Friday, September 27, 2024

The Georgia Backroads Traveler: Two Courthouses

The Romanesque Revival Macon County Courthouse, Oglethorpe.

The Macon County Courthouse in Oglethorpe, Georgia, was built in 1894. Although Oglethorpe is currently a sleepy place with a population of about 1300, things were once much different. In the mid-1800s it had a population of 16,000, making it one of the largest cities in Georgia. It missed becoming the state capitol by just one electoral vote. Things are much quieter these days.

I used a nifty little software program called PT Lens to make the vertical lines parallel in this photo. Current versions of Photoshop have this feature built in, but I'm too stubborn and too cheap to pay a monthly subscription fee to Adobe for something I can work around and get by without.

The Romanesque Revival Henry County Courthouse, McDonough.

Another Georgia courthouse in the Romanesque Revival architectural style is the Henry County courthouse in McDonough. This style was very popular in Georgia's courthouse-building boom years of 1890-1910.

This is one of my favorite compositions. I love the way the courthouse is framed by the flowers and statuary of the downtown square park. The photograph was made with a Minolta Autocord twin-lens reflex, my favorite camera, and Fujichrome Provia film in 120-size. Unfortunately, the high cost of film and processing keeps me from using the TLR much.

By the way, while many Georgia counties have their courthouses located in the downtown squares of their county seat towns, many others are located off the square, with the square itself being a city park.

About the equipment: the photo of the Oglethorpe County courthouse was made with a Canon EOS 6D digital camera with the Canon EF 24-85mm lens. The Henry County courthouse was, as I said above, photographed with a Minolta Autocord twin-lens reflex and its 75mm Rokkor lens, loaded with Fujichrome Provia transparency film.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available for $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.

If you would like to have a print of any of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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 travel Georgia courthouses Canon EOS 6D camera Fujichrome Provia film Minolta Autocord camera Twin-Lens Reflex Canon EF 24-85mm lens

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

More Preaching about Noticing Things

Above the crowd. U.S. Highway 441, Clinch County, Georgia.

It occurred to me last night that it's been a while since I nagged my readers (both of them!) about my favorite photo-subject: noticing things.

Actually, noticing things will benefit more than just your photography. It's also important in all of life. When your eyes and mind are open to everything around you, your entire life will be enriched.

Noticing things benefits others, too. As the great American photographer Tony King said, "The photographer is like the kid who discovers something really cool -- a new kitten, perhaps, or a birds nest with the fledglings still in it -- and runs to tell his friends to come see what he found."

Photographs can give us new insights, kindle our sense of wonder, and increase our appreciation of the world around us.

The Best Iron Works in Town. Orange Walk Town, Belize.

But it all begins when we open our eyes and minds and notice the things around us. As the great New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a whole lot just by lookin'." (Did you know that Berra is the most quoted person in the English language? Yes, even more than Shakespeare. Look up some of his sayings. You will be amazed.)

About the equipment: The tree standing above the crowd was photographed with a Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens; the Best Iron Works was photographed with an Olympus OM2n film camera and the Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens on Fujichrome 100D film.

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

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

Tags: photography travel Canon EOS 5D Classic camera Fujichrome 100D film Georgia Olympus OM2n camera Orange Walk Town Canon EF 24-85mm lens Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens Belize Yogi Berra quotes

Monday, September 23, 2024

The Passing of Lifelong Friends (Repost)

Barbara plays the ukulele for Cindy.

(This is a repost from July 8, 2022, in honor of another friend and basketball teammate from my college days who passed away recently.)

I received word today of the passing of two lifelong friends. One was the wife of my roommate my first two years of college; the other was a teammate on my college basketball team. Later, I was the junior varsity basketball coach at the private school in Miami where he was the head coach.

I am saddened, but realize that I am blessed that so many of my lifelong friends are still alive.

Louise and I were on the founding faculty of Florida Christian School in 1968 and were there for two years before moving to Chattanooga. In 1968 and 1969 the staff and many supporters of the school spent the Thanksgiving weekends camping at Jonathan Dickinson State Park on south Florida's east coast. The photograph of Barbara Krall playing the ukulele for Cindy was made on Thanksgiving weekend, 1969 with my first "good" camera, the original Nikon F with the bulbous Photomic pentaprism, and a Tamron 135mm f2.8 lens. The film was Kodachrome 25, which I bought out-of-date for very cheap at the Eagle Army-Navy stores in Miami.

The photo below is the young Jenkins family at Jonathan Dickinson the previous Thanksgiving. It was warm that year, not chilly, as it was in 1969. The photo was made with a Kodak Instamatic, the camera that got me started on my life in photography. The film was color negative of some kind, probably Kodak.

The young Jenkins family, 1968

Time passes, and so do we all. Sic transit gloria mundi.

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 Photomic F camera Kodachrome 25 film Florida Florida Christian School Jonathan Dickenson State Park Kodak Instamatic camera Miami

Friday, September 20, 2024

The Georgia Backroads Traveler: The Ogeechee River Mill

The Ogeechee River Mill. A fully operational mill in Hancock County.

When I first started this blog, I reserved another blog name but never did anything with it. But I always liked the name, and have decided to incorporate The Georgia Backroads Traveler into this blog, to use whenever I write about things specific to Georgia.

Today, I'm writing about an old mill, as I will do from time to time. The Ogeechee River Mill on the upper reaches of the Ogeechee River, west of Warrenton, on the Warren County/Hancock County line, is unusually beautiful and well-preserved.

The first mill at this location was built in 1847 on the other side of the river, but was rebuilt on its present site in 1933 to avoid flooding. The original wooden dam was replaced by a concrete dam at that time.

Powered by an underwater turbine rather than an exterior wheel, the mill is in regular service with a number of clients for its products. It's a good idea to call well in advance to arrange a tour, because the mill is located on a working cattle farm and owners Missy Garner and her son Alex Broward are busy people. Call them at 706-464-2195 or 706-831-1432 and leave a message if you don't get an answer. The cost of the tour is $10 for adults; school children get in free. I assure you it will be well worth your money.

Two of the millstones. I think there were actually three sets.

Southern-style grits are a specialty, and if the mill isn't grinding grits when you visit, you can buy a bag or two at the IGA grocery store in Warrenton.

(Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

Both photos were made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera. A Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens was used for the exterior view; a Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm lens for the millstones.

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.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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

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

Tags: photography travel Olympus E-M5 digital camera Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm lens old mills Warren County, Georgia Hancock Countty, Georgia Ogeechee River

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The Canon EOS A2: Great But Underrated

Canon A2 with 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens

I reluctantly gave up on my beloved Olympus OM camera system after 13 years because aging eyes made precise focusing difficult. I then tried Nikon, with an 8008s and a 6006, but didn't get on with them at all.

Then I heard about Canon's Custom Function 4, which made it possible to autofocus on any point, push a small button on the back of the camera, and have the focus held at that point until I wanted to change it. That did it for me. I picked up two Canon EOS bodies, one of them an EOS 10S, which was a really good camera for its time. This was in 2003.

In late 1994, I began work on the Rock City Barns book, and soon picked up a clean, used Canon EOS A2. I liked it so much that I bought a second body in early 1995. Those two cameras were to be my workhorses for the next eight years, until the great digital switchover in 2003.

The Canon EOS A2 and its siblings, the A2e and EOS-5, were all-time great sleepers and were one of the best-kept secrets in photography. When first introduced they were nearly ten years ahead of the competition and were used by an astonishing number of working photographers. The A2's combination of just the right features, initial cost, precision, silence, durability, and reliability made it one of the best cameras ever made for day-in, day-out professional work.

As I said, I used a pair for eight years, and they were utterly reliable. My A2s were responsible for an award-winning coffee-table book (Rock City Barns: A Passing Era), numerous brochures, magazine articles, weddings, and all the other things in the work flow of a small-market commercial/editorial photographer.

When I retired the A2s, I gave one to a friend. The other sits in honored retirement on my bookshelf in memory of some good years in my career.

Below are a few photos from my A2s. All were made on Fujichrome 100D film.

Clearing storm, Lookout Mountain. Canon A2, 80-200mm f2.8L lens.

Rock City barn North Carolina 10.

Manning Brothers General Store. U.S. Highway 341 near Brunswick, GA.

Rock City barn Alabama 11.

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

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

Tags: photography travel film photography Canon EOS A2 camera Canon EOS 10S Custom Function 4 Fujichrome 100D film Olympus OM film camera

Monday, September 16, 2024

Street Portraits in Moscow

Young woman on the Arpatskaya. Gesturing for money for her picture.

In March, 1990, just a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Louise and I toured six eastern European countries that were just beginning to emerge from the darkness of Communism. Our purpose was to gather photographs, video footage, and information so that we could tell the story of how the prayers of believing Christians in those lands had helped precipitate the fall of the Communist empire.

We spent several days in Moscow, where we toured the Kremlin, met with Christian leaders, and attended a meeting of the "Underground Church."

One afternoon, when I had a few hours break from our schedule, I took my cameras and went for a walk along the Arpatskaya, a pedestrian avenue where artists and street vendors displayed their wares.

One of the vendors -- an artist whose prints are hanging in the background.

I found these two young women in the Arpatskaya. They were together and obviously friends. One looked as if she had just flown in from Paris; the other had a very Slavic face and was dressed in what I suppose could be called Communist Worker Chic.

This older lady was preaching to the crowd. I gathered that she may have been a seventh-Day Adventist. After a while, the police came by and shut her down, although not unkindly.

About the equipment: As best I remember, these photos were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and Fujichrome 100D film. I also took a Leica M3 on this trip, but don't remember if I carried it with me that day. I used a Tokina 100-400mm f4 zoom lens extensively on this trip and probably made all but the last of these photos with it.

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

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

Tags: photography travel Eastern Europe street photography street portraits Russia Moscow The Arpatskaya Fujichrome 100D film Olympus OM2n film camera Tokina 100-400mm f4 lens Leica M3

Friday, September 13, 2024

Street Portraits

Canal bargeman, Bruges, Belgium.

For a number of years I worked as a photojournalist and producer, creating magazine features and audio-visual programs to help religious and humanitarian agencies communicate their missions. I was always looking for opportunities to make portraits. Strong photographs of people added power to the message I wanted to communicate, because people are interested in people. That's why we call it "human interest." When someone from another culture is portrayed in all of his or her humanity, dignity, and individuality, both the subject and those who view the photograph are served. As the great Edward Steichen, creator of the landmark "Family of Man" exhibit said, "The function of photography is to explain man to man."

Photography bypasses the logical centers of the brain and communicates directly to the heart. When the subject is someone from another culture, an incisive portrait can arouse in the viewer a deep awareness that this also is a person, a member of my species. Different from me, yes, but part of my family. More than 50 years have passed, but I still remember the first time a photograph connected with me in this way. It was an Emil Schultheiss portrait of an African girl in the old Modern Photography magazine. Her face plastered with ceremonial paint, she peeked at the camera from the corners of her eyes. I looked into her soul and was hooked for good.

(The above paragraphs were adapted from my article Foreign Faces, which appeared in the August, 1999 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.)

Putting it all more simply, I still love to make casual portraits of people wherever I find them. Here are a few.

Old man with a hat.

I found this gentleman hanging out on the courthouse lawn in Dayton, Tennessee and asked him if I could make his picture.

Eating barbeque at the Strut.

A very southern-looking couple eating barbeque at the Strut in Chattanooga's historically black 9th Street neighborhood, part of the Riverbend Festival. She looked at me and said "Don't take our picture!" But she wasn't being serious. So I did.

Young soccer player, Nigeria.

About the equipment: All the photos were made with Olympus OM film cameras and various Olympus Zuiko lenses, except for the gentleman with the hat, whose portrait was made with a Canon EOS A2 film camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. Fujichrome 100 film was used for all photos.

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

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

Tags: photography travel street photography Canon EOS A2 camera Canon EF 28-104mm lens Nigeria street portraits Bruges, Belgium Dayton, Tennessee Chattanooga, Tennessee Fujichrome 100D film Olympus OM film camera Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Street Photograpphy in Other Lands

Street scene in Ataca, El Salvador.

According to Wikipedia, street photography is "photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places, usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing."

"Street" has always been an important genre of the art and has been done superbly by such monumental names as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Andre Kertesz, Fritz Henle, Robert Doisneau, and too many others to list.

Street photography continues to be very popular, but honestly, I don't see much that impresses me. Most of the work seems to have no point to it. I believe street photography must reveal some aspect of life, of the human condition, as it says above, "capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment. . ."

I don't say all this to claim expertise at street photography. I do fairly well in foreign environments, but in the U.S. I don't do well at all. I believe that this is partly because of lack of opportunity. In many cultures, people are out on the street much of the time and I have often found them to be open and welcoming. In this country people are usually found on the street only in large cities, and they often seem very closed. Since I spend very little time in large cities, my opportunities for good street work are limited. On the other hand, I do quite a bit of driving around looking for things to photograph, so perhaps I should call what I do "road" photography rather than "street." But I do enjoy doing street photography in other lands.

The Best Iron Works in Town

Orange Walk Town, Belize

By the way, the apparent subject of a photograph need not be a person or people at all. Inanimate objects can often convey a sense of human presence very effectively, as in the picture above.

Here are a few more street photographs from other countries.

Wading woman and birds, Madras, India.

Four women, Vernazza, Italy.

Puzzled woman, Ahuachapan, El Salvador.

About the equipment: The two pictures from El Salvador were photographed with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with the Panasonic Lumix 14-140 zoom lens. The photos of the iron works in Belize and the wading woman in Madras, India were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and (probably) the Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens. The film was Fujichrome 100D. For the four ladies in Vernazza, Italy, I used a Canon EOS 20D digital camera and the Canon EF 24-85mm lens.

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

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

Tags: photography travel street photography Canon EOS 2D camera Canon EF 24-85mm lens digital photography Ataca, El Salvador Ahuachapan, El Salvador Olympus E-M5 camera Panasonic 14-140mm lens Madras, India Orange Walk Town, Belize Vernazza, Italy Fujichrome 100D film Olympus OM2n film camera Olympus Zuiko 85mm lens

Monday, September 2, 2024

Enjoy Your Labor Day

Louise, Kim, and grandson Devlin on our pond, Labor Day, 2003.

Labor Day and the Fourth of July were big family occasions when we had our little farm in McLemore Cove. Those were good times and we keenly miss them.

Enjoy your Labor Day! I'm taking the day off from blogging, except for this short post.

Deepest sympathies to long-time friend and regular blog reader Roy Gadd in the passing of his wife Cathy.

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

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

Saturday, August 31, 2024

Photographers or Camera Operators?

Beauty and mystery, the essence of photography. Sunset at the chapel, Nigeria.

Are we photographers or camera operators?

There is a distinction. We may be skilled at using our cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment. And we should be. But does that make us photographers? Only in the technical sense.

Because photography is not about us. It's about the subject.

If we've been reading equipment reviews, many (maybe most) blogs, and watching YouTube videos, we might be forgiven for thinking that photography is about the equipment. But sorry, photography is not about the equipment, even though equipment is essential for creating photographs. Nor is it about our skill in using these tools.

Others tell us that photography is about expressing ourselves, and certainly it can be that. But not in the way we think

Contrary to what most of us have been taught, photography is not an art of self-expression. Photography is above all others the art of self-effacement. Photography reaches its highest plane when we have so mastered our tools and processes that we are able to use them to take ourselves out of the way and allow the subject to speak, to reveal itself through our skill. Paradoxically, it is only then that we fully and truly expresses ourselves.

Another paradox is the fact that looking at a photograph of something is often the best way to see it. "...the camera's innate honesty...provides the photographer with a means of looking deeply into the nature of things, and presenting his subjects in terms of their basic reality. It enables him to reveal the essence of what lies before his lens with such clear insight that the beholder may find the recreated image more real and comprehensible than the actual object." (Edward Weston, "Seeing Photographically," The Complete Photographer, January, 1943.)

Chicago buildings. What else do you see?

Our work as photographers is to isolate and clarify so that others may through us see the things that are around them. Our expensive equipment and our skill at using the processes of photography are enjoyable in themselves, but are ultimately pointless unless they become the channels through which we empower our subject to reveal the essence of itself.

This post was adapted from my article The Three Stages of Photography, which appeared in the December, 1999 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.

About the equipment: Both photos were made with an Olympus OM2n camera and Fujichrome 100 film. A Tokina 100-300 f4 lens was used for the Nigerian photo, and probably an Olympus Zuiko 24mm f2.8 lens for the Chicago skyline.

Blog Note: Sorry this post is a day late. I had computer problems.

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

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

Tags: photography film photography Olympus OM film camera Olympus Zuiko lenses Nigeria Fujichrome 100 film travel photography Chicago Tokina 100-300 f4 zoom lens Edward Weston Rangefinder Magazine

Monday, August 26, 2024

A Walkaround in Orange Walk Town

Belizean fast food. (Not Kentucky Fried Chicken, in case you were wondering).

In March of 1989, my client, Church of God World Missions, sent me to Belize and Guatemala to document missions work in those countries. I spent a week in Belize, then moved on to Guatemala. My work in the northern Guatemalan village of Mayalan is posted here.

I spent most of my time in Belize in Orange Walk Town, a city in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of about 13,000, it is the fourth largest city in Belize and was the location of a Church of God mission. Orange Walk Town is an easy place to get around, if one doesn't mind walking, and the fact that the official language is English (Belize is a former British colony) makes it easy to talk to people.

A Belizean family in front of their home.

My photography schedule with the mission wasn't intensive, so I had quite a bit of time to walk around and photograph the town and the people.

A Belizean street market.

The people of Belize are certainly poor by our standards, but they mostly seem to be relaxed and content with their lives. I believe that discontent and envy are most often triggered by comparison with others who appear to have more of life's good things. Television is probably the biggest contributor to envy and discontent.

Kids are everywhere.

Bright-eyed, friendly kids are everywhere in Orange Walk Town. They were eager for me to make their pictures, and I was happy to oblige.

A nice house in Orange Walk Town.

Most of the houses in Orange Walk Town are made of upright poles bound together, and roofed with sheet metal. This house is very well-kept and landscaped by local standards.

The Orange Walk Town neighborhood market.

Not exactly Kroger's, or even Walmart. But it fills a need in a culture less consumer-driven than ours, and it's a reasonable living for the shopkeepers.

A young Belizean boy on his way home from the neighborhood market.

Carrying a can of what I think was oatmeal. My eye was caught by the unusual shape of his eyes, the slanting light, the brilliant colors of his shirt, and the complimentary blue of the background.

The neighborhood laundromat.

In poorer countries such as Belize, a washing machine is an unimaginable luxury. This lady washes her families' clothes in the way countless generations of women have done before her. I'll never again complain about helping my wife with the laundry!

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

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

Tags: photography people photography film photography Olympus OM film camera Olympus Zuiko lenses Belize Guatemala Fujichrome 100 film travel photography Orange Walk Town Church of God World Missions