Learning to Use Light

An illustration for healthy eating.

This is one of the first commercial photographs I made after opening my own business. It's one of a series I did for a piece on healthy eating.

I was working from home in those early years before I had a studio, so I arranged the items on a piece of burlap stretched over the pool table in my basement and photographed them with a Nikkormat FTN camera with (probably) a Vivitar 100mm f2.8 lens and Kodak Ektachrome 200 film. That was in 1978, so forgive me if I don't remember all the details.

I didn't have studio flash units in those early days, so I used flood lights -- which is a great way to work while one is still learning the trade, because you can see what the light is doing. With flash, one has to learn to visualize what the light is doing. That comes with practice and experience.

Notice how the light almost cradles the food items with warmth and texture, while the shadows define their forms. Lighting is the second most important skill in commercial photography.

The most important skill is the ability to find clients who will commission your work and pay you for it.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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 $4.95 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 2025 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    film photography   commercial photography    photographic lighting   Nikkormat FTn camera    studio photography    Vivitar 100mm lens     food photography    Kodak Ektachrome 200 film

The Precarious Life of an Independent Photographer

 Seamstress in a textile mill, Chattanooga, 1987.

This picture represents a major disappointment that almost put me out of business.

It was 1987, and I had a nice studio in an industrial area of Chattanooga. I had been on my own for eleven years, and although I wasn't setting the world on fire, I was making  a living. I had made contact with an executive of a large textile company who had big plans for an advertising campaign built around my photographs.

We made a trip to a knitting mill in Georgia, where I spent the day photographing, then. . .nothing. In a few days I learned that the company had been sold to another company which had plans that didn't include me. I had counted on spending most of the summer on that project, and now I was left holding the bag without enough work lined up to sustain us.

I closed the studio, which I could no longer afford, let my assistant go, and moved the business to the basement of my home in a close-in suburb. Somehow, we made it through the summer, and business began to pick up again in the fall. It was a difficult and disappointing time and I did some serious praying, but we survived. 

Such is the life of a small independent businessman.

The photo: A Hasselblad medium format camera with (probably) the Zeiss 50mm wide angle lens and Fujichrome film.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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 $4.95 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 2025 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    film photography   medium format    textile milling     Chattanooga    Hasselblad camera    photography studio    Zeiss 50mm lens     textiles    Fujichrome 100 film

Life on the Farm

Our cows chowing down on hay. 2010/11.

By 1987 our children were grown and on their own. We were happy empty-nesters and ready to begin a new chapter of life. And Louise had a dream.

A city girl who was born in New York City and grew up in Miami, Louise had for years longed to live in the country. I, on the other hand, grew up in the country and had no burning desire to return, but -- I love my wife, so what can you do? Besides, she had helped me achieve my dream of becoming a professional photographer. How could I refuse to help make her dream come true?

We had already begun to look for country property, both in Georgia and Tennessee, not really expecting that we might find something in McLemore Cove. But in 1985, a newspaper ad led us to 30 acres on a ridge with frontage on Chickamauga Creek, and on the day before Christmas, 1987, we moved into a 12x40-foot refurbished mobile home on our property, which we named Deer Run Farm (because the deer ran through it).

Living in the country was not enough for Louise. She wanted the whole farm experience. So the next summer, without consulting me, she bought four steers, which we fattened up and sent to market. We didn't have good fencing at the time, so it was. . .interesting.

After the steers were gone, I received my first out-of-the-US assignment: three weeks in Haiti, Chile, and Peru, documenting the work of Church of God Missions. When I got home I was surprised to find that we were now the owners of four pregnant cows. That was the beginning. For the next 25 years, I spent an average of 20 hours a week (my estimate) running the farm, plus my studio and travel photography. It was an interesting, sometimes strenuous, life.

By 2012, I was 75 and Louise was worried that I would get hurt working the cattle. There were also some other indications that it was time to, reluctantly, call it quits. We sold the cattle to a neighbor, and in 2013 they went to their new home. Our life became easier, but not as much fun. We miss those days.

The photo was made with an Olympus E-PL1. My first mirrorless digital camera.

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

If you like my pictures, 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 $4.95 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 2025 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   McLemore Cove    farming     Deer Run Farm    Olympus E-PL1 camera    McLemore Cove    North Georgia     cattle    Chickamauga Creek