My Cameras

My cameras. All Fuji X-system. Left to right, the X-T20 with the XC 16-50mm lens, the X-H1 with the XF 55-200mm lens, and the X-Pro 1 with the XF 27mm lens. Not in the picture, because it's being used to make the picture, is my 60mm f2.4 macro lens. It's on my old Fuji X-T1, which is for sale.

I’ve always preferred small and light cameras. I had a 13-year love affair with the Olympus OM film system that lasted until aging eyes necessitated a change to the Canon autofocus system. I stuck with Canon for 24 years, moving with them into the digital world in 2003 with larger cameras and heavier lenses. 

 

The tipping point for me came in 2010, when I hauled two bodies and four lenses on a trip to Israel and Jordan. Sweating my load on the long walk into Petra, the ancient city carved into rock, I chanced to meet a man who was carrying only an Olympus E-P2 body with a tiny lens. I asked if I could hold his camera. What a revelation!

I had been reading about micro 4/3s, so when I got home, I ordered an Olympus E-PL1, then later, a pair of E-M5s and some lenses. I held onto my Canon kit for weddings, only upgrading my 5D to a 6D. Meanwhile, I read more and more about the Fuji X-series cameras.

In 2017 I made the break complete, selling all my Canon and Olympus m4/3s equipment and buying Fuji X-system bodies and lenses. I was surprised to find that a Fuji X-T20 is actually a little smaller than an Oly E-M5 and did not handle as well for me. I had reached my small-size limit! However, a nifty little black leather half-case from Amazon made it handle just right. I'm happy with my choice, and the wedding photographer I worked with was happy with the files, which she (a Canon 5D4 shooter) described as "pretty."

 

I use the X-T20 most because it's small and light and easy to carry and handle, and the 16-50mm zoom is a good range for most of my photography. It's also very sharp. 

The Fuji X-H1 is larger and heavier, though not as heavy as my old Canons. I like it because it balances well with larger lenses, such as the 55-200, and with on-camera flash units. It also has a grip which can be attached that holds more batteries, which is handy for long-lasting events such as weddings. (Which unfortunately I don't do any more -- did my last one when I was 85.)

The X-Pro 1 is different in ways that I like. Boby Tiingle says "The X-Pro  is all about the shooting experience. It is not a tool meant to get out of the way of working. Instead, the X-Pro is meant to be part of the process of making the photograph. Taking more time and putting more thought into each push of the shutter button." 

 

I don't use the X-Pro as much as the others, but when I do, I enjoy it a lot. 

 

So these are my cameras. To some, I may seem to be under-equipped and my gear outmoded. But I have everything I need to do everything I want to do. Nothing new I could buy could improve on that, and I would rather spend my money on travel to new picture-making opportunities. 

 

(Photo: Fuji X-T1, Fujicron 60mm f2.4 macro lens, Neewer studio flash.)

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags: photography     cameras    Fuji X-T20    Fuji X-H1     Fuji X-Pro 1   Fuji X-T1     Fujicron XC 16-50mm lens    Fujicron XF 55-200mm lens    Fujicron XF 27mm lens    Fujicron XF 60mm macro lens     Neewer flash    Olympus OM film system    Olympus E-M5   Olympus E-P2    Olympus E-PL1    Canon 5D     Canon 6D

A House in Plains

                                   Rosalind Carter's childhood home, Plains, Georgia.

Rosalyn Smith Carter passed away a few days ago. This is the house in Plains where she grew up. Not exactly the high-rent district. She and Jimmy attended Plains High School together.

I never met either of the Carters, but I’m sure she was a nice lady. I respect her husband’s work with Habitat for Humanity. That set a good example for all of us. I am no fan of Jimmy's politics, but Mrs. Carter lived a long life, most of it in Plains, and conducted herself as a person worthy of respect.

When I first became aware of Jimmy Carter back in the early 1970s he was the Lieutenant Governor of Georgia. In those days he was often called “Little Jimmy” Carter, in contrast, I suppose, to his father, James Earl Carter, Sr.

                                                      Plain's lone business block.

You really can’t get much more backroads in Georgia than Plains. Southwest Georgia seems to have miles and miles of nothing much but miles and miles.With one row of business buildings, Plains is the epitome of small, southwest Georgia towns.

(Adapted from my limited-edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.)

Rosalind Carter home: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens. Plains business district: Canon EOS 5D Classic, Canon EF 70-200mm f4L lens.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     southwest Georgia     Plains     Rosalind Carter     Jimmy Carter     Habitat for Humanity     Canon EOS 20D     Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens     Canon EOS 5D Classic      Canon EF 70-200mm f4L lens.   

The Story of the Birdhouse Barn

 

The Birdhouse Barn in its original location beside Interstate 75 in Dalton, Georgia.

 

This post was adapted from my book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.

Clark Byers was the man who went around the country painting “See Rock City” signs on barns. He also invented the Rock City birdhouse, which he intended to use as a mailbox, but the U.S. Postal Service wouldn’t let him.

Rock City picked up on the idea and began selling the birdhouses. 1n 1967, they asked Byers if he would paint the barn on the old Tibbs farm in Dalton, right beside I-75, to look like one of the birdhouses. So Clark painted it with the help of his oldest son Freddie. A year later he retired from painting barns. As far as I know this was the only one painted to resemble a birdhouse. At that time the barn could easily be seen from the highway. Later, trees grew up beside the road and made the barn difficult to see unless you knew where to look.

In 2001, as I was selling my book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era at the Prater’s Mill Country Fair near Dalton, a man stopped at my booth and talked with me for a few minutes. It turned out that he was the pastor of a congregation in Dalton, and that they had bought the Tibbs property. He said they hated to destroy the old barn, but they wanted to build a new church on the site.

I suggested that he call Bill Chapin at Rock City. To make a long story short, he did, and Rock City sent a crew to take the barn apart piece by piece. They moved it to a field at the foot of Lookout Mountain and put it all together again.

 For more than 80 years, people have looked at the barns and then gone up the mountain to “See Rock City.” Now you can go up the mountain to Rock City and look down to see a Rock City barn. 

Disassembling the barn in sections.

 

 Reassembling the barn with many new components at the foot of Lookout Mountain.

 

An eagle's eye view of the Birdhouse Barn from Rock City.

 

(These photographs were made on Fujichrome film in early 2002, at least some of them with a Minolta-Leica CL camera and the M-Rokkor 40mm f2 lens.)

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     

Things I'm Thankful For

 Old Dial Road, Fannin County, Georgia

 

1. I'm thankful for God. Actually, God and I have had somewhat of a rocky relationship. He keeps insisting that he's God and I'm not. Nonetheless, he has loved me with such an excessive love that he gave his only begotten son to endure the separation from him that should have been mine. All he asks is that I recognize that I am a sinner, which I am, totally unable to help myself; believe that he has fully paid the penalty for my sins; receive the son who died in my place as my own savior; and in him receive eternal life as an absolutely free gift. (I Corinthians 15:1-5.) I can never be thankful enough. (He offers this gift to you, too.)

 

2. I'm thankful for Louise Devlin Jenkins.When we began dating I was a widower with a small son whom I was not willing to entrust to just any pretty face. Fortunately, Louise was a very pretty face indeed, and as I grew to know her I soon realized that she was and is a person of deep character. Fifty-eight years of life's ups and downs and many adventures together have proved the wisdom of my choice.

 

3. I'm thankful for my family. Three sons, two daughters-in-law, two granddaughters, four grandsons, one grandson-in-law, three granddaughters-in-law, five great granddaughters, and two great grandsons. What a crew! I am richly blessed. And none of them is in jail! I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and I am indeed thankful.

 

(Photo: Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera, Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     travel     Georgia     Fannin County     Thanksgiving     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens 

Mr. Thomas Turkey

 Mr. Thomas Turkey. Wild and free on Deer Run Farm.

The blog post which would normally appear on Wednesday will be on Thursday this week. Meanwhile, here's a picture you might like.

(Photo: Fujifilm X-H1 camera, Fujicron XC 50-230mm lens.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography    turkeys     Fujifilm X-H1 camera     Fujicron XC 50-230mm lens

Things I Miss

 2020. Our last Christmas at Deer Run Farm in McLemore Cove.

1. I miss our little 29-acre Deer Run Farm in northwest Georgia's McLemore Cove, where we built a home and a life for 33 years. We worked hard and were happy there. And every year, all or most of our kids came to share Christmas, the Fourth of July, and often, Thanksgiving with us. This last year of 2020 only Rob and his crew were able to come. (We've since added to that group another great-grandchild and another granddaughter-in-law.) Just after the first of the year the place was sold and we were in our RV. Those were great years, but it was time to move on.

2. I miss our RV. It was the right thing at the right time. We were extremely comfortable in our 35-foot Grand Design fifth wheel rig for two years and planned to stay longer than we did. But because of the expense of diesel fuel and the general cumbersomeness of setting up and breaking camp with a rig of that size, we didn't travel nearly as much as we had hoped. We decided it was time to find a permanent home and get a smaller rig that will be more conducive to the kind of footloose travel we want to do for several months each year.

3. I miss my studio. It has been 23 years since I closed my photography studio in Chattanooga and switched to a location-based model of commercial photography. My business had changed in the last few years of the 20th century. Most of my work was on location, and the amount of work I was doing in-studio was only about enough to pay the studio rent and expenses. It was time to move on, but it was a wonderful space with a complete darkroom and I still miss it.

When I say I miss these things I don't mean I grieve over them. They were all wonderful experiences and my life has been the richer for them. But I do think about them sometimes and miss them and am very thankful they are part of the story of my life.

(Photograph: Fujifilm X-H1 camera, Fujicron XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 lens, Neewer studio flash.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography    Georgia    McLemore Cove      Grand Design RV     Fujifilm X-H1 camera     Fujicron XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 lens     Neewer flash

But I've Experienced a Lifetime of Beautiful Autumns

Aspen and Douglas fir at DeMotte Campground, Kaibab Plateau, Arizona.

 

This fall may have been a bust for me, but I've had the great privilege of experiencing a long lifetime of beautiful autumns.

In early September, 2018, we hitched our small (22-ft.) travel trailer to our old Chevy 1500 pickup and headed northwest. 

After traveling extensively through South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah, we arrived on September 26 at DeMotte Campground, a National Forest Service facility about seven miles from the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim. (It's about 20 miles further to the Visitor's Center at the North Rim.)

The campground is in a beautiful location at an altitude of 8,800 feet on Arizona's Kaibab Plateau, a large and high plateau (up to 9,200 feet) which forms the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which, by the way, is 2,000 feet higher than the South Rim. Set in a forest of aspen and Douglas fir, the campground has no hookups for RVs, but at $10 per night, the price is right. We soon had our trailer parked and set off for the canyon.

We woke the next morning to bright sunshine and a crisp, 25-degree temperature -- a fine, late-September morning at 8,800 feet of altitude. The air was sparkling clear and it didn't feel anything like that cold as I went out to make some photographs of the aspen and Douglas fir that framed our campground.

Inspired by the gold of the aspen, the deep green of the fir, and the intense blue of the sky, I carried my Minolta Autocord twin-lens reflex camera loaded with Fujichrome RDPII 100 film. I love the clean look of the pictures it gave and the ease of composing in the square format.

We had planned to go back to the North Rim this morning, but decided there was really nothing else for us to see unless we wanted to hike, which we didn't. The haze in the canyon from distant forest fires also dampened our enthusiasm. We hope to come back when conditions are more favorable. So we took our pictures of the aspen and fir, hooked up our trailer, and hit the road to new adventures.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     travel     Arizona     DeMotte Campground     Grand Canyon    film photography     Minolta Autocord     TLR cameras     Fuji RDP film

The Fall that Almost Was!

 Light patterns on fallen leaves, Wesley Place, Knoxville. This was my fall.

For most of my adult life Fall has been my favorite season. 

I've always carried a camera with me as I go through daily life. (My family refers to it as my "growth.") I've found some of my best photos that way. But I always especially looked forward to getting away for a few days in the fall to go looking for pictures in the north Georgia mountains. Most years I've been able to do that.

But not this year. And not because we no longer live in north Georgia.

We had a really beautiful, but seemingly brief, fall in the Knoxville-northeast Tennessee area this year. Lots of luscious color. But did I get out for even one day of photography? I did not. I hoped to go. I intended to go. But because of poor planning and poor circumstances and the brevity if the color season, it did not happen. Not this fall.

At my age, one becomes very conscious that if one misses out on something, there's an increased possibility that the opportunity may not come again. I'm optimistic, and not at all morbid, but I'm fully aware that if I live to the age of 100, I've already used up more than 86 percent of my life. So I value the opportunities I have and try not to miss any of them. 

But this was the fall that almost was. And I'm feeling just a little bit bereaved.

James Rice Mill, Norris State Park, Tennessee.

One of the things I had planned to do was to get a better photograph of the old mill at Norris State Park.

The mill was built in 1798 by James Rice and sons on Lost Creek in Union County and moved to its present location on Lower Clear Creek and restored when Norris Dam was built. It was undergoing some new restoration when I made this photo. I wanted to get back to photograph the completed restoration in fall color, but didn't make it. Maybe next year. . .

(Leaf photo: Fujifilm X-H1 camera, 90mm f2.4 Fujicron XF micro lens. Mill photo: Fujifilm X-T20 camera, Fujicron XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 OISII lens.)
 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     travel    Tennessee    Knoxville    Norris State Park    James Rice Mill     Fujifilm X-H1 camera     90mm f2.4 Fujicron XF micro lens    Fujifilm X-T20 camera      Fujicron XC 16-50 f3.5-5.6 OISII lens

The Week that Was!

 ...but now it's water over the dam. Prater's Mill, Coahuala Creek, Gordon County, GA.

By the beginning of this past week, Louise was pretty well over the severe back pain that had laid her up most of the previous week, following a family get-together at grandson Michael's home in Lexington on Sunday and a late evening drive home through the mountains. 

By last Sunday Louise was much better and able to go to church. On Monday, I posted a sales ad for our truck on AutoTrader and Facebook Marketplace. On Tuesday, I began to get text messages from four prospective buyers. I went out that morning to put the truck toolbox back in place after having removed it earlier to haul some things. I noticed I was feeling a little weak and having difficulty lifting something that had previously been no problem.

Around 2 p.m. I took Georgia for a walk and when we came back I unhooked her leash and found I could not raise myself up. I was gradually able to raise myself by holding on to the wall, then shuffled very slowly into the study and plopped into my chair. I spent the next 36 hours in a stupor. Louise checked, and I tested positive for COVID. 

I was able, by text message, to let the prospective truck buyers know was was happening and that I would notify them that I would be in contact with them by Friday. Friday came and went, I notified them, and so far, no one has responded.

Meanwhile, it was two days of coughing, spitting, and running (so to speak) to the bathroom. You don't wanna know. 

By Thursday morning I was feeling somewhat better. Louise got me a prescription for steroids, and that perked things up pretty quickly, though I was still kinda weak.

Louise had tested negative, but I must have re-infected her, because she has now spent the last several days in bed with weakness, vertigo, and a headache. We had to miss church on Sunday and cancel plans for a get-together with friends afterwards.

And that was the week that was. And the truck still isn't sold.

(Photograph of Prater's Mill dam: Hasselblad 500CM camera, Zeiss 50mm wide-angle lens, Fujichrome 100 film.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     travel     Georgia     Gordon County     Prater's Mill     Coahuala Creek   Hasselblad 500 CM camera    Zeiss 50mm wide-angle lens     Fujichrome 100 film     film photography                      

A Belated Happy Hollowe'en

 Effigy Farmer with a cartload of pumpkins. Georgia Highways 17/75, Towns County.

 

Things were somewhat busy at the Jenkins household last weekend, so I failed to post anything appropriate for Hallowe'en.

 

I found this jolly farmer selling his pumpkins from a cart along Georgia Highways 17 and 75 in Towns County exactly 15 years ago from today (I'm writing this on Sunday, November 5th) on one of my rambles through the North Georgia mountains. The camera was my trusty Canon 5D Classic and the lens was the Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5.

 

We had beautiful color here in the Knoxville area this fall, and I'm sorry to say that I let the season get away without taking a single day to get out and about with my camera.

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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 me a check to 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:    photography     travel     Georgia     Canon 5D Classic digital camera     Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5    Towns County    North Georgia mountains

Taking a Short Break

Wanna Buy a Truck? RAM 3500 dually, 6.7 ltr. Cummins Turbo Diesel.

I need to take a short break. I have a truck to sell, and Louise is having some extremely painful back spasms, probably triggered by our quick round trip to Lexington, Kentucky last Saturday. It was great to see our son and daughter-in-law and two of our grandsons and their wives, but we probably shouldn't have tried to make a one-day trip of it.

I'll begin posting again on Monday, if all goes well.

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are 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.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

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

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

Tags:     RAM 3500 truck     Cummins 6.7 turbo diesel