Bias? Whose Bias?

ELECT CLINTON LORD

Sign on a highway in East Georgia.

Do you think this is what she's really wanted all along?

Olympus OM camera, Fujichrome 100 film 

 

Although I try to stay away from politics in this blog, in a post last December I happened to mention President Trump in a favorable way. That promptly elicited a comment from one of my readers, who signed himself "Anonymous."

(Let me state for the record here that I have been posting on numerous internet fora for more than 30 years and have never once signed myself as "Anonymous." If I'm not willing to put my name on it, I don't post it.)

Anyway "Anonymous" wrote: "Great president? I admire your photography writing so I am curious what you find "great" about this president." He went on to list some of the things he didn't like about Mr. Trump.

He further wrote: "It's sad and a bit terrifying when seemingly kind, empathetic writers turn out to be this way. The only way I can explain it to myself is successful brainwashing over the last decades. I do hope you come to reconsider your views at some point. (For example, is an obvious blind hate for 'the left, who is out to get you', really who you want to be as a person?)"

Leftists, of course, consider themselves to be without bias. But where is the actual bias here? He finds my writing to be "kind" and "empathetic," which he cannot reconcile with my support for Mr. Trump. Apparently I have been "brainwashed" and have "blind hate." I'm even "a bit terrifying." (Don't tell my wife, who is most assuredly not afraid of me.)

What's the message here? That anyone who would support Mr. Trump, which I have done and continue to do, is some kind of troglodyte, or at best has been brainwashed.

But this cannot be bias, because as everyone knows, leftists are not biased.

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Tags: Photography, Dave Jenkins, Olympus OM camera, Fujichrome film, President Trump, roadside signs

The Tall Tobacco Barns

Rainbow Springs sign on tobacco barn.

U.S. Hwy. 41, Cook County, Georgia

Canon EOS A2 digital camera 

 

 Once they numbered in the thousands. But the distinctively-shaped tall tobacco barns of the southern coastal plain are just about all gone now, done in by progress and changing cultural trends. 

Usually built of logs or planks, the tall, thin, traditional barns were developed for a method of tobacco drying called flue-curing, invented way back in 1838. Flue-cured tobacco is dried at low heat without being exposed to smoke, a process that yields a mild, lemon-yellow-colored leaf called “bright,” which is popular for cigarettes. 

A decline in the popularity of smoking, with a consequent reduction in tobacco growing made many of the barns redundant, and the development of computer-controlled curing sheds of insulated metal and plastic made all of them obsolete. 

Left to themselves, the barns are falling down from disuse, neglect, and disrepair. Some have been damaged by hurricanes, and others have been leveled by fire. So whether you smoke or not, drive around and see a few of the old tobacco barns. They're a beautiful part of the South's historical landscape, and they won't be here forever.

And you don’t even have to inhale to enjoy them.

(Text and photograph from my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.)

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

 

Fall in the North Georgia Mountains

 Although these leaves appear to be floating on water, they were actually

 attached to a low-hanging limb. Louise and I were on a Sunday

 afternoon walk with friends along Chickamauga Creek in McLemore Cove.

Hasselblad 500 CM, 80mm lens, Fujichrome film

 

Short's Mill, near Clarkesville. One of my favorites.

Canon 5D Classic, Fujichrome film

Graysville Mill, Graysville, Georgia,

before it was burned by vandals.

Rolleicord 5b camera, Ektachrome 120 film

Cycling toward Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera, Panasonic 14-140mm lens

 

If fall come, can winter be far behind?

Actually, I'm getting revenge on this tree,

which fell on me and broke a rib.

Pentax 6x7 camera, Kodachrome film in 120 size

Count Your Blessings. 'Nuff said!

Canon 5D Classic, Fujichrome film

Photographs and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

 

Tags: photography, Pentax 6x7 camera, Fujichrome film, Canon 5D Classic camera, Hasselblad 500 CM camera, Rolleicord camera, Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera, Panasonic lens, Kodachrome 120 film, North Georgia, Brasstown Bald mountain, old mills

  

October

 Blue and Gold

Chickamauga Creek near its source in McLemore Cove,

Walker County, Georgia.

Pentax 6x7, 105mm f2.5 Takumar lens, Fujichrome 100 film

 

The best of all months is October.

Some may prefer April or May, and I like them too, but I love October. The summer heat has broken so the nights are cool, but the days are mostly warm and since it doesn’t usually rain much the skies are clear almost every day.

October light is the most beautiful because the air is so clear that the long, slanting rays of the southward-moving sun illuminate everything in their paths with a special brilliance while casting everything else in deep shadow. Fall color usually peaks right around the last week of October in the North Georgia mountains. Leaf colors are softer than they are farther north, but no less beautiful.

October is the month for the first frost, for arts and crafts fairs, for a briskness in the air that makes you glad to be alive, and for taking someone you love for a long walk to look at the leaves.

(Text and photograph from my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.)

 

Chickamauga Creek flows from south to north, through the village of Chickamauga and Chickamauga Battlefield, to both of which it lends its name. The creek, in turn, takes its name from the Chickamaugas, a sub-tribe of the Cherokees.

The Pentax 6x7, with its 2-1/4 x 2-3/4 film format, was regarded by many as the premier medium format field camera. I worked with one for many years and believe to this day that I got my highest percentage of "keepers" from the Pentax. Yet, when I got my first digital SLR, a Canon 10d with a six megapixel sensor, I did some tests and found that the 10D made 16x20 prints that were indistinguishable from prints from the Pentax.

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

 

Tags: photography, medium format photography, Pentax 6x7 cameras, Takumar lenses, Fujichrome film, Canon 10D camera, Chickamauga Battlefield, Chickamauga Creek

Talking about Technique

Pool and Southeast Elevation of My Former Home

(Made for the Realtor)

Fuji X-T1 camera, Fuji XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 lens

 

Technique, as it applies to photography, consists of decisions about such matters as camera and lens selection, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, angle of view, point of focus, distance to subject, etc. As the great Fritz Henle, master of the Rolleiflex, said, "...seeing pictures is always tied up with technique...it is important to decide things like sharpness or unsharpness and not let them happen accidentally. It is equally important to command the techniques that get the effects you want."

In these days of auto-focus, auto-exposure, do-everything cameras, learning good technique may not seem all that important. After all, anyone can pick up a modern camera and make sharp, well-exposed pictures. And for many, that's good enough. But if you want to make photographs that are truly your own, you need to learn to control every part of the picture-making process.

One of the things I especially dislike is the minimum depth-of-field trend -- shooting all photos at the lens's maximum aperture. This is certainly a valid technique -- for some photos. It's good to know how to throw a background -- or a foreground -- out of focus, when it's appropriate for the subject matter. But not every photo. For most of my photos I want more, rather than less, depth-of-field. As Henle said, "it is important to decide things. . .and not let them happen accidentally.

In the photo above, showing the pool and rear of our former home, I used a wide-angle zoom lens (24mm equivalent), which has inherent depth-of-field. I then used an aperture of f11, to increase depth-of-field even more to ensure that both the pool in the foreground and the far corner of the house were in the plane of acceptable sharpness.

If you're happy with letting your camera make technical decisions for you, enjoy. If you want to become a better photographer, learn to make these decisions yourself, or at least check the settings your camera recommends and see if they are what you want. For instance, I usually keep my X-Pro1 set on Program. But before I shoot, I usually check the settings the program is giving me and make changes if I don't like what I see.

Photograph and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

Sometimes You Really Do Need the Best

Bald Eagle in Flight

Copyright Philip N. Jenkins, 2021

 

In my previous post I wrote that most of us do not need the latest and greatest cameras and lenses to make the photographs we want to make. Elliott Erwitt and Henri Cartier-Bresson made most of their iconic photographs with Leicas and 50mm lenses. Each man refined his vision and simplified his tools to express that vision.

But photography is a big tent, and some types of photography call for specialized tools. Cartier-Bresson and his 50mm lens would certainly have found many interesting things to photograph at a football game, but might have had some difficulty with the on-field action. That's the province of the guys with the long lenses and high-speed motor drives. That's just common sense. It's not rocket science.

My brother Phil, however is a rocket scientist. He retired a few years ago as a GS15, the highest level in the civil service, after a career spent working on rocket designs in Huntsville, Alabama. But his avocation is wildlife photography, especially birds, and for that he has a Canon R5 and long, fast lenses. He and his wife Erin, whom he infected with his enthusiasm, pay regular visits to marsh areas teeming with birds and wildlife that they have discovered near Huntsville.

I greatly admire Phil's photographs and love looking at them. I couldn't do the work he does, and if I could, I couldn't do it with the equipment I have. But that's Phil's niche in  photography and he has the tools for it. I have my own niche and the appropriate kit for the things I do.

Phil posts frequently on the Fred Miranda site and has given me permission to share some of his photos with you, which I will be doing from time to time.

In photography as in racing, it is, as the English say, "Horses for courses."

 

Photograph copyright 2021, Philip N. Jenkins. Text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone