The Lost Art of Porch-Sitting

Front porch, U.S. 41, Cordele, Georgia

Canon EOS 5D Classic, 24-85 f3.5-4.5 EF lens 

 

 A traditional wraparound porch just north of downtown on U.S. Highway 41, the "main drag" through Cordele, Georgia. Now relegated to backroad status by nearby Interstate 75, Highway 41 and similar routes are showcases of an earlier time in America, and especially in the South, when the more affluent built their homes along the main streets of their towns, usually on the north or east side of downtown.

(An exception is Barnesville, Georgia, where the fine homes are mostly south of downtown along Thomaston Street in the Thomaston Street Historic District.) 

Once upon a time Southerners built gracious houses with wide, wraparound porches, often called verandahs. The porches helped keep their houses cool by preventing the sun from beaming directly in through the windows during the heat of the day, and in the evenings after a bit of breeze picked up, they were places to sit in rocking chairs and swings for leisurely chats with friends over tall glasses of ice tea. 

Air-conditioning and television ended all that. Nowadays porch-sitting is pretty much a lost art and we are poorer for the loss. 

(This post was adapted from my limited edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.) 

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts? 

(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

The Editorial Portrait

Financial consultant John White for Financial Planning Magazine.

 

In my post about the definitive portrait I listed several other kinds of portraits a photographer may be called upon to do -- the casual portrait, the personal or studio portrait, the business portrait, the corporate portrait, and the editorial portrait.

The editorial portrait, which, as the name implies is usually assigned by a magazine or newspaper, is intended to give insight into who the person is and what he or she does.

One of my favorite assignments of this type was a portrait of financial consultant John White, who had written an article for Financial Planning Magazine. Distinguished graphic designer and long-time friend Michael Largent, the design editor of the magazine at the time, sent me to West Palm Beach, where the obviously successful Mr. White had a very nice home on a golf course. 

Michael's concept was to photograph Mr. White against a background of blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Not trusting Mother Nature to provide the appropriate setting, he had a large canvas background painted in New York and shipped to me in Florida. 

His skepticism was justified, because the sky was overcast on the day I was scheduled to make the portrait. I set up the painted background in White's garage, lighted the subject and background with my portable studio flash kit, and went to work with my Hasselblad medium format camera and Fujichrome RDP100 film.

However, after shooting a few rolls of film, it was obvious to me that things weren't working at all. 

Having read White's article as a basic part of preparation for this assignment, I felt his advice to the financial world could be summed up metaphorically as "The skies appear to be clearing but don't put your umbrellas away quite yet." 

With that sixth sense that sometimes comes to the aid of photographers (serendipity?), I had put my red golf umbrella in the car that morning, although there was no rain in the forecast. I retrieved the umbrella from the car and asked Mr. White if we could take a short walk on the golf course. Finding a good spot by a lake, I gave him the open umbrella and made the photograph with a 50mm wide angle lens. 

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts? 

(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

The World's Longest Yard Sale

If you think all the bargains are on eBay, think again. 

 

 

Could I interest you in taking a leisurely drive through beautiful country and examining close-up a slice right out of the middle of middle-America, while at the same time doing some prime bargain hunting? Hit the road next August for the world's longest yard sale. And take your camera. 

The York Grist Mill on the Wolf River at Pall Mall, Tennessee

was operated by World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York until

his death in 1964. It is part of the Sergeant Alvin C. York State

Historic Park, which also includes his home.

 

The epitome of the two-lane U.S. Highways which bound mid-20^th century America together in a network of asphalt ribbons, U.S. Highway 127 winds its way in obscurity from Michigan to its terminus in Chattanooga, Tennessee for 51 weeks each year, quietly going about its job of linking small towns in the heart of America’s heartland. But for one glorious weekend each summer, old 127 puts on its party clothes and welcomes hordes of bargain-hunters to an unique celebration: the world's longest yard sale, where you can buy anything from toys to tractors.

 In the earlier years of this century and the late 20th century, I spent some time photographing various segments of what was then known as the 450-Mile Yard Sale, culminating in 2005 with a three-day trip from its southern end at Gadsden, Alabama on the Lookout Mountain Parkway, to its northern end, which was then Covington, Kentucky. It's grown since then, and now runs on north through mostly rural Ohio all the way to Hudson, Michigan; a total of 690 miles. 

 

Officially known as the 127 Sale, the event began in 1987 as the brainchild of Mike Walker, a Fentress County, Tennessee official who hoped to draw visitors from the interstates to the backroads. A route was planned in Tennessee and Kentucky and a list was compiled of nearby attractions for people to visit, as well as shopping the sales.

The web sites for the 127 Sale are 127sale.com and 127yardsale.com. The 2021 sale will be August 5-8. 

All photos Canon EOS 20D, Canon 24-85 f3.5-4.5EF lens.

 

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts? 

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone

U.S. Highway 62 and Another Lost Rock City Barn

"Lost" Rock City Barn on Old U.S. 62 (Ripley Road), Brown County, Ohio.

Canon EOS A2, Canon EOS 70-210mm f4 zoom lens

(Click to enlarge)

U.S. Highway 62 is an interesting, even unique road. Although designated an east-west route, it meanders from its eastern end at the Canadian border at Niagara Falls in northwestern New York, across the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania and into Ohio, where it pursues a mostly southerly course before joining U.S. Highways 52 and 68 near Ripley to share a bridge across the Ohio River. Once in Kentucky, 62 splits from Highway 68, goes a little further south, then trends west and southwest, ultimately, after coursing 2,248 miles through ten states, terminating at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas. 

Did I say U.S. 62 is unique? It is the only U.S. highway that connects Canada and Mexico. 

In these days of super highways U.S. 62 is relatively obscure, so it might seem a bit strange that Rock City would have sent its crew to paint the "See Rock City" message on barns along that route. But before the network of interstate highways began to cover the country in the 1960s it was a major thoroughfare, connecting parts of Canada, upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio with U.S. Highway 27 at Cynthiana, Kentucky, from whence southbound travelers could go on to Florida (and not coincidentally) through Chattanooga. 

On my first official barn photography foray in October, 1994, I went north on U.S. 27 to Cynthiana, and then east on 62 to Mt. Olivet, photographing three barns along the way; none of which was particularly photogenic. I did not revisit Highway 62 until the morning of September 26, 1995, when I crossed a bridge that carried U.S. Highways 52, 62, and 68 over the Ohio River near Ripley, photographed a barn just south of the town, and went looking for a barn on my list that was on an old alignment of U.S. 68. I stopped to ask directions of two farmers standing by a pickup truck. 

They didn't know about the barn I was looking for, (I did eventually find it) but one of them said, "Y'know, there's Mr. Eammons' barn over on Ripley Road -- that's old Highway 62 -- it's got some writin' on it."

Mr. Eammons barn turned out to be a compact tobacco barn with a tractor parked inside, and it did indeed have some writin' on it: "See 7 States from Rock City near Chattanooga, TN." Best of all, it was a "lost barn" -- one that had been lost from Rock City's records. 

The morning light wasn't right, but I made some photographs for the record, knowing that this barn had great potential if I could come back near sunset.

However, that didn't happen until three weeks later. Early on the morning of October 18, I visited the farm of Clarence Spindler just north of Evansville, in southwestern Indiana, and made thisphoto. Then I got on Interstate 64 and beat feet across southern Indiana and Ohio, arriving just before sunset; just in time to make the photograph you see above. One of my very favorite Rock City barns.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone