Photographing Missions in Africa: Ghana

 

Little Ghanaian girl surprised by the tall westerner pointing his camera at her.

 

In 1989 Church of God World Missions sent me to Africa to document their work in three countries -- Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia. I spent about a week in each country making photographs and gathering information.

My first stop was in Ghana, where, because of an error by the World Missions Department I waited in the airport hotel for two days before the National Overseer (equivalent to a bishop) showed up and took me to his home in Kumasi. The next morning we loaded into his Toyota Land Cruiser and set out to see what the church was doing in his country. 

Nurse Victoria Bade-Boakye examines a baby in the Church of God Clinic at Essianimpong as the mother looks on.

The Republic of Ghana is a smallish country in west Africa. Its area of 92,497 square miles  stretches from the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean to tropical rainforests in the north. With more than 35 million inhabitants, it is the 13th most populous country in Africa. The largest city is Accra, which is also the capitol. 

Women carrying their burdens the traditional way. It's great for the posture!

 

 

Ghana is a country of diverse ethnic and religious groups. Those claiming Christianity constitute 71 percent of the population, while Islam claims 20 percent.

Mosque at Kumasi. In Africa, the dark shadow of Islam is always a threat.

 

Ghana was a British Colony known as The Gold Coast for many years. In 1957, under the leadership of Kwame Nkruma, Ghana became the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence. It became a leader in the de-colonization movement.

The features of this Ghanaian boy bear a striking resemblance to those of Kwame Nkruma, the first president of Ghana.

 

 

All photos were made with Olympus OM film cameras on Fujichrome 100D film and scanned with a Konica-Minolta 5400 scanner.

 

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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

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.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

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 cameras      Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner    Fujichrome 10D0 film    Ghana     Africa     Church of God World Missions    Kumasi     Accra   The Gold Coast

Everybody Wants to Live a Long Time, but Nobody Wants to Be Old

here

 Man with pipe. Kumasi, Ghana.

Less than one month before my 89th birthday, old age is announcing its imminent arrival. My fall at Potter's Falls in 2024 (you can read about it here) caused nerve damage affecting my hips legs, and feet. It has greatly limited my walking, in particular, which affects my photography. I can walk as needed, but not far, and it isn't much fun. I hate that! When we were younger Louise and I often took our children on long walks. I miss those days.

The nerve damage also affects my balance. I've had a few falls,but nothing serious so far. 

Honestly, though, I can't blame the fall for all my aging troubles. In February, 2023, we moved from our 5th wheel travel trailer pulled by a honkin' big Ram 3500 dually into a townhome in Knoxville. My life is much more sedentary, and that's my fault.

Louise rocks on, with occasional very painful back spasms interspersed with occasional good days. Today is one of them, so she went shopping.

Other than that, I've been scanning slides from my Africa file for upcoming posts about Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia. My old Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner (now there's a mouthful!) makes beautiful scans, but it is slow, slow, slow --15-20 minutes per scan.

How do you like my Ghanain man with his pipe? More good stuff coming on Wednesday, I hope. His picture was made with an Olympus OM film camera and Fujichrome 100 film.

 

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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

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.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

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 filmcameras      Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner    Ghana Fujichrome 100 film    Ghana

The Handyman Rides Again

 

 The reworked (again!) bathroom sink and counter. Photographed with my trusty Fuji X-T3 and the 16-80mm lens.

Sorry my posts have been sporadic of late. We have been very busy. First, there's income tax day, which will be here by the time you read this (and I'm not finished with ours!). Then, there's the matter of dealing with our insurance company to replace our hail-damaged roof. And last but not at all least is the sink and countertop installation I wrote about here.

Everything was fine, we thought. But then we noticed that the sink basin had cracked. How, we don't know. But it had to be replaced, and in the process of taking it out we managed to do some damage to the wooden countertop. We wound up having to sand it back to the bare wood, then refinishing it and installing a new basin of a different design.

To accomplish all this, I had to get on my back on the floor three times -- something I had vowed never to do again. I almost didn't make it up the last time. But it's done, never to be done again (I pray!). Good grief! I'll be 89 next month! Can I quit now?

I've been working on a series of posts about photographing in Africa for a mission organization and hope to get those up soon. But to do that, I need to scan some slides from my files, and unfortunately, my Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner which has served me faithfully for than 20 years is being uncooperative. (It seems to be working now, but grudgingly.)

 If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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

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.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

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    handyman work    home improvement Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner    Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon 16-80mm lens

Magic Light

Rock City Barn Ga-26.

I found this Rock City barn on U.S. Highway 19, just south of Butler, in Taylor County, Georgia. It was not on the list Rock City had given me -- in fact, I learned about it from the mechanic who worked on my car.

The light was bland, but I made a few photos anyway, in case I were unable to return to the site, and went on south on Highway 19 to look for other barns.

That evening, I wound up in Macon and spent the night. I had been thinking about the "Butler barn" all day and felt that if I could get there early enough there might be a good picture.

So I did. I drove the 40 miles to Butler and arrived just as the sun began to rise, illuminating the barn and fields with its magic light.

On a side note: a few years later the barn was scheduled to be destroyed to allow the four-laning of Highway 19. The Taylor County Agricultural Agent bought the barn and had it moved across the fields to his own property, where it remains to this day, as far as I know.

Sourwood Lane and the old entrance to Deer Run Farm.

The late afternoon sun casts a lazy, hazy backlight, gently illuminating the field and the old gravel farm road and gate, disclosing their forms and textures, evoking nostalgia for  summer days past.

Backlight is one of the most magical forms of light. James Ravilious used it very frequently in his photographs of Devon country life.

Behind me as I made this photo was the site of our first home in McLemore Cove, a 12 by 40-foot refurbished mobile home where we lived our first four years. 

Tech stuff: Both photographs were made on film -- the barn with Fujichrome 100D in a Canon EOS A2, and Sourwood Lane with Kodachrome 64 in an Olympus OM camera.

 If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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

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.

Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.  

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 camera   Canon EOS A2 camera  Fujichrome 100D film   Kodachrome 64 film   Rock City barns    McLemore Cove    James Ravilious