The Backroads Traveler: Cumberland Gap, Tennessee

Historic Houses in the village of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.

On October 29th, I drove from Knoxville to the Cumberland Gap area in northeast Tennessee to see what I could see and make a few photographs.

The Cumberland mountains, ranging up to more than 4000 feet in height, form a long wall along the border where Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet, creating a formidable barrier for pioneers seeking to come into Tennessee. In 1750 a deep cleft in the wall with a base only300 feet above the valley floor was discovered -- the Cumberland Gap. 

Daniel Boone cut the Wilderness Trail through the Gap in 1775 and hordes of settlers soon followed. A post office was established in 1803 in the little settlement just below the Gap.

Today, the village of Cumberland Gap has a population of about 350, and like its earlier self, mostly depends on visitors and those passing through for its living.

The Cumberland Gap Post Office.

 

"The Olde Church" is no longer a church, but an events facility.

The Olde Mill Inn Bed and Breakfast. Cumberland Gap's oldest structure.

Originally built as a boarding house in 1890 by J.B. Cockrill, the Olde Mill Inn had a checkered existence before being opened as a bed and breakfast in 2002. The log part of the inn came from a cabin built in the 1700s in nearby Harrogate and was added to the original part of the inn in 1970.

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel on U.S. Highway 25E.

 Until 1996, U.S. Highway 25E ran through Cumberland Gap and through the village. It was considered a very dangerous road and was replaced with a four-lane tunnel more than a mile long that runs under the mountain a short distance from the Gap. It's worth the trip just to drive through the tunnel to Middlesboro, Kentucky and back.

About the tools: All photographs were made with Fuji X-T3 and X-T20 digital cameras and the Fujinon XF16-80 (24-120 equivalent) lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   travel photography    Fuji X-T3 camera     Fuji X-T20 camera     Fujinon XF16-80 lens    Cumberland Mountains    Cumberland Gap     Tennessee history     U.S. 25E tunnel

A Fascination with Old Mills

Hamer Mill. Spring Mill State Park, Lawrence County, Indiana.

(This is a re-post from June, 2020. Happy Thanksgiving!)

If you've read this blog very much, you will have noticed that I have a thing for old mills.

I suppose my fascination began with the magnificent Hamer Mill at Spring Mill State Park, about twelve miles south of Bedford, Indiana, where I was born. Growing up in the area, Spring Mill was the default destination for Sunday School picnics, class outings, family reunions and the like. I’m told that I was taken to Spring Mill as a small child, but my first clear memory is of a school picnic there at the end of my third grade year at the one-room Tempy School in Martin County, which had about 25 students in grades one through six.

During my high school years there were many outings at Spring Mill, and years later when my six siblings were grown and there were enough Jenkins to have our own family reunion we assembled at Spring Mill every year, culminating with our parents’ 65th anniversary in 1999.

Dad died in 2000 and the reunions became more sporadic after that, but all but one were at Spring Mill. Always, every trip to the park included a pleasant walk from the picnic area to the old mill and the “pioneer settlement” that surrounded it; a village that consisted of many old houses, most of them built of logs, most original to the village, plus a few moved in from other locations.

Built of locally quarried limestone by the Bullitt brothers in 1817, the mill is three stories high and has walls three feet thick at the base. It replaced a much smaller log mill built in 1814. The 25-foot overshot wheel is fed by a flume carrying water from Hamer Cave.

Located in a deep valley in the southern Indiana hill country, the mill and its little village must have been an isolated place, but the mill and village flourished all through the mid-19th century. In 1896 the mill was abandoned until the 1920s when the state acquired the property, made it a state park, and began to restore the mill and the village. The original milling equipment is intact and still works. My wife buys a few pounds of corn meal every time we visit the park.

Gray's Mill, Graysville, Catoosa County, Georgia.

My interest in old structures lay dormant for many years, but returned in force when we moved from Miami to Chattanooga in 1970. We lived for 17 years within a mile or two of Gray's Mill on Chickamauga Creek at Graysville, Georgia, and I photographed it many times, as well as other old buildings in Graysville.

 

 Warwoman Mill. Warwoman Creek, Rabun County, Georgia.

At the other end of the spectrum from the majestic Hamer Mill and the serene Gray's Mill is the tiny, long abandoned mill  on Warwoman Creek in Rabun County, Georgia. Its roof  is falling in and just a fragment of its wheel remains. But I love them all. They speak to me of history, of lives lived.

The tools: The Hamer Mill and Gray's Mill were photographed with twin-lens reflex film cameras -- Fujichrome film for the Hamer Mill and Ektachrome for Gray's Mill. The Warwoman Creek Mill was photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   film photography     Georgia     travel photography    Olympus E-M5 camera     twin-lens reflex cameras     Fujichrome film     Spring Mill State Park, Indiana    Ektachrome film     

I Like Cameras, But . . .

Piles of shaped logs on the beach at Madras, India.

(This is a re-post from August, 2020.)

I do like cameras. In fact, I love them. But, relatively speaking, I don't write about them all that much. I'm told by photo-blogging friends that if I were to write about cameras more often I would have more readers. Many people want to read and learn about the latest and greatest in the camera world because they have bought into the fiction that better cameras would make them better photographers. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works, because photography is not about cameras, but about life. What we do with our cameras if we are truly photographers and not just gadgeteers is record life as we see and experience it.

I may not have as many readers this way, but as I say in the introductory column to your left, I write the blog I would like to read if someone else were writing it.

So I would rather write about photography itself than about cameras.

Or about life. Or about my life in photography. 

Cameras are the key that opened the door to this life, but they are not the life itself. And while they are certainly necessary to do photography, they are not photography itself. Nonetheless, I owe those little tools big time. My cameras have taken me to many places I could never have gone and opened the door to many experiences I would never have had. So I'm grateful.

But when I write, I like to write, not about the cameras, but about the places they have taken me. And about the things they have made it possible for me to see and experience. 

 

 Lashing the logs together to make a fishing raft.

Because of my cameras, I was able to see fishermen come down to the city beach at Madras, India at dawn to lash rough-hewn logs into makeshift boats, launch them through the surf, and move out to a day's fishing.

 

 Perdue's Mill near Clarkesville, Georgia.

With my cameras I have driven many thousands of miles to create books about the barns of Rock City and the backroads of Georgia. 

Although I lived in Georgia for 45 years, I did not realize just how much I loved the state until a stranger looked at my photographs and told me what he saw in them. 

 

 After evening chapel at the mission hospital.

Through my camera, I saw the setting sun throw a beam parallel to the ground and against the wall of a rural mission hospital in Nigeria, creating a scene of beauty and mystery.

 

 Woman praying. Underground Church meeting, Moscow.

Because of my cameras I was able to attend a worship service of the Underground Church in Moscow. Something few westerners have ever seen.

 

 Dr. Gomez holds an impromptu clinic in the church at Mayalan.

With my camera I watched Dr. Jaime Gomez dispense medicine and the Gospel to the people of a remote village in the mountains of northern Guatemala.

My cameras have given me access to a blessed, privileged life. But the credit does not go to the cameras, nor to me. The credit goes to a loving and supportive wife and to the One whose name appears at the bottom of this page and on every blog I post.

About the tools: Four of the photos in this post were made with Olympus OM film cameras with various lenses and Fujichrome 100D slide film. The praying woman in Moscow was photographed with a Leica M3 camera and 3M640T film, and the picture of Perdue's Mill was made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera. The film was scanned with a Konica-Minolta Dimage 5400 scanner.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   film photography     Georgia     travel photography    Olympus E-M5 camera     Olympus OM film cameras     Fujichrome 100D film     India    Guatemala     Russia     Moscow     Minolta-Dimage 5400 film scanner     Nigeria     Madras

Jpeg or RAW?

Blowing Cave Mill. A jpeg file straight out of the camera.

I'm a jpeg shooter. Most of the time my files come out of the camera ready to use, with maybe just a little massaging in Photoshop's Curves and Brush tools.

But I'm a piker. I hedge my bets. So my cameras are always set to shot both jpeg and RAW. I know it's heresy, but most of the time, if the jpegs look good I throw the RAW files away.

But sometimes I photograph a scene with so much contrast that a jpeg can't cover the range between highlights and shadows. That's when I go to those RAW files. Yes, I could do layers and so forth on the jpegs, but that soon becomes more trouble than just opening the RAW file in Capture One. (I've been using Capture One, by the way, to process RAW files about as long as I've been doing digital photography. It's always worked well for me.)

In the photo of Blowing Cave Mill at the top of this post, bright sunlight on my right gave an exposure that rendered most of the scene correctly but left the near side of the mill in deep shadow. I opened the RAW file in Capture One and moved the Shadows slider to 100%, creating a more balanced file, as you can see below. I then used the Brush tool in Photoshop to brighten that side just a little more. A technique very similar to burning and dodging a darkroom print.

Oh, look! There's a water wheel hiding in those shadows!

The metering systems in my Fuji cameras are so accurate that most of the time jpeg files come out of the camera ready to use, with maybe a half-stop exposure adjustment up or down in Curves. Saves time and gives me files that accurately depict the scene as I saw it with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Photo: Fuji X-T3 camera, Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography      Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     photography techniques    Blowing Cave Mill     Sevier County, Tennessee     Photoshop     Capture One

The Backroads Traveler: Two Tennessee Mills

Dunn's Mill, Sevier County, Tennessee.

Very little history is available for this mill. Located on Upper Middle Creek Road about six miles east of Pigeon Forge, Dunn's Mill was apparently assembled from old materials around 1988 and was never operational. The millstones and internal gearing are in place, but have not been set up. The flume was never completed, but if it had been, it would have carried water from Bird Creek (foreground) to actuate the pitchback wheel. It's very picturesque. Part of the building has been occupied by an art gallery.

Blowing Cave Mill, c1870.

About twelve miles from Sevierville on Blowing Cave Road, off U.S. Highway 411, Blowing Cave Mill is operational, though not currently in use. 

Located on the headwaters of Flat Creek, the mill was built in 1870 by Elbert and William Early, replacing a turbine mill on the site built by John Byrd.

The waterwheel at Blowing Cave Mill.

The original wooden overshot water wheel was replaced in 1941, so this wheel has apparently been in use for 83 years.

The antique store at Blowing Cave Mill.

Sometime after 2010, a large extension, currently housing an antique store, was added to the mill. Also, the flume carrying water to the wheel was rebuilt.

Photos: Fuji X-T3 digital camera, Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography      Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     Blowing Cave Mill     Sevier County, Tennessee     Dunn's Mill     old mills     travel photography

Shoot It Now!

 Eagle Detailing. U.S. Highways 411/441, Sevier County, Tennessee.

I passed this little building while on my way to photograph a pair of old mills in Sevier County, south of Knoxville. (I'll post them soon.)

As I drove on down the road, I thought, do people really make a business of removing tails from eagles? There aren't many eagles around here. Where do they get them? Who buys eagle tails, anyway? 

(Sorry. That's just the way my mind works.)

As those thoughts slowly wormed their way through my febrile brain, I knew I would have to turn around. I didn't want to go back, but I knew I had to do it.

I could have promised myself I would shoot it on the way home. But what if I decided to take a different route? What if the light changed? What if someone parked a huge truck in front of the sign? A hundred things could have happened to keep me from making the photo. As the great photographer Jay Maisel says, "Shoot It Now"!

Most of us are subject to an inertia which suggests all kinds of reasons why we shouldn't take the picture now.  Later will be better. The light will be better. I don't have the right lens. I'm in a hurry. Later...but not now. 

Shortly after moving to McLemore Cove, Louise and I were out exploring the area. Driving along a gravel road by a cornfield, we chanced to see "Coon" Hise, then in his 80s, and his wife coming out from between the rows with their arms loaded with ears of corn. We stopped and talked for a few minutes. The scene was greatly reminiscent of a famous Farm Security Administration photo from the 1930s of an old farmer and his wife holding armloads of vegetables. 

It was a great picture. I had my camera. There was no reason not to make a photograph. But I didn't. I still don't understand why I didn't, but to this day it remains the greatest photograph I never made.

I can give you all kinds of good advice about photography, but only one thing is indispensable: when you see it, Shoot It!

About the photo: Fuji X-T3 camera, Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography      Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     photography techniques    McLemore Cove     Farm Security Administration

The Backroads Traveler: Lexington, Georgia

The 1886 Richardsonian-Romanesque Oglethorpe County courthouse.

Founded in 1793, Lexington is a small town with a long history. It is the seat of Oglethorpe County government and was incorporated in 1806. 

Lexington has an historic district with an amazing number of really old, really fine houses in Greek Revival, Federal, and Victorian styles, many of them concentrated in a few blocks of Church Street, which was once the main drag through town. 

The Oglethorpe County courthouse was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style so popular in Georgia during the closing years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th.

Although the population of Lexington is only about 250, the town seems bigger than that to me. Just the right size, actually, for walking. Pick up a self-guided walking tour brochure at City Hall or any of the stores and enjoy a leisurely stroll around this little gem of a city.

The Presbyterian Manse (pastor's residence) on Church Street.

The c.1812 Presbyterian Manse at 211 East Church was the original home of Columbia Theological Seminary, now located in Decatur, Georgia. The beautiful but empty Beth-Salem Presbyterian Church is across the street. With only three remaining members, the congregation was dissolved in 2015, 230 years after its founding.

The 1827-36 Plat-Brooks House at 102 East Church Street.

 

The Aaron McGehee House.

Not on Church Street, but behind the courthouse at 206 South Gilmer Street, displaying delightfully different vernacular architecture, is the c.1800 Aaron-McGehee House. 

(This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

About the photographs: The courthouse was photographed with a Fuji X-H1 camera and the tiny, cheap, but very sharp Fujinon XC16-50mm lens. The other three pictures were all made with an Olympus E-M5 camera and the Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 12-32mm lens.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Fuji X-H1 camera     Oglethorpe County, Georgia     travel photography    Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic 12-32mm lens     Lexington, Georgia     old houses     Georgia courthouses

The Backroads Traveler: Prater's Mill

Prater's Mill is the setting for the annual Prater's Mill Country Fair.

Prater's Mill was built in 1855 on Coahulla Creek near Varnell in Whitfield County, Georgia by Benjamin Franklin Prater. The mill was operated by the Prater family until 1954, then by a succession of millers until 1963, after which the mill fell into disuse.

In 1971, an all-volunteer foundation took over the mill and has done extensive restoration and preservation of the site, financed by the Prater's Mill Country Fair, a highly-rated arts and crafts festival held on Columbus Day weekend each October.

The face-painting booth is always popular at the Country Fair.

 Prater's Mill Heritage Park also includes old barns, the Prater residence, and the General Store. The site is open to the public every day, dawn to dusk, at no charge, and tours can be arranged by appointment. Country Fair hours are 9 a.m.–6 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday. Prater's Mill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The dam diverts water to the three turbines that power the millstones.

My book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era was published in 1996 and I immediately booked myself into a succession of arts and crafts fairs that fall. The Prater's Mill Country Fair was one of the most successful for me, and I continued to show and sell my books and prints there for about ten years. Basically, until I ran out of books to sell. I have many good memories of days at Prater's Mill.

 Reflections of Prater's Mill in the placid waters of the millpond.

 (This article was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

About the photos: The first two photos and the last were all made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera fitted with the Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140II lens. The picture of the dam was made with a Hasselblad 500CM camera and a Zeiss 80mm lens on Fujichrome 100 film, scanned with an Epson Perfection 4990 PHOTO scanner. 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Georgia     Hasselblad 500CM camera     Zeiss 80mm lens     travel photography     Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm lens     Olympus E-M5 camera     old mills     Fujichrome 100 film     film photography     Prater's Mill

Autumn in Walker County, Georgia

Clearing storm over Lookout Mountain. Georgia Hwy. 193, Walker County.

Since I posted fall photos from north central Georgia in my previous blog, I thought I would post some from Walker County in northwest Georgia, where we lived for 33 years. These pictures were all made within 20 miles of our home in McLemore Cove, most of them closer than that.

Last cutting of hay. Lookout Mountain from McLemore Cove.

The c.1890 Andrews-Guthrie House on Andrews Lane, MeLemore Cove.

 

Autumn Sky, McLemore Cove.

 

 Ricky's Trees. Daugherty Gap Road, McLemore Cove.

 I call these "Ricky's Trees," because Ricky Smith, who worked for us during our last years at Deer Run Farm, had helped plant them many years ago when he was a young man.

Our pond at Deer Run Farm, McLemore Cove.

Since these pictures were made with various cameras over a period of thirty-plus years, I don't remember all the specifics. I do, however, remember that the one at the top was made with a Canon EOS A2 camera and the great EF 80-200L lens, the one photographers called "the Magic Drainpipe." The film was Fujichrome 100D. The one at the bottom was made with an Olympus E-M5 and the Panasonic 14-140 lens, a bit magical in its own right.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   film photography     Canon EOS A2 camera     Canon EF 80-200L lens     travel photography    Olympus E-M5 camera     Panasonic 14-140mm lens     Fujichrome 100D film     Fall color     Walker County, Georgia     McLemore Cove     autumn

Autumn in the North Georgia Mountains

 

On November 5th, 2008, I went ramblin' along  the North Georgia backroads northeast of Ellijay and south of Blue Ridge to photograph the fall color. It was the peak of the season, and altogether a most memorable day.

I was inspired to show these photos by friend and fellow photo-blogger Dennis Mook (https://www.thewanderinglensman.com/) who has been running a series of his own fall photos on his blog. His are better than mine, but I'm putting these out in hope that you might receive some enjoyment from them.

Since these were all taken in the same area with the same camera and lens -- a Canon EOS 5D Classic and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens -- I'm posting them without any further captions or comments.

 

 

 

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

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 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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   digital photography   Georgia     Canon EOS 5D camera     Canon EF 24-85mm lens     travel photography     North Georgia mountains lens     fall color     autumn