Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Seeing Photos: Look for Something Out of Place

The Satellite Dish, GA Highway 22, Taliaferro County

Learning to see photographically is a lifelong process, as I said in my previous post about unleashing your imagination. Another good way to develop your ability to see photographically is to look for things out of place. I call it the principle of incongruity.

The world is full of strange and wonderful things if we will only open our eyes to see them. Sometimes we even need a little help. My son Rob and I were driving along a street on the edge of Clarksville, Georgia, when he suddenly said, "Look, Dad!" I looked, and sure enough, there were dragons in someone's back yard!

Dragons in the Back Yard, Clarkesville, Habersham County, Georgia

One of the best examples of incongruity I've ever seen is this great photo by B.A. "Tony" King, probably the greatest American photographer you've never heard of.

A harp! Abandoned in a farmer's field! Who would leave a valuable instrument such as a harp to molder away in a field? A simple photograph, but full of mystery, showing us the strangeness that's so often present in the midst of the commonplace of life. If our eyes are open to see it.

Signed copies of the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are now 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 me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: photography photographic seeing Taliferro County, Georgia Clarkesville, Georgia Habersham County, Georgia B.A. "Tony" King

Monday, August 28, 2023

Photographic Seeing: Unleashing Your Imagination

Crazy, cock-eyed spider

Clinging to Life

The Rise of the Swamp Monster

As I said in my previous post, if you have a reasonably good camera and a lens or two and you can use them to make reasonably sharp, well-exposed pictures, your problem is probably not your camera. Any camera made in the last ten years or so is capable of making those sharp, well-exposed pictures. If you're not getting that kind of results, you probably need to read the manual.

But if your photos are sharp and well-exposed and you're still not happy with them, the problem is probably with your seeing. You need to learn to see photographically.

How do you learn to do that? One of the first steps is to unleash your imagination.

Look at the picture at the top of this post. It's one I've shown a few times before. What do you see? Do you see a bale of hay, several pieces of plastic sewer pipe, and a couple of pie plates? Or do you see a crazy, cock-eyed spider?

Look at the next picture? Do you see a lightning-blasted, nearly dead tree? Or do you see a tree that against all odds is clinging tenaciously to life?

And what about the third picture? Do you see a stump that has been trimmed by the highway crew to keep it from falling across the road? Or do you see a monster rising from the swamp?

Unleash your imagination. Look around your world. See what's there, and then ask yourself, what else is there?

Learning to see photographically is a lifelong project. But learning to let your imagination roam free is a start. More to come.

(The spider was photographed on film, but I can't remember when, or what camera was used. The other two pictures were made with my trusty Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera in May, 2010 during my first book photography tour around Georgia.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: photography photographic seeing Canon EOS 5D Classic camera travel Georgia

Friday, August 25, 2023

If Your Pictures Suck, A Better Camera Won't Help

Boynton Beauty Salon, Old Highway 2, Catoosa County, Georgia

On the other hand, it might.

Maybe.

If you're happy with the pictures you're getting from your cell phone camera, why change? Some people are doing really good work, even professional work, with cell phones. And they're great for quick snaps of family and friends and the like.

Or maybe you have a nice digital SLR, or even one of the new mirrorless ones. Unless you're really screwing things up, your camera is probably giving you sharp, properly exposed photographs.

If all you want is sharp, well-exposed pictures of your family and friends, maybe pictures of the places you go, and the things you see as you go about your life, you probably already have what you need.

But if you're not satisfied with your pictures, the problem most likely is not your camera. It's with your seeing.

(To be continued.)

(Photo made with Nikkormat FTN camera, 50mm Nikkor lens, Kodachrome film.)

Signed copies of the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are now available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com. Or, you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: photography Nikkormat FTN camera Nikkor 50mm lens

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Cameras I Have Loved

My first good camera was a Nikon F, the leading professional camera of its day. I used it for a few years before selling it at a time when I was short of money. When I began my own business in 1978 I had a pair of Nikkormats (noisy and clunky, but reliable), and later acquired a Nikon F2, which I did not like. However, I had had my eye on the tiny, new Olympus OM cameras for some time, and my dislike for the F2 led me to take the plunge and buy two Olympus bodies and several lenses.

The Olympus OM2n, pictured at the left front, was the camera that went with me to 28 countries on five continents on photojournalism assignments, including our trip to Eastern Europe in 1990. You can read about it here. It's my all-time favorite camera. Sadly, my original OM2n was sold in 1992 when I switched to Canon because my ageing eyes needed autofocus. The one shown is one I bought out of pure sentiment.

The Canon EOS A2, right rear, is one of a pair I bought while working on the Rock City Barns book. They were great cameras, precise, quiet, and reliable; and served me very well for eight years. When I switched to digital photography in 2003, I kept this one. Again, for sentimental reasons.

Front right is my current love, a Fuji X-T20 which I got in 2017. I had never actually handled one before, and when I unwrapped it, I was surprised at how small it is -- smaller, even, than the OM2n. Although I have large hands, I've always preferred small cameras. But the X-T20 was too small. I had reached my small size limit! A nifty little black half-case fixed that, though, and made it handle just right. This was the camera I used most on our trip west in 2018 and to Nova Scotia in 2019, and is the camera I carry with me most days.

Last, but by no means least is the Fuji X-H1, left rear. A powerful picture-taking machine, it's larger and heavier than the X-T20. I used it for most of the new photography for the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia. Because of its size and weight, it balances better with my large Canon flash unit, and also with my Fujinon 55-200 f3.5-4.5 zoom lens.

I've owned a lot of cameras in my career, but these four stand out. The only one missing is the Canon EOS 5D Classic, which I used for eight years before upgrading to an EOS 6D. It was a great, reliable camera which made most of the pictures in my book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait. (Still looking for a publisher for that one.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: photography travel Nikon F camera Nikon F2 camera Olympus OM2n camera Canon EOS A2 camera Fujinon X-T20 camera Fujinon X-H1 camera Canon EOS 5D camera Canon EOS 6D camera Fujinon 55-200 lens Eastern Europe Nova Scotia

Monday, August 21, 2023

More about Beginnings

Oooh, this test!

Young people have sometimes asked me “How can I get started in professional photography?”

I'm afraid I couldn't be very helpful, because my way into the profession was different from most. I 've written a few posts recently about how I began in photography, but here's a more detailed answer.

In the summer of 1968 my second son was born. We were living in Miami at the time, and the only camera I had was an old Kodak Brownie with a sticky shutter. Obviously, something better was needed to make pictures of the new baby. I found a magazine ad from a company offering to give me a brand new Kodak Instamatic camera and five film cartridges for free if I would send the film to their lab for processing.

Not long after that I bought a photo magazine — the August,1968 issue of Popular Photography. Then more magazines followed, and better cameras. I was hooked. (As for the influence of the magazines, I think it would be fair to say that I would not be a photographer today if it had not been for photo magazines.)

Also in August, 1968, I began a new job: teaching in a private school. The following year, I was asked to be the faculty advisor to the yearbook staff. By that time, I had acquired a Nikon F and two lenses -- a 35mm f2.8, and a 135mm f2.8, both Tamrons. The school also had a Yashica 24 twin-lens reflex donated by the yearbook company. As it happened, I wound up making all the candid photos for the yearbook and doing the layout as well. I also photographed school activities and sports and sold prints to the students and their parents -- a practice that would probably be frowned upon these days, but it was a private, not a public, school, times were different then, and it was all perfectly acceptable. In the process, I realized that I liked photography better than teaching.

After that year, I moved my family back to the Chattanooga area, which I consider my home town even though I was not born there, and began looking for ways to get into photography full-time. I picked up a few small commercial jobs, but nowhere near enough to make a living, tried my hand at selling life insurance (a disaster), and worked a year at a newspaper doing page layout.

In the summer of 1972, I followed up a classified ad I found in my paper and applied for a job at Continental Film Productions, a small film and audio-visual production company. I was interviewed, but nothing happened until that fall, when I was called in for a second interview and hired as a trainee/general dogsbody. Over the next four or five years I worked my way up to producer/director/writer before leaving for a year as director of advertising for another company.

On January 1, 1978 I began my own business in my basement, with a $3000 deposit to create a catalog for an electronics company. From there, it has been a long, sometimes adventurous, often difficult, always interesting, ride. Truly a life in photography.

(About the photo: Carol was taking a test in my history class. My Yashica TLR was sitting on the corner of my desk. I reached over and quietly squeezed the shutter.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: photography Nikon F camera Tamron lenses Yashica twin-lens reflex camera

Friday, August 18, 2023

The Tour that Didn't Get Published

The 1894 Harville House, Bulloch County, Georgia

When Countryman Press first contacted me about doing a second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia, the editor asked me, in addition to updating and expanding the original 15 tours, to create an additional tour.

For the first edition of the book, I drove more than 11,000 miles. For the second edition, since I was retracing the original 15 tours, I only drove about 7,500 miles. For the new tour I planned a route along Interstate 16 in east central Georgia, going both north and south of the interstate.

The tour began with the magnificent ruin of the 1894 Harville House south of Statesboro and included historic houses, churches, courthouses and one unique old mill in Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Emmanuel, and Jenkins counties. It ended in Bulloch county in a little, vanishing community called Hopulikit. I drove more than 600 miles to map it out and photograph each site. It cost me a good bit of time and money.

After all that, the editor (a new one by this time) cancelled inclusion of the tour in the book, citing increased costs of paper and printing. But I can share a few of the pictures with the readers of this blog and it will eventually wind up as an article in Georgia Backroads magazine, so it isn't a total loss.

The picture below is the unique mill I mentioned above. It's the Parrish Mill, built in 1880 atop a dam on 15 Mile Creek. An unique combination of both grist mill and covered bridge, it's now part of George L. Smith State Park near Twin City.

The 1880 Parrish Mill and Covered Bridge in George L. Smith State Park.

(Both photos were made with the Fuji X-H1 camera with the Fujinon XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 lens.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: Travel Georgia travel Parrish Mill George L. Smith State Park Fuji X-H1 camera Fujinon XC 16-50 lens Fujifilm cameras Fujinon lenses

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The Book Is Here!

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've read about my newest book, the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia. As the ad copy says:

A Road Guide to the Peach State.

Georgia is a big state, densely packed with interesting things to see and do. For Backroads & Byways of Georgia, Dave Jenkins traveled nearly more than 11,000 miles to explore Georgia and map out fifteen tours encompassing the best the state has to offer. Take a ride from Savannah to St. Mary's along the historic Atlantic coast, cruise the Appalachians in the northwest, drive the broad plains of the southwest, or explore the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia’s northeast.

With so much geographical diversity, Georgia makes a remarkable driver’s getaway. Everywhere you look, there's something new to discover: abundant natural beauty, the historic, the quirky and offbeat, the strange and unusual, and the beautiful. Old houses, old churches, old courthouses, old mills, covered bridges and historic sites.

This book equips you with itineraries appropriate for trips of differing durations and in different seasons, tips for comfortable accommodations, great food, and good shopping too.

Signed copies are available directly from me for $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com. Or, you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like to have your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: travel Georgia travel photography

Monday, August 14, 2023

My Way into Photography

Children in a special needs class in a Chattanooga elementary school.

I haven't photographed students in classrooms for more than 20 years, but I still miss it.

Actually, photographing school activities was how I got my start in photography. In 1969, I was a teacher at a private school in Miami and was assigned the job of yearbook advisor. Partly because of my new-found enthusiasm for photography, and partly because none of the students on the yearbook staff seemed interested in doing it, I wound up photographing the full gamut of school activities, from sports to classrooms. I realized I liked photography better than teaching and began to think about a career change.

It took a while, but on January 1, 1978 I began my own business as a full-time photographer, taking on what ever work I could get. Some of it, fortunately, was for schools and colleges. In the 1980s and '90s I hoped to make photography for education a substantial part of my business, and although I did a lot of work in that area it never developed to the extent that I had hoped.

But still -- photographing in schools was always interesting and always enjoyable, and I'm grateful for the experiences I had.

The Foundation for Public Education chose the above photograph and another one from the same set to be made into 40x60-inch prints which hung in their offices for many years.

(Photograph made in December, 2001 with a Canon EOS A2 camera, Canon 80-200mm f2.8L lens (sometime called "the Magic Drainpipe"), and Fujichrome film.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: commercial photography photography Canon EOS A2 camera Canon 80-200 f2.8L lens Fujichrome film film photography Foundation for Public Education

Friday, August 11, 2023

Photographing Education

Concentration!

Blog note: This is post #501 since I began this blog. A milestone of sorts.

One of the things I most enjoyed in my profession as a commercial photographer was the endless variety of assignments that came my way. For one client, I photographed robotic welding machines. For another, I photographed food delivery packaging (complete with contents to make them look nice) for everything from pizza delivery boxes to pastries. For a number of years I did all the advertising photography for Rock City Gardens.

I made the photographs for an advertising campaign for the opening of a new hospital. I did photo assignments for numerous magazines, photographed buildings for architects, made personal and business portraits, and even photographed weddings from time to come. And of course, photographed and wrote Rock City Barns and other books.

I also had the opportunity to photograph in many schools and colleges, something I especially enjoyed. One of my clients was the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide resources to teachers, principals, and schools in the local area. The intent young lady pictured above was photographed on one of my assignments for the PEF.

I usually photographed in classrooms where the students were fully aware of my presence. What's more, against all the advice I've heard or read, I often did it with one or more flash units on light stands. Whenever possible, I would have the person in charge introduce me and explain why I was there. Then I would ask the students to continue with whatever they were doing as if I were not there. I worked slowly at first, while they checked me out with sidelong glances; but they became used to my presence much more quickly than you would imagine and were once again fully involved in their activity, yet with an awareness which produced a kind of hyper-intentness and concentration. I almost always got well-lit pictures with heightened emotional and dramatic impact.

(Photo made with a Canon EOS A2 camera and Fujichrome film.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: commercial photography photography Canon EOS A2 cameras Fujichrome film film photography Public Education Foundation Rock City Gardens

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Just Looking. . .(and Seeing)

Bottoms Up! Berry College campus, Rome, Georgia, 1981.

If you've followed this blog for a while, you have surely noticed that I keep coming back to a singular theme -- noticing things.

Photography is both an art and a tool. You can do all kinds of things with photography, and as a long-time commercial photographer I've been involved in many of those uses. Yet, with all due respect for its other aspects and uses, the photography that most interests me is just looking: the art of observing and exploring the things I see as I go through life, and documenting them to share with others or simply to revisit for my own enjoyment.

The very great Elliott Erwitt was an extremely successful commercial photographer, but it's his personal work for which he will be remembered. In that regard, we share the same philosophy:

"Photography is simply a function of noticing things."

“It's just seeing - at least the photography I care about. You either see or you don't see. The rest is academic. Anyone can learn how to develop.”

In this sense, the observant photographer is like a little boy who finds something interesting and wants to tell everyone about it. He runs to his friends shouting "Hey, look what I found!"

Others may have different ideas, of course, but to me, that's the art at the heart of photography.

Hey! Look what I found!

Cockeyed Spider.

(The photograph of the two bottoms-up swans was made in 1981 with an Olympus OM film camera and Kodak Ektachrome film. I don't have a date or location for the hay spider, but it was photographed on film.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: Travel photography Elliott Erwitt cameras Olympus OM Kodak Ektachrome

Monday, August 7, 2023

The William Horton House, Jekyll Island

The ruins of the 1740 William Horton House, Jekyll Island, Georgia.

James Oglethorpe, who founded Savannah in 1733, also built Fort Frederica on St. Simon's Island in 1736. Major William Horton, who was second in command of Oglethorpe's regiment, settled on Jekyll Island in 1738 and began to build roads and clear land for planting, as well as building for himself a two-story plantation house of tabby, a durable mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water, which was a basic building material of early Georgia coastal settlers.

Completed in 1740, it is one of the oldest buildings in Georgia. The house was gutted by fire in the Spanish invasion of 1742, but was rebuilt. After 1886, when the island was sold to the Jekyll Island Club, the house unfortunately was allowed to deteriorate, until now only the sturdy tabby walls remain. The site is open daily, and there is no admission charge other than the entrance toll to the island.

In addition to other crops, Horton grew hops and barley on his plantation and operated Georgia's first brewery.

If you visit Jekyll Island, you might also like to check out the rest of the Historic District, where the clubhouse built by the millionaires of the Jekyll Island Club is now a surprisingly affordable historic hotel, and where many of their "cottages" have been restored and are open to the public. No longer just for rich people these days, Jekyll Island also has ten miles of beaches, four golf courses, a water park, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, plus hotels, cottages, and campgrounds.

(I photographed the Horton House on November 20th, 2016 with an Olympus OMD E-M5 digital camera and a Panasonic 12-32mm f3.5-5.6 lens.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: Travel photography Olympus camera OMD E-M5 Panasonic Lumix lens Georgia Jekyll Island Horton House

Friday, August 4, 2023

The Crescent Hill Baptist Church

The Crescent Hill Baptist Church near Helen, Georgia.

I first discovered this gem of a country church on my rambles through the North Georgia mountains in 2006. Located on Georgia Highway 17 about halfway between the Old Sautee Store and the town of Helen, the Crescent Hill Baptist Church sits on a small hill on the right side of the highway.

Built in 1872, it was originally known as the Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, but was acquired by a Baptist congregation in 1921. The church currently has about 150 members, and services are held each Sunday at 11 a.m. The pulpit, pews, and stained glass are all original, and the property is lovingly maintained. This is one of the prettiest country churches I've found in my travels.

The interior of the Crescent Hill Baptist Church.

I have to say that I really miss my ramblings around the Georgia countryside. I know there are plenty of interesting things to see in East Tennessee, but so far we've been preoccupied with getting settled in our new home in Knoxville, trying to sell our RV and truck, etc. I hope that soon I'll be able to get out and about with my camera and make some new pictures to post.

(The exterior photograph was made with a Canon EOS 5D Classic camera and the Canon USM 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens. The interior photo was made on October 29, 2016 with an Olympus OMD-E-M5 and a Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm f3.5-5.6 lens.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: Travel photography Canon EOS 5D camera Canon USM lens Panasonic Lumix lens Helen, Georgia Presbyterian Church Baptist Church old churches country churches Old Sautee Store North Georgia

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

St. Mary's Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church, St. Mary's, Georgia

I've seen many lovely old churches in my travels around Georgia, but one of the oldest and most beautiful is the Presbyterian church in St. Mary's, in the southeasternmost corner of the state.

A picture-perfect piece of architecture dating from 1808, it is one of the oldest Presbyterian church buildings in Georgia. The church was non-denominational until a young Presbyterian missionary named Horace Pratt came from New Jersey to St. Mary's in 1821. Through his influence, the church was incorporated as the First Presbyterian Church of St. Mary's in 1828 and remains in active service to this day.

The interior of St. Mary's Presbyterian Church.

Although established as a town by the British in 1787, St. Mary's was originally settled by the Spanish in 1566, just a year after the founding of St. Augustine, Florida, making it the second-oldest continuously occupied town in the United States. A charming little city, St. Mary's is well-known as the gateway to the Cumberland Island National Seashore.

(Both photos Canon EOS 6D.)

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

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

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

Tags: Travel photography Canon EOS Canon 6D cameras St. Mary's Georgia Presbyterian churches old churches St. Augustine Florida Cumberland Island

This blog is about photography, about life, and about my life in photography. I write about the tools, techniques, and philosophy of photography, about some of the things that happen in my life, and whatever else crosses my mind. I write the blog I would like to read, if someone else were writing it. My domain is the old, the odd, and the ordinary; the beautiful, the abandoned, and the about to vanish away. I am a visual historian of an earlier America and a recorder of the interface between man and nature; a keeper of vanishing ways of life.

Photographs and text © 2011-2024 David B. Jenkins