The Passing of Lifelong Friends

Barbara plays the ukulele for Ciindy

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 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 The film was Kodachrome 25, which I bought out-of-date for very cheap at the Eagle Army-Navy stores.

The photo below is the young Jenkins family at Jonathan Dickinson the previous Thanksgiving. It was warm that year, not chilly, as 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

Photographs and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

Images of Tranquility

                                                        Abandoned Tractor, White County, Georgia

I have a collection, or portfolio, of photographs that I call "Images of Tranquility." These are photographs that, for me, at least, invoke a sense of beauty, peace, order, and serenity. I've previously posted quite a number of them on this blog. The pictures in Monday's and last Friday's posts are two of them, and you can see some other recent ones here and here and here.

For me, these photographs are visual therapy, promoting a sense of inner calmness. I hope they will do the same for you.

Keith (?) Road barn and pond, Catoosa County, Georgia 

The old tractor was found beside GA Highway 75Alt north of Cleveland in northeast Georgia's White County during one of my photo-rambling daytrips in September, 2006, and photographed with a Canon 5D Classic. The lens was the Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L-IS.

The barn and pond on Keith Road were photographed sometime in the 1970s on one of my Sunday afternoon photo-rambles. The camera was a twin-lens reflex, probably a Rolleicord Vb, although it could have been a Yashica. (Also, the location could have been Cherokee Valley Road rather than Keith Road. Sorry -- I had not yet learned to keep notes about my photos.) The film would have been Kodak Ektachrome, because Fujichrome did not begin to take hold in the U.S. until the 1980s.

I'm posting a bit late today -- we had a serious thunderstorm and a power outage last evening. A small tornado hit about five miles south of us and took out some power lines and did some other damage.

Photographs and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

 

 

Black and White or Color?

 

Cove Methodist Church, December 26, 2010 

 

I hope neither of my readers gets tired of me mentioning McLemore Cove so often. What can I say? It’s a beautiful place, I lived there for more than 30 years, and made lots of photographs (but not enough) there. Besides, as it says in the column to your left, this blog is about photography, about life, and about my life in photography. The Cove is both part of my life and my photography.

However, this post is not actually about the Cove, but about Cove Methodist Church, which technically, is not in the Cove. It is two miles north of Georgia Highway 136, which defines the northern limit of the McLemore Cove Historic District. The people who founded the church on Cove Road south of the town of Chickamauga back in 1872 didn’t know that, though. To them it was in the Cove, or close enough. So Cove Methodist Church it became.

Cove Methodist ceased being a functioning church many years ago, but has been kept alive largely through the efforts of the Fine family. A revival service is held every fall, and a standing-room-only Christmas service in December. The church is also a lovely and popular venue for weddings. 

Since I passed by the church frequently, often several times a week for many years, I was able to photograph Cove Methodist Church in all seasons and under all weather conditions. (Although I don’t think I ever photographed it in the rain.)

Now back to our topic: Close your eyes and tell me: is the picture on your screen in color, or black and white?

The photo was made with a Canon EOS 5D Classic fitted with the Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 lens, which pretty much stayed glued to the camera in those days.

Hope you don't mind a little snow on your Fourth of July.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

 

Visual Therapy

George D. Queener's cattle crossing Chickamauga Creek. 

By the early 1980s, Louise and I were becoming somewhat bored with our suburban existence and began looking for a way to make our home in the country.

In 1985 we heard of a woman who had some land for sale in North Georgia's McLemore cove. As it turned out, by the time we made contact with her she had already sold the land. However, she told us that her neighbor, George D. Queener, was planning to sell some acreage, and that she would ask him if she could show us the land.

He was agreeable, and in September, 1985 we piled into her little Toyota pickup and she drove us around the 30 acres on a ridge with frontage on Chickamauga Creek that were to be our home for more than 30 years.

The land was then part of the 800-acre-plus GDQ Ranch. As we came down to the creek, some of Queener's purebred Polled Hereford cattle were crossing.

The peace and tranquility of the scene were palpable. It was pure visual therapy. To this day, when I need to restore a sense of inner calm, I visualize this scene. The creek, the cattle, the early fall day all come together in perfect visual harmony. The picture does not do the scene justice, but the quest for tranquility continues to be a major theme in my photography.

This photograph was made with a Hasselblad 500CM camera with an 80mm Zeiss lens. The film was Kodak's Vericolor color negative stock.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

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

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be published on December 6th.