of the century, a wine press, cotton gin, and sawmill were added to the mill's operations.

Ragsdale Mill, Banks County.

On Mt. Olivet road, in a secluded valley east of Homer, is the Ragsdale Mill on Nail's Creek. 

The first mill on the creek was built sometime before 1837. The Reverend Ragsdale, who was a man of many facets, acquired the mill site and 257 acres of land from his father in 1853 and built the mill in 1863. The millstones were imported from France and brought into Savannah by blockade runners bypassing the U.S. Navy guarding the port. In its heyday, the mill also included a threshing machine and a sawmill. 

The site includes the Ragsdale homestead and a Grange Hall, which also served as a schoolhouse. The Reverend Ragsdale was a visionary who hoped to establish a town to be called Nail's Creek, with the church, the mill, the Grange Hall, and the school as its nucleus.

The town never materialized, but perhaps it's just as well. This is one of the most serene and beautiful places to which my Georgia travels have taken me. The Sisk family, who now own the property, have thoughtfully provided picnic tables and chairs in which to sit and enjoy the peace.

Short's Mill, Habersham County. 

One of my all-time favorite mills. I use this picture as the screen-saver on my computer, so I look at it every day. 

Also known as Laudermilk (or Loudermilk) Mill, Short's Mill on Little Hazel Creek was probably built in 1880, although some sources say the mid-1800s. Operations ceased in 1970, but even after more than 50 years the structure appears to be in remarkably good condition. The sluiceway is long gone, of course, but the overshot wheel is still in place. 

The mill is about four miles south of Clarkesville and is set well back on the east side of the road. If you're coming from the south it will be difficult to see until you are almost past it.

Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.

About the photographs: The Healan Mill was photographed on January 23, 2018, with a Fuji X-Pro1 digital camera and the Fujinon XF 27mm lens. The Ragsdale Mill was photograhed on October 27, 2016, with a Canon EOS 6D camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. For Short's Mill, which I photographed on October 11, 2010, I used a Canon EOS 5D Classic with the Canon EF 24-85mm 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 $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    digital photography     Fuji X-Pro1 camera     Fujinon XF 27mm lens       Canon EOS 6D camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera    Canon EF 24-85mm lens   old mills     Healan Mill     Ragsdale Mill     Short's Mill     Northeast Georgia

Sixty Years! (and Counting)

August 21, 1965. Off to see the world in our '59 Volkswagen.

We made it! Sixty years! Today is our sixtieth anniversary. What a trip it has been! From our wedding in Tallahassee to Miami, to Chattanooga, to 33 years on a small farm in North Georgia's McLemore Cove, to two years in a fifth-wheel travel trailer, and now to Knoxville. It has been the adventure of a lifetime. As Louise once said when I asked her why she married me, "One reason was because I thought it would be an adventure."

I have been blessed beyond measure to have shared my life with this exceptional, deeply intelligent, multi-talented woman, who has an invincible spirit and a work ethic that puts me to shame.

Not that it's been all lollipops and roses. We have had our share of hard times and times when it appeared that the thread that held us together was in danger of breaking. But we were held together by the grace of God, by our commitment to him, to each other, and to our marriage. 

We call our dog Max "the dog that saved our marriage." In the early '90s when we were building our house, there were the usual disagreements about where to spend and where to cut costs. In the midst of that, our builder went bankrupt with 82 percent of our money. The house was not 82 percent complete. There was so much anger that we could hardly speak to each other. It was "Max, tell your mother. . ."  "Max, tell your father. . ." 

But by God's grace we survived, and lived happily in that house for 26 years. I asked Louise this morning what she felt was the reason our marriage had endured. She answered quickly "Commitment." And so it was. 

If I could offer a few words of advice, this is what I would say:

1. Build your marriage on God.

2. Always be courteous to each other.

For those who read my post about our family reunion/anniversary celebration in Indiana, I should explain that it was held in early August so that family members with children in school could attend. But our actual anniversary is today.

The beginning of something good.

Our wedding was held at the Thomasville Road Baptist Church in Tallahassee. It wasn't our church, but was borrowed because we were attending a start-up church that didn't yet have a building. We dashed down the steps in a shower of rice and headed off in our little blue Volkswagen to begin life's greatest adventure.

Here's something I wrote on the last page of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia, in a chapter about the north Georgia mountains:

"One of my most poignant memories is of the last day of our honeymoon. Louise and I had spent a week in the North Georgia mountains; the last several days in a small resort across from Vogel State Park. 

On this last day, we packed our Volkswagen and drove over the mountain to the fork at Turner's Corner. To the right, down U.S. 19, lay home, responsibility. . . life. I can still feel, even now, the powerful urging of my heart to choose the left fork and stay in the mountains forever. 

As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." 

So I did. And life has been good."

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 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:    marriage     north Georgia mountains    Old Volkswagens      Vogel State Park     marital advice

No Post Today. Come Back Tomorrow for a Special Post.

Sunrise in McLemore Cove.

Meanwhile, here's a picture I hope you'll like.

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 2016-2025 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

 

If It Looks Good, Shoot It!

 

Nurse at Crawford W. Long Hospital, Atlanta

(Now Emory University Hospital Midtown)

Canon EOS 10D, 28-70 f2.8L lens

(Adapted from a post from February, 2020.)

In 1972, I was hired as an intern/assistant/general dogsbody at a small, strictly non-Hollywood film production company in Chattanooga. We made what were called in those days “industrial” movies (basically short films made to promote and/or sell a product). We also made many training filmstrips, mostly for the fast-food industry. (For the younger set, I should explain that a filmstrip is a series of still photographs arranged in a story-telling sequence on a single strip of film with a recorded narration and shown by means of a special projector.)

I had been involved with photography since 1968, and was eagerly looking for a way to make a career out of it.

My first out-of-the studio assignment was to go along as a helper on a shoot for some audio-visual training filmstrips for the Arby’s Roast Beef restaurant chain. We went to a brand new store in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where everything was still sparkling new and clean.

As I said, my company was by no means a large operation. Usually, a two-man team was sent out on jobs like this: a director, who was also in many cases the script writer, and a photographer. I was just along to help out and to gain experience. 

Our lighting setup for this kind of work usually consisted of three 1000-watt daylight blue tungsten floodlight bulbs in 18-inch reflectors which we called “scoops.” I was salivating with anticipation, because this was finally my chance to learn all about lighting ratios and exotic stuff like that.  

We set up the lights at the work area and the photographer moved them around a bit. He turned to the director and said, “That look okay to you?” The director said, “Looks good to me. Shoot it.”  

And thereby I learned the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned about photography: photography is all about how things look. If it looks good, it is good. Shoot it! 

 (And then, if you can, find a different angle and shoot it again. It may look even better.)

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 2016-2025 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     Canon EOS 10D digital camera     Canon 28-70mm f2.8L lens     Arby's Roast Beef Restaurants   commercial photography     audio-visual training films

The Backroads Traveler: Two Historic Churches in Hancock County, Georgia

Powelton Methodist Church.

I found Hancock County to be one of the most interesting places in Georgia. It has an historic courthouse, old mills, some really old houses, and an unusually large number of ancient churches. 

On Georgia Highway 22, about 15 miles northeast of Sparta, the county seat, is the sleepy village of Powelton, one of the oldest villages in Georgia and a very important town in post-Revolutionary War days.  

Powelton Methodist Church was built in 1830, although the congregation was organized long before that. The building has not been maintained recently and looks every one of its 190-plus years, although it appears to still be structurally sound. Some readers may recognize this as the church on the cover of the book Historic Rural Churches of Georgia.

Mount Zion Presbyterian Church.

About six or seven miles north of Sparta on Georgia 15 is the Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church. Built in 1814 at a cost of $700, the Greek Revival-style structure is all that remains of a once-thriving community with an academy that was one of Georgia’s most celebrated institutions. Famous educators and writers were associated with Mt. Zion, which is said to have narrowly lost to Athens as the location for the University of Georgia. 

I visited and photographed both churches on August 17, 2016. For the Powelton church I used an Olympus E-M5 camera with a Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm lens. The Mt. Zion church was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens.

Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.

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    digital photography     Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic Lumis 12-32mm lens       Canon EOS 6D camera     Canon EF 28-105mm lens     Historic churches     Hancock County, Georgia     Sparta, Georgia