Tranquility

Peaceful bayou. Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia.

A rowboat lies casually on the bank of a southeast Georgia coastal bayou near the ancient ghost village of Sunbury, as a lazy, hazy summer sun bathes the lily pads and aquatic grasses in a soft glow. Makes one want to shove off in the little rowboat and drop a line in the water, then sit back and wait for a fish to bite.

Like the bayou, the village of Sunbury itself whiles away the days and years in dimming memories that it was once a thriving port city on the Georgia coast, even rivaling Savannah and playing a major role in the Revolutionary War. However, the town was captured by the British in 1779 and burned by them near the end of the war. In following years the town was struck by an outbreak of Yellow Fever and two hurricanes. In 1864, Sherman's March to the Sea completed the destruction, leaving Sunbury a ghost town, alone with its ghosts. 

The Sunbury cemetery was established in 1758 as a public burying ground and is the final resting place of many prominent citizens of Sunbury and Midway. Only 34 grave markers still stand, the oldest dated 1788.

A different kind of tranquility. Sunbury Cemetery. Established 1758.

People still live in Sunbury, but not many of them. Like the little bayou, Sunbury is a tranquil place.

The photos: Both were made with the Canon EOS 5D Classic camera and the 24-85mm USM 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     travel photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon USM 24-85mm lens       Sunbury, Georgia     Revolutionary War

Simple Beauty

Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church, U.S. Highway 41, Dooly County, Georgia.

Returning from a trip to south Georgia with my friend, the distinguished artist and designer Michael Largent, we decided that, instead of taking Interstate 75, we would drive old U.S. Highway 41 to see what we could see.

It was a good call. We saw and photographed a number of interesting things. Among them was this simple and simply beautiful old church.

Probably built by a congregation of black people, it doesn't appear to have been used for regular services for some years, although it has been reasonably well maintained. The paint is not peeling, and there are no signs of disrepair. The tin roof is rusty, but one panel has been replaced in the not-too-distant past. Grass is growing through the pebbles in the parking lot, indicating little current use.

My guess is that it is only used these days for homecomings and special occasions, as witness the still-standing dinner-on-the-grounds tables.

One of the reasons for the beauty of this scene is its simplicity. Just an old building, overarching, bare-limbed trees, a green field in the background, all bathed in rich, late afternoon light filtered through threaded clouds.

Another reason is the composition. One of the rules of good composition is that the main subject should be facing into the center of the picture instead of away from it. That's a good general rule, but like all rules, sometimes works better if we break it. The eye is more effectively drawn to the church if it has to travel around the overall setting, at last arriving at the old structure.

The photo: Canon EOS 5D Classic with Canon 24-85mm USM lens. 

Blog note: Running late this week. Sorry. This post should have appeared on Friday.

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    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon USM 24-85mm lens     old churches     south Georgia     U.S. Highway 41

Do I Miss Photographing Weddings?

 Ashley and Bowen. Valdosta, Georgia, May 8, 2010.

Sometimes. A little bit, maybe.

Many commercial photographers will not do weddings. Some, I'm sure, think it's beneath them. Others find the rapid pace of wedding photography incompatible with the measured, contemplative pace of studio work.

Me, I always enjoyed photographing weddings. What's not to like? Happy people, celebrating a significant occasion in the lives of two families, plus a multitude of friends, all enjoying themselves. Like I say, what's not to like?

For many years weddings were not part of my marketing focus, but if someone asked me, I was usually happy to oblige. You could say that I backed into doing more wedding photography, and the reason for that was because I had good Karma!

That would be Karma Newland, a live-wire twenty-something who became my assistant in 1996. I had recently photographed her wedding, and she was enthusiastic about working with me to do more weddings. Also, commercial photography in the Chattanooga market began slowing down around that time, and I was looking for something to take up the slack.

We had a good run until around 2005. I loaned her one of my digital cameras and she soon became proficient enough to be my second shooter. Eventually, her husband's work took her out of the area. That was the end of my good Karma.

I stayed with it as long as I could. I stopped booking weddings of my own around 2008, but continued to work as a second shooter for other photographers. By 2020, the primary photographer for whom I mostly worked was moving to another city and winding down her business. My last wedding was in 2021, a few days before my 84th birthday. 

But it was kinda fun while it lasted.

The photo: Canon 5D (Classic), Canon EOS 70-200 f4L 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     wedding photography    digital photography     Canon EOS 5D Classic camera     Canon EF 70-200mm f4L lens

Seeing the Light

Young mother with baby. For Women's East Pavilion, Chattanooga.

One of the most enjoyable projects to come my way back in the days when I had a studio was creating the photographs for a series of mailing pieces, brochures, and wall art for a new women's hospital.

This kind of work falls under the heading of commercial photography, which, roughly speaking, is photography for businesses and organizations of various kinds.

Photography for the Women's East Pavilion project was done entirely in my studio. Working with the agency's art director, we were able to line up a number of suitable, non-professional models.

For me, the most interesting and challenging parts of the project were arranging the lighting for each setup and directing the models. 

My lighting consisted of a number of studio flash units, all of them in umbrellas or softboxes to soften the light; each unit positioned to accent the subject with subtlety, yet clarity. Lighting a scene well was for me the most challenging, yet  enjoyable aspect of commercial photography.

Since this was before the days when digital cameras made everything easy, I had to visualize the effect of the lighting in my head. I checked the output of each flash with a flash meter, and when I felt I had the lighting properly balanced, put a Polaroid back on the camera and did a test shot.

Two friends arranging flowers. For Women's East Pavilion, Chattanooga.

Yep, that was how we did it. Professional medium and large format cameras had removable film backs that could be replaced by backs made to hold Polaroid film. We made whatever changes to the lighting the Polaroid test shots indicated, and when the tests looked good, put a back loaded with regular film on the camera and fired away.

So we did all this work with light without ever being able to actually "see the light" until the film came back from the laboratory!

(The Women's East Pavilion photography won a number of awards from the Chattanooga Advertising Federation.)

The photos: Both shots were made with a Mamiya RB67 medium format camera, the Mamiya-Sekor 127mm lens, and Fujichrome 100D 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     commercial photography    film photography     Mamiya RB67 camera     Mamiya-Sekor lenses          medium format cameras     studio photography     Fujichrome 100D film     Polaroid film backs