A Photo that Almost Made It. Why Not?

Class at The Willow Kindergarten, Chattanooga

Some of my best photos never happened. This is one of them.

The scene was The Willow, a Christian elementary, kindergarten, and daycare facility in Chattanooga. I was making photos for the nearby university which sponsored the school. 

I loved the involvement of the teacher and the children. In fact, I got so caught up in the action that I did not observe one of the cardinal rules I wrote about in my previous post: I failed to be responsible for every square millimeter of my viewing screen. In the excitement of the moment, I did not make sure the teacher's hands were completely in the picture. That's a fatal flaw that makes what would have been a winning picture just another near miss to add to my extensive gallery of near misses. 

Most of the time, when a photographs turns out to be a miss, it's because we tried to include too much in the viewfinder. But sometimes we don't include enough to tell a complete story.

This photo has a lot going for it. It's sharp, the exposure is right on the money, the action is great, and it's. . .still just another photo that didn't quite make it. Make sure your viewfinder shows everything you want to show. No more and definitely no less. 

The photo was made with an Olympus OM film camera on (as best I remember) Kodachrome 64 film. I used one flash unit on a light stand, bounced off the ceiling on my left.

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 2025 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     commercial photography    film photography     Olympus OM film camera     Kodachrome 64 film         photography of education

Clean and Clear

Young woman and her grandmother. For Women's East Pavilion, Chattanooga.

Two comments I often hear when people look at my photographs are "That's really clean" or "This picture is so clear!"

The "clean" comment is most often spoken by art directors, graphic designers, or other photographers. And no, they are not saying "clean" in contrast to dirty pictures! What they mean is that the photo contains everything it needs to convey its message and has no extraneous or distracting elements.

A photograph that is sharp and properly exposed is often said to be "clear," especially when viewed by non-photographers and others who are not used to seeing high-quality prints. The advent of digital cameras that can achieve sharp focus and make well-exposed files automatically has made clarity much more common

Cleanliness and clarity are qualities that we all, as photographers, should strive for in our work. Clarity, as I said, is not as difficult as it used to be, but our autofocus cameras will not give us sharpness unless we're careful to place our focus where we want it. Our exposures will not be good unless we are aware of large areas of light or dark in our pictures and know how to compensate for them. Modern digital cameras are nearly magical, but they need some help for best results. That means that we photographers need to know what effects we want in our photos, and how to achieve them.

To make photos that qualify as clean, we must remember that we are responsible for every square millimeter of our viewing screens. If what we see through our viewfinders isn't exactly as we want it, it's our responsibility to move--closer or farther away, to one side or the other, up or down, or zoom, or any combination of the above, to make sure we have exactly what we want in our viewfinders. No more, and no less. 

In other words, if we want to make good photos, we must think about what we are doing.

The above photograph was made in my studio with a Mamiya RB67 medium format camera with a 127mm Mamiya-Sekor lens and Fujichrome film.

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 2025 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     studio photography    film photography     Mamiya RB67 camera     Mamiya-Sekor lenses          medium format cameras     photography instruction

The Underequipped Photographer--Redux

Early 1950s Buick. Tennessee Hwy. 33, Tazewell, Claiborne County.

Blog Note: I felt like writing an equipment post, but was concerned that my readers might consider it repetitious. However, looking back through the 700-plus posts I've written over the last six years, I found that the most read post, by a factor of nearly three times, was The Underequipped Photographer (October 16, 2020). You can read it here if you like.

Over the past few years I've become more and more of a minimalist with my photographic equipment. When I started my business in 1978, I had two Nikkormat 35mm cameras and a Mamiya C220 medium format TLR. In 1979, I sold the Nikkormats and bought two Olympus OM1 bodies and a more extensive array of lenses.

By 1992, when I regretfully sold my Olympus OM system because of aging eyes and switched to autofocus, the inventory had grown to four bodies and thirteen lenses. 

After a brief and unhappy flirtation with Nikon autofocus, I settled on Canon, where I remained for 24 years. With the Canons, I used zooms much more and had fewer lenses, although I still held onto some fast primes. Almost all the photos in the Rock City Barns book were made with the Canon 24mm f2.8 or the 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 on the Canon A2.

In 2003 I switched from film to digital with a Canon 10D.

From 2011 on, I had a parallel system of two Olympus E-M5 bodies and several lenses, which I used for almost everything except weddings. A Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm zoom was pretty much glued to one of the bodies and got most of the use. That was the most versatile combination I've ever owned.

By 2017 and '18, I was feeling the need to reduce my equipment load and settled on the Fuji-X system as a good combination of smaller bodies with not-too-small sensors. The fact that I could set shutter speed and aperture manually if I preferred appealed greatly to this old manual camera/film shooter.

None of this takes into account the medium and large format cameras I used in my commercial photography studio. I had a 4x5 view camera with a pair of lenses, and at various times, Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya RB67, Pentax 6x7, and Fuji GX680 medium format cameras and lenses. When I closed my studio in 2000 I kept only the Pentax and Fuji GX, which were later sold to pay for the Canon 10D. It soon became obvious that the 10D, with only a six megapixel sensor, was good enough to replace the medium format cameras.

When I wrote the "Underequipped" post five years ago, I had three bodies and only three lenses. I still have the X-Pro1 and the X-T20 bodies, but the X-T1 has been replaced with an X-T3. I've added an XF16-80 f4 lens and switched the XC50-230 telephoto zoom for an XF55-200. I've also added the XF60mm f2.4 macro lens for making digital copies of my slides instead of scanning them. The XC16-50 kit lens remains as a backup.

Three bodies and five lenses. Am I now the Overequipped Photographer?

The old Buick above was photographed with the X-T3 and the 16-80mm lens.

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 2025 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     photographic equipment     Hasselblad     Bronica     Fuji GX680     Pentax 6x7     Canon 10D     Fuji X-T3     Canon film cameras     Olympus film cameras     Olympus digital cameras     Fuji digital cameras

The View from 88

 

 Sunset over Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

I've always liked this sunset picture. I hope it isn't symbolic.

Today I am 88 years old. That sounds like a lot, but honestly, it doesn't feel that way. I always kinda thought/hoped I would live a long time because my father and mother lived to be 90 and 91, respectively. 

While the longevity of parents is a hopeful indicator, it's not a guarantee. Four of my younger siblings have already passed on, leaving only me and my two youngest brothers.

However, I'm still here, and I'm grateful. My basic health is reasonably good. I have borderline diabetes, which has changed little in 24 years, and an aortic valve which my cardiologist says will eventually need to be replaced. I also have had a C-PAP since 2007 and a pacemaker since 2011, both of which have served me well. I have some back problems which make it difficult to stand fully erect, and which make walking less fun than it used to be. But. . .

. . .all in all, I'm doing pretty well. I'm still optimistic, still young in mind and heart, still looking forward to whatever the future might hold. Still enjoying my cameras and my books and ramblin' 'round the countryside. And especially, enjoying life with Louise. We are truly blessed to have shared a long lifetime together. I celebrated my birthday by welcoming our newest great-grandchild: Alexander Robin Jenkins. 

Alexander Robin and his great-grandpa. Cell-phone photo by his dad, Dr. Michael Jenkins.

Above all else, I give credit to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Gospel is simple and straightforward: Jesus Christ is God in a human body. He died a sacrificial death that paid the penalty for all my sins -- past, present, and future. When I acknowledged myself to be a sinner and received him as my savior, he saved me (John 1:12). He will save anyone who comes to him on those terms. That means you -- whoever and wherever you are.

I hope to have many more years to enjoy life, Louise, our family, and photography. But if not, my future is secure. 

(The sunset photo was made in 1990, while on assignment for CBMC-USA. The camera was an Olympus OM2n, and the film, as always, was Fujichrome 100D.)

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 2025 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     travel photography     Lake Junaluska, North Carolina     Olympus OM2n camera     film photography     Fujichrome 100D film     salvation     Jesus Christ