Sunrise casts golden beams and long shadows toward the old (1894) Cove Methodist Church, on GA Hwy 341 south of Chickamauga.
As I'm sure most of my readers know, the word "photograph" is derived from two Greek words: photos, which means light, and grapho, which means to write. So when we photograph, we are literally writing with light.
It is light which makes our photographic subjects visible and gives them form and color. Without light there is no photography. Learning to see and use light is a lifetime journey for the serious photographer.
Light is different at different times of day. Morning light is warm, and softer than at other times of day. It's my favorite kind of light (if I didn't have to get up so early to enjoy it!). Through the middle of the day, if it's sunny, the light is clear and can be harsh and contrasty, while evening light is warm and softer, though not as soft as morning light.
Sometimes I've had assignments which required me to shoot through the day, so I did the best I could with the light available. But my preferred way of working is to shoot in the good light of morning and evening and take a break or, sometimes, shoot interiors through the middle of the day.
Morning in Susie's Sunset Cafe, LaFayette, Georgia.
I always felt that Susie’s Sunset Café should have been named Susie’s Sunrise Café, because the early morning sun streamed in through the plate-glass front windows and illuminated everything all the way to the back wall.
Susie’s had booths down each side but it also had a couple of long tables down the center where lawyers, businessmen, farmers, factory workers, and gas station attendants ate their breakfasts together and chewed the fat (no reflection on the bacon or sausage) in amiable equality.
I love the way the light illuminates the things that need to be revealed, giving them shape and form, and hides everything else in shadow.
Technical notes: The photograph of Cove Methodist Church was made with a Canon EOS 20D, while Susie's Cafe was photographed with an Olympus SPn rangefinder camera with a non-interchangeable 40mm lens on Fuji color negative film.
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.
Text and photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2026.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment