The Backroads Traveler: St. Simon's Island

 The remains of Fort Frederica, St.Simon's Island, Georgia.

 In 1736, only three years after founding Savannah, James Oglethorpe led a group of 44 men and 72 women and children to build a fort and a town at a strategic location on St. Simon's Island on Georgia's southern coast. He named it Frederica, after Crown Prince Frederick, son of George II.

It was only an earthworks at first, but under Oglethorpe's leadership and inspiration, a substantial fort of tabby was built within a few years, and inland, behind the fort, a village with walls and a moat, laid out in 84 plots, most of them 60 by 90 feet, with broad streets lined with orange trees and substantial homes of brick, wood, and tabby, housing a population of as many as 500.

After being routed by the British in the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simon's in 1742, the Spanish were no longer a serious threat to Georgia, and the garrison at Frederica was disbanded in 1749. Without the economic input of several hundred soldiers, the town withered and died, becoming effectively a ghost town by 1755.

Today, Fort Frederica is a national monument, although all that remains is a small piece of the fort and the many house foundations excavated by archaeologists that line the streets.

To get to Frederica, take the causeway from Brunswick to the island and go north on Frederica Road. On the way, you will pass Christ Episcopal Church, a church with an interesting history. We'll come back to that later.

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Simon's Island.

From the fort, take Frederica Road back to Christ Episcopal Church at #6329. Founded in 1808 on a site where both John and Charles Wesley had preached to the settlers at Frederica in the 1730s, Christ Church did not have a permanent building until 1820. That first structure was severely damaged during the Civil War by Union troops. (To be continued. Adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia. )

Both photos were made with an Olympus E-M5 digital camera with Panasonic Lumix Vario-G lenses -- the 14-140mm for Fort Frederica and the 12-32mm for Christ Church.

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 2026 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    St. Simon's Island, Georgia   Fort Frederica National Monumeent    Georgia coast    Panasonic Lumix 12-32mm Vario-G lens   Olympus E-M5 camera    Panasonic 14-140mm Vario G lens     Christ Episcopal Church

Handling and Using a Twin-Lens Reflex

Gray's Mill, Chickamauga Creek, Catoosa County, GA. Rolleicord vB

A twin-lens reflex is one of the easiest camera types to handle and use -- although it may not seem that way at first if all or most of your experience is with digital photography. The biggest difference is film itself. It has to be bought, stored, loaded into the camera, then processed, and most likely, scanned. A lot of hassle compared to the almost instant access of digital photography. Is it worth it? Some of us like the slower, more contemplative approach of the TLR. And I love composing in the square format. But it's not for everyone.

Most TLRs take 120-size film, which makes a negative or transparency 2-1/4 by 2-1/4 inches. That's more than three times the size of a 35mm negative.

Henry County Courthouse, McDonough, GA. Yashica 124.

Load a roll of film into the camera by opening the back. Move the empty spool to the take-up position and insert the new roll in its place. (Most cameras have spring-loaded buttons to make this easier.) Pull the paper leader across to the take-up spool and insert the tongue into the spool. Turn the crank or winding knob to make sure it's connected, then wind the film until the arrows on the backing paper are aligned with the arrows on the sides of the film chamber. Close the back and wind the crank or knob until it stops. You are now ready to make your first exposure.

Hold the camera in the palm of your left hand (if you're right-handed). Looking down at the camera, you will see a small window with some numbers above the lenses, and either a small lever or wheel on each side of the lenses. Turn the wheels or move the levers to set the shutter speed and aperture. You will see your settings in the little window above the lenses.

 Pond and barn. Keith Road, Catoosa County, Georgia. Rolleicord vB.

Some TLRs have built-in exposure meters -- the Yashica 124 series have CDS meters that are fairly accurate for use with black and white or  color negative film. I'm sure the Rolleiflex has an accurate meter, but I've never owned one, so I can't say. My Autocord has a selenium cell meter, but I don't trust it with color transparency film. I use a separate, hand-held meter, in my case a Minolta Flashmeter III incident meter that's now 40 years old but still accurate.

Abandoned church and cemetery near Charleston, SC. Minolta Autocord.

So when you've selected a subject and taken a meter reading, set your shutter speed and aperture. Raise the viewing hood on top of the camera, frame your subject, and use the focus knob to focus. The image on the screen will be backward, but that's something you will get used to very quickly and it actually helps in composing the image. If you need to focus more accurate, flip up the magnifying lens in the hood. Press the shutter button to take the picture, then turn the crank or winding knob to be ready for the next exposure. And that's 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 2026 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    Rolleiflex camera   cameras     film cameras    twin-lens reflex    TLR    Minolta Autocord camera    Rolleicord camera    Yashica camera  

The Twin-Lens Reflex: Some History

 Abandoned Maverick. Grundy County, Tennessee.

 In many ways the history of the twin-lens reflex is the history of the Rolleiflex.

Invented by the German company Franke and Heidecke in 1929, the Rolleiflex was the first of its kind and soon became so popular that by 1940, 400,000 cameras had been sold. The TLR was the camera of choice for both amateur and professional photographers from the 1930s to the '70s. 

Of course, such success spawned many imitators, most of which were short-lived. Some, however, such as the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflexes, the Yashcamats, the Minolta Autocords, and the interchangeable-lens Mamiyaflexes survived to the end of the twin-lens era. Rollei itself produced a less expensive model called the Rolleicord.

The 1825 Fayette County Georgia Courthouse.

The TLR was used by a great number of notable  photographers, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and Robert Capa. I have even seen a photograph from the 1940s of W. Eugene Smith, up to his chest in water, photographing with a Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex.

The twin-lens era was pretty much over by 1980, with only a few wedding photographers and others hanging on to their TLRs. The last Rolleiflex was produced in 2014.

The photographer most closely identified with the twin-lens reflex was Fritz Henle. His work with the Rolleiflex in fashion, advertising, magazine, and industrial photography, and his many travel books earned him the name "Mr. Rollei." I wrote a series of posts about him in 2020. You can read the first one here.

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 2026 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   Rolleiflex camera   cameras     film cameras    twin-lens reflex    TLR    Minolta Autocord camera    Rolleicord camera    Yashica camera    Mamiyaflex camera    W. Eugene Smith     Fritz Henle    Rolleicord camera