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

The Loveliness of Light

 Sunrise casts golden beams and long shadows toward the old (1894) Cove Methodist Church, on GA Hwy 341 south of Chickamauga.

As I'm sure most of my readers know, the word "photograph" is derived from two Greek words: photos, which means light, and grapho, which means to write. So when we photograph, we are literally writing with light.

It is light which makes our photographic subjects visible and gives them form and color. Without light there is no photography. Learning to see and use light is a lifetime journey for the serious photographer.

Light is different at different times of day. Morning light is warm, and softer than at other times of day. It's my favorite kind of light (if I didn't have to get up so early to enjoy it!). Through the middle of the day, if it's sunny, the light is clear and can be harsh and contrasty, while evening light is warm and softer, though not as soft as morning light. 

Sometimes I've had assignments which required me to shoot through the day, so I did the best I could with the light available. But my preferred way of working is to shoot in the good light of morning and evening and take a break or, sometimes, shoot interiors through the middle of the day.

Morning in Susie's Sunset Cafe, LaFayette, Georgia.

I always felt that Susie’s Sunset Café should have been named Susie’s Sunrise Café, because the early morning sun streamed in through the plate-glass front windows and illuminated everything all the way to the back wall.

Susie’s had booths down each side but it also had a couple of long tables down the center where lawyers, businessmen, farmers, factory workers, and gas station attendants ate their breakfasts together and chewed the fat (no reflection on the bacon or sausage) in amiable equality. 

I love the way the light illuminates the things that need to be revealed, giving them shape and form, and hides everything else in shadow.

Technical notes: The photograph of Cove Methodist Church was made with a Canon EOS 20D, while Susie's Cafe was photographed with an Olympus SPn rangefinder camera with a non-interchangeable 40mm lens on Fuji color negative 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    digital photography   film photography    Olympus SPn rangefinder camera   Canon EOS 20D camera  Fuji color negative film    rangefinder cameras

The Backroads Traveler: The Old Sautee Store

 

 The Old Sautee Store is just a few minutes from Helen in northeast Georgia.

The Old Sautee Store is the oldest operating general store in Georgia. Located in the Sautee-Nacoochee Valley, just minutes from Helen, it was a full-service country store selling food, clothing, seed, and farm equipment, and was also the post office from 1913 until 1962. The store interior has been preserved as a museum, with an original fireplace and merchandise displays to show the way things were a hundred and more years ago

The rest of store is quite up to date, with a modern grocery section specializing in a variety of cheeses, and even an ice cream shop.

In front of the store is an old-time gas pump. In order to dispense gas, the motorist had first to work a lever on the side of the pump, which brought gas from an underground tank to the glass reservoir at the top of the pump. 

The reservoir was marked in gallons, so when the desired amount of gas had been pumped into it, the buyer put the hose nozzle into his tank inlet and released the gas in the reservoir, filling his tank by gravity.

The counter and shelves of the Old Sautee store still look as they did a hundred years ago.

 

The photographs were made with a Canon EOS 5D Classic and a Canon EOS 20D.

 

 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   travel photography    Canon EOS 5D Classic    Canon EOS 20D   Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia    Northeast Georgia foothills    Georgia history    general stores

The Chicken Farmer of Cook County

 

Chicken Farmer Danny Gandy with pet rooster.

U.S. Highway 41, Cook County, Georgia

"This is not a fighting cock."

 

(Too busy to write, so I'm reposting a blog from December, 2020)

Traveling north through Cook County on U.S. Highway 41 after leaving his sick Honda with a mechanic friend near Hahira, Michael Largent and I noticed a small house beside the road with a yard full of the distinctive shelters often used by those who raise fighting cocks. Each shelter had a large and colorful rooster attached to it by a tether.

Danny Gandy's 

chicken farm. Although some of the

roosters appear to be free, they are actually tethered.

I thought it was a sight worth photographing, so we pulled off the road. In a few moments we were met by the affable Danny Gandy, owner of the establishment, who explained to us that these were not fighting chickens. It is not illegal to raise gamecocks in Georgia, but fighting them is. Nonetheless, the "sport" continues, with the law often looking the other way. 

Danny was very cooperative, allowing me to make as many photographs as I wished and proudly posing with his roosters, all the while assuring me that "these are not fighting chickens."

Despite all his assurances I somehow doubted if any of those roosters would ever see the inside of a WalMart freezer. But I wrote down Danny's address and sent him a print of the picture at the top of this post.

  

All photos Canon EOS 5D Classic, 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 EF lens.

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   travel photography    Canon EOS 5D Classic    Canon 24-85mm EF lens    fighting cocks    Cook County, Georgia    U.S. Highway 41