Morning Shower

A Bucket Shower at the Well, Madras City Beach, India

The little three-wheeled taxi let me out by the edge of the sand, about 300 yards from the water at Madras city beach. A hundred yards along, I noticed several men taking their morning showers by dipping buckets into a well and pouring the water over themselves. I kept well back so as not to intrude and photographed them with a 180mm f2.8 Olympus Zuiko telephoto (a very fine lens indeed) mounted on an Olympus OM2n camera. The film, as usual, was Fujichrome 100D slide film.

Pete Porter and Greg Clawson commented about Monday's photo of the two fishermen that it "looked like a National Geographic magazine photo."

I consider that a high compliment. Throughout my career I aspired to work for National Geographic, and even had a portfolio showing with them in Washington, D.C. at one time. They expressed liking for my work, but explained that it took years to train photographers to shoot in the Geographic style. They told me that they were up to their ears in photographers, but only up to their ankles in ideas! 

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.

 

On the Bank

Two fishermen on Madras City Beach

Watching me with quizzical expressions as I photographed the action on the beach at Madras that morning were two grizzled fishermen, sitting on the bank above the high-tide line. What they thought about the crazy westerner with a camera I can't imagine. 

For my part, I didn't know why they weren't fishing. They had new-looking nets with them. Perhaps they were waiting for the rest of their crew. None of my business. I just made their photograph, thanked them in a friendly way with the word "Nandri" (right hand in front of my face with fingers up, palm slightly out in the South Indian gesture of casual greeting) and moved on to other scenes in this incredibly photo-rich environment.

(Olympus OM2n camera, 85mm f2 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100D film.)

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.

A Walk on the Beach

A man and his little daughter at Madras Beach

As I wrote in last Wednesday's post, there are rare times in a photographer's life when one seems to enter an almost magical time and place where wonderful pictures are on every hand, like low-hanging fruit just waiting to be picked. 

As I was watching and photographing the fishermen launching their boats from the beach at Madras, a man and his little daughter came walking along, playing in the edge of the surf and picking up shells in graceful movements. I made many pictures of them, but these are the only two I've scanned so far. The rest are in storage along with most of my film photographs. I wish I could show them all to you. 

Maybe someday I'll get back to scanning more of my film photos. I shot film for 35 years and have been photographing digitally for only 19 years. I think much of my best work is on film.

(Olympus OM2n camera, 85mm f2 Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100D film.)

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.

Ancient Fishing Methods Still Live at Madras Beach

Loading the nets

Pushing off

 Rowing out through the surf

Subsistence fishing in places like the beach at Madras probably hasn't changed much since the days when Jesus walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee and called four fishermen to be his apostles.

Just as the boats used by fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were well-adapted to that smaller body of water, the fishermen of Madras developed a boat with a high bow and stern adapted to the usually larger surf of the Indian Ocean.

The boat in these photographs had a captain and a crew of five oarsmen who pushed the boat out into the surf until it floated, then jumped aboard and used their oars to move the boat into deeper water.

Returning from their fishing at the end of the day, they used the force of the surf to drive the boat as far as possible up onto the beach, then used muscle power to shove it up beyond the high tide mark. They then unloaded their catch and went into town to sell it.

(All photos made with Olympus OM-system cameras and various Zuiko lenses,

Fujichrome 100 film.)

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.