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