A Day iin the Life of a Working Photographer

 Shooting an ad for Kerala Carpets

The purpose of this photograph will probably not be immediately obvious, but it is actually an advertising shot for the carpet maker, showing the carpet as part of a lifestyle.

The setting was in front of the french doors in the great room of our former home. The furniture and accessories, however, were not ours -- everything was borrowed from furniture stores and other sources by the art director in charge of the project and brought into our house. I could have created this set in my studio, but it was easier and much cheaper to do it this way. It would have required a great deal of carpentry, painting, etc., and even with all that it would have been difficult to duplicate the lovely outdoor background and lighting in a studio.

To balance the light streaming in from outdoors, I used two studio electronic flash units, being very careful to place them to minimize the reflections in the window glass. Actually, they are there, if you know where to look, but very diffused and minimal.

On a sturdy tripod was the trusty Mamiya RB67 medium format camera I used for most studio work. The lens was the Mamiya-Sekor 127mm f4.5. The film, as usual, was Fujichrome 100 in 120 size. 

Setting up for the session, making the photos, then clearing everything out and putting our home back in order took most of a day -- just another day in the life of a working photographer.

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 in December.

Rock City Barn TN-9

 Rock City Barn TN-9 

This barn is located on Tennessee Highway 58, just south of Kingston. I first photographed it 28 years ago, on October 24th, 1994 while on my first extended trip to photograph Rock City's barns; a trip that took me up U.S. 11, then TN 58, and then on to northern Kentucky on U.S. 27 .

I made the best photograph I could, but something wasn't right that day -- I don't remember if it was the time of day, the direction of the light, or something else. But I knew this scene held promise of a better picture if I could find it, so I made a mental note to come back and try again. I often went back to a barn that I felt had more potential than I was able to capture the first time around if a subsequent trip took me back into the area.

I was not able to get back to this barn before the Rock City Barns book was published, so the picture in the book is not the one you see here. I did get there eventually, though, and everything came together beautifully -- the light, the sky, the cattle in the foreground. And the freshly repainted See Rock City sign. 

I'm not sure exactly when this photo was made, but it was on film, so it was taken before 2003, the year I switched to digital photography. The camera would have been a Canon A2 and the film, as always, was Fujichrome 100D.

Sometime later the owners of the property contacted me and bought a 24 by 36-inch print to hang in their living room.

If you don't have Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, amazon.com still has copies, both new and used.

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 in December.

Precious Prints

  Rob, Louise, and Donny at Fall Creek Falls (Tennessee) State Park.

In the summer of 1969 we spent two memorable weeks camping at Fall Creek Falls State Park. I shot only two or three rolls of 120 print film in a Yashica twin-lens reflex camera, but made pictures that I still treasure.

Pure essence of Louise. Always good-to-go, always ready to take on life with zest.

 

I have these cherished photographs because I made prints. Of course, in those days you made prints because that was the only way to see your pictures (unless you shot slide film). Now, 53 years later, I can still enjoy my pictures. If I had been shooting with a digital camera in those long-ago golden days I most probably would not have these pictures unless I had made prints. Electronic files can deteriorate or get lost or erased in a multitude of ways. But I made prints and I have these pictures. And hundreds more.

 

Our young family in 1969. Camera on a tripod with self-timer.

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 in December.

Make Prints!

 

Some of the calendars and booklets our children

and grandchildren have created for us.

 

Blog note: This is a partial re-post of a blog that first ran on May 10, 2021. 

This current generation has been the most photographed in history, yet will be the first since photography was invented to have no photographic history.

Think about it. Do you remember looking at family pictures when you were growing up? Was that important to you in giving you a sense of your family's history? Unless you take action, your children and grandchildren will not have that experience.

It has been estimated that more photographs are being made every day than the sum total of all the photographs made from the time photography was invented until the year 2000. Yet, where are all those millions of photos? Why are they not creating a rich photographic heritage for families all around the globe?

The answer is that they don't actually exist. They are only collections of electrical impulses in cameras, cell phones, computers, or the cloud. They have never been given actual, tangible existence. They have never been printed.

You can save those photo files on your computer hard drive, a DVD, a back-up hard drive, a flash drive, or the cloud. And you should. But those media all can deteriorate. And even if they don't, at some point in the future no one is going to have software to read those files. (Floppy discs were common only 20 or 25 years ago, but try finding a way to read them now.) But with reasonable care, prints are permanent.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to document the life of your family. I began with a very simple Kodak Brownie snapshot camera. The simplest digital cameras, even cell phone cameras, are capable of better sharpness and clarity than even the finest 35mm cameras we had back in the day.

So what is the best camera? The best camera is the one you have with you. One of my daughter's-in-law has an old Canon 20D, the other uses her cell phone. Both of them document their families diligently. But that's only the first step. The next step is to get those digital files out of the cameras and into print. If you don't download and save those photos they will almost certainly be lost.

So -- make prints! There are many online labs to which you can send your files for printing, or you can order prints at your neighborhood drug store or WalMart. Or you can take advantage of a gift of the digital age and have your photo files printed into booklets by online companies such as Blurb, Shutterfly, and many others. Those companies also make calendars, and so, each year for many years, daughter-in-law Bonnie has given Louise and me a calendar full of family pictures.

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 in December.