Rocky and Friends

Rocky the Rock City Elf and some friends.

Going through my files of film photographs to select some larger-than-35mm transparencies to convert into digital files on my new/old Epson Perfection 4990 scanner, I came across a photograph that has almost certainly been published more often than any other I've ever made.

From 1982 until 1994, I was the more-or-less official photographer for Rock City Gardens, creating many photographs for their ads and brochures. This picture of Rocky, the Rock City Elf with some of his young friends was featured on the brochure that is given to everyone who buys a ticket to Rock City, so it has been printed countless thousands of times over many years.

The setup was simple: Rocky stood with his balloons in front of the Rock City entrance and we had the kids run out to meet him while I snapped the peak action with my Hasselblad. We repeated the process six or eight times to make sure we got some good shots. Most were okay, but the one with the little boy jumping off the ground in excitement was exceptional. (The little boy, by the way, is the son of Rock City president Bill Chapin and is now around 40 years old!)

In today's world of "spray and pray" digital photography, making only six or eight shots of a situation like this sounds strange. But that's  the way we did it back then, and it usually worked out just fine.

I had a great working relationship with Rock City, but in 1994 I got busy with the Rock City Barns book project and the day-to-day work for the attraction passed on to other photographers.

(The photo was made with a Hasselblad 500CM camera, the 80mm Zeiss lens, and Kodak Ektachrome film.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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     scanning     Epson Perfection 4990 Photo scanner     film photography     film cameras     Hasselblad 500CM     Zeiss 80mm lens     Kodak Ektachrome film     Rock City Gardens

More Fun and Games with Scanners

Log shed in snow, Deer Run Farm, McLemore Cove, northwest Georgia c1988.

 

 I bought my first Epson Perfection 4990 flatbed scanner around 20 years ago. It gave me great scans from transparencies and prints. When we sold our home and moved into an RV I took it with me, thinking I would scan some film and prints in the evenings when we were not traveling. Unfortunately, it flew off my desk when I was doing some hard braking and was damaged. Since that model is no longer made, when we were settled in our home in Knoxville I began looking online for a used one in good shape and recently found one. Since then I've been working out some kinks and brushing up on my scanning technique. Both pictures in today's post were scanned from 2-1/4 x 2-3/4-inch transparencies. In fact, my scanner is busily scanning as I write this.

Although both the Epson and my Minolta-DiMage scanners do a great job, they have one inherent flaw: they are slow, slow, slow. The Epson takes about 15 minutes to scan a transparency, and the Di-Mage takes ten to scan a slide. Scanning is an enjoyable way to kill and evening (better than watching TV) but unfortunately, I have a few thousand pictures on film that I would like to scan before I shuffle off this planet. I need a faster method.

Sunset over Lookout Mountain from McLemore Cove c1988.

Fortunately, a faster method exists, but I'm not yet set up to use it. It involves attaching a camera to a copy stand, using a special close-up lens called a macro lens, placing the slide or transparency on a lightbox, and making a digital copy of the picture. I have the camera, of course, and the lightbox, and recently acquired a Fujinon macro lens. But in a fit of absolute foolishness, I let my copy stand go in the estate sale when we sold our house. Now, it could cost me as much as $200 to replace it. Duh!!

So what am I going to do with all those photographs when I get them scanned? Honestly, I don't know. Some of them will appear on this blog of course. But other than that, I just like having a visual history of where I've been and what I've seen. Not that my great-grandkids are likely to care! 

Both pictures were made around 1988 during our early days at the farm, with a Pentax 6x7, the 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens, and Kodak Ektachrome film.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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     scanning     Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner     Epson Perfection 4990 Photo scanner     film photography     film cameras     Pentax 6x7     Takuman 105mm lens     Kodak Ektachrome film     Funinon 60mm macro lens     McLemore Cove

Fun and Games with Scanners

The old Hicks House in snow, winter, 1988.

Scanning is the art/science of converting slides and negatives into digital files so they can be edited in a computer, printed by a digital printer, posted online, etc. At least half the pictures you've seen on this blog were originally shot on film and scanned for posting online. That includes, for instance, all the Rock City barn photos and all my foreign photojournalism except El Salvador.

I was a film photographer for 35 years. I've only been working with digital cameras for 20. When sixty percent of your  photographic history is written on slides and negatives, you can either learn to scan, find someone to do it for you, or kiss that history goodbye.

I have two scanners: one is a Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400, which makes extremely high quality scans from 35mm slides and negatives. In fact, I have two 24x36-inch prints from scans made with the DiMage hanging on the walls of my house.

The other scanner is an Epson Perfection 4990 flatbed, similar to the scanner on your printer, but capable of scans of much higher quality. I use it for scanning transparencies and negatives larger than 35mm, and also for scanning prints. The picture of the old Hicks House at the top of this post was scanned today, with the Epson, from a 2-1/4x2-3/4-inch transparency that I found recently while going through some file folders I had packed away when we moved from the farm.

The old house was on our property when we bought it. Apparently it had been built around 1850. We gave brief consideration to restoring it, but decided it was not really what we wanted and the cost could be nearly as much as building a new house.

The picture was made in 1988, during our first winter at the farm, with a Pentax 6x7, the 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens, and Kodak Ektachrome film.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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     scanning     Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner     Epson Perfection 4990 Photo scanner     film photography     film cameras     Pentax 6x7     Takuman 105mm lens     Kodak Ektachrome film     McLemore Cove

A Rock City Barn in Kentucky

Rock City Barn KY-1, Pembroke, Kentucky.

In 1988, Bill Chapin, president of See Rock City, Inc. and great-nephew of founder Garnet Carter, told me of his long-time dream to create a book about Rock City's barns and asked me to find out what it would cost. He decided not to proceed at that time, but my interest had been kindled. I obtained a list of the barns they were still repainting, and whenever my travels brought me near one I made a photograph of it if possible.

In 1992, our son Don had returned from the war in Iraq and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He and his wife Kim had rented a small house at Pembroke, on U.S. Highway 41, one of the old major north-south routes that were at one time festooned with "See Rock City" signs on barns from northern Indiana to the Florida line. (There were never any Rock City signs in Florida, for some reason, but plenty of Burma-Shave signs.) 

This barn was about a mile south of Don's house. By getting low, I used the compositional technique of leading lines to draw the viewer's eye to the barn. The evening light was great, and I was pleased to have another nice shot to add to my collection.

We also had a great weekend with Don and Kim and their dog Pete.

By 1994 I had collected about 25 barn photos. I made prints from my slides and asked for a meeting with Chapin. That was when he said the magic words: "Let's do it!"

And that's how the book Rock City Barns: A Passing Era began.

(Photo: Olympus OM2n film camera, Olympus Zuiko 24mm f2.8 lens, Fujichrome 100 film.)

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 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     film cameras     travel     See Rock City    Rock City Barns     Pembroke,Kentucky     Olympus OM2n     Olympus lenses     Zuiko 24mm f2.8 lens    Fujichrome 100 film