Enjoy Your Labor Day

 

Louise, Kim, and grandson Devlin on our pond, Labor Day, 2003.

 

Labor Day and the Fourth of July were big family occasions when we had our little farm in McLemore Cove. Those were good times and we keenly miss them.

 

Enjoy your Labor Day! I'm taking the day off from blogging, except for this short post.

 

Deepest sympathies to long-time friend and regular blog reader Roy Gadd in the passing of his wife Cathy.

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 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.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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.

Photographers or Camera Operators?

Beauty and mystery, the essence of photography. Sunset at the chapel, Nigeria.

 Are we photographers or camera operators?

There is a distinction. We may be skilled at using our cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment. And we should be. But does that make us photographers? Only in the technical sense.

Because photography is not about us. It's about the subject.

If we've been reading equipment reviews, many (maybe most) blogs, and watching YouTube videos, we might be forgiven for thinking that photography is about the equipment. But sorry, photography is not about the equipment, even though equipment is essential for creating photographs. Nor is it about our skill in using these tools.

Others tell us that photography is about expressing ourselves, and certainly it can be that. But not in the way we think

Contrary to what most of us have been taught, photography is not an art of self-expression. Photography is above all others the art of self-effacement. Photography reaches its highest plane when we have so mastered our tools and processes that we are able to use them to take ourselves out of the way and allow the subject to speak, to reveal itself through our skill. Paradoxically, it is only then that we fully and truly expresses ourselves.

Another paradox is the fact that looking at a photograph of something is often the best way to see it. "...the camera's innate honesty...provides the photographer with a means of looking deeply into the nature of things, and presenting his subjects in terms of their basic reality. It enables him to reveal the essence of what lies before his lens with such clear insight that the beholder may find the recreated image more real and comprehensible than the actual object." (Edward Weston, "Seeing Photographically," The Complete Photographer, January, 1943.) 

Chicago buildings. What else do you see?

Our work as photographers is to isolate and clarify so that others may through us see the things that are around them. Our expensive equipment and our skill at using the processes of photography are enjoyable in themselves, but are ultimately pointless unless they become the channels through which we empower our subject to reveal the essence of itself.

This post was adapted from my article The Three Stages of Photography, which appeared in the December, 1999 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.

About the equipment:  Both photos were made with an Olympus OM2n camera and Fujichrome 100 film. A Tokina 100-300 f4 lens was used for the Nigerian photo, and probably an Olympus Zuiko 24mm f2.8 lens for the Chicago skyline.

Blog Note: Sorry this post is a day late. I had computer problems.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 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.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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      Olympus OM film camera     Olympus Zuiko lenses   Nigeria     Fujichrome 100 film    travel photography     Chicago      Tokina 100-300 f4 zoom lens    Edward Weston     Rangefinder Magazine

A Walkaround in Orange Walk Town

Belizean fast food. (Not Kentucky Fried Chicken, in case you were wondering).

 In March of 1989, my client, Church of God World Missions, sent me to Belize and Guatemala to document missions work in those countries. I spent a week in Belize, then moved on to Guatemala. My work in the northern Guatemalan village of Mayalan is posted here. 

I spent most of my time in Belize in Orange Walk Town, a city in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of about 13,000, it is the fourth largest city in Belize and was the location of a Church of God mission. Orange Walk Town is an easy place to get around, if one doesn't mind walking, and the fact that the official language is English (Belize is a former British colony) makes it easy to talk to people.

A Belizean family in front of their home.

My photography schedule with the mission wasn't intensive, so I had quite a bit of time to walk around and photograph the town and the people.

A Belizean street market.

The people of Belize are certainly poor by our standards, but they mostly seem to be relaxed and content with their lives. I believe that discontent and envy are most often triggered by comparison with others who appear to have more of life's good things. Television is probably the biggest contributor to envy and discontent.

Kids are everywhere.

Bright-eyed, friendly kids are everywhere in Orange Walk Town. They were eager for me to make their pictures, and I was happy to oblige.

A nice house in Orange Walk Town.

Most of the houses in Orange Walk Town are made of upright poles bound together, and roofed with sheet metal. This house is very well-kept and landscaped by local standards.

The Orange Walk Town neighborhood market.

Not exactly Kroger's, or even Walmart. But it fills a need in a culture less consumer-driven than ours, and it's a reasonable living for the shopkeepers.

A young Belizean boy on his way home from the neighborhood market.

 Carrying a can of what I think was oatmeal. My eye was caught by the unusual shape of his eyes, the slanting light, the brilliant colors of his shirt, and the complimentary blue of the background.

 The neighborhood laundromat.

In poorer countries such as Belize, a washing machine is an unimaginable luxury. This lady washes her families' clothes in the way countless generations of women have done before her. I'll never again complain about helping my wife with the laundry!

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 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.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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     people photography    film photography      Olympus OM film camera     Olympus Zuiko lenses   Belize     Guatemala    Fujichrome 100 film    travel photography     Orange Walk Town      Church of God World Missions

Getting Closer

 

Praying woman in worship service. Mayalan Village, Guatemala.

 

 

The great photojournalist Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

 

I don't fully agree with that maxim, and there are exceptions to every rule. But the man has a point. Can you imagine how much impact the picture of the woman praying in the little village church in Mayalan would have if I had stood ten feet away? 

So my rule is, get closer -- when you can.

 

Of course, it's not always possible to get as close as you would like. Some subjects are not welcoming, some are not safe, and some are better photographed with a bit of space around them. But still, get closer when you can. 

 

If your subjects are people, try to engage with them whenever possible.

 

People will not open up to you until you open yourself up to them. Put aside your fear of photographing them openly. Project sincere attitudes of  friendliness and courtesy. Don't talk any more than necessary. A smile will open more doors than words any day. These are not aliens from another galaxy -- they're people, and they will respond to your efforts to relate to them as people. Don't try to hide in the shadows and pick off shots with a long lens. If you're furtive, if you appear indecisive or uncertain, you'll be greeted with suspicion. 

 

Don't let fear hold you back. Fear is the number one hindrance to good people photography. For that matter, fear of being open and vulnerable is the greatest hindrance in most human relationships. Fear often comes in the form of an inertia which suggests all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't take the picture now. Later will be better. The light will be better. The people will be more receptive. You don't have the right lens. Later...but not now. If you want to make good photographs of people, you must put aside your fear and inertia by an act of your will and begin to photograph -- now. Not later -- now! 

 

To quote another great photographer, Jay Maisel, "Shoot it NOW!

 

Parts of this post were adapted from my article The Fascination of Foreign Faces, which appeared in Rangefinder Magazine in August, 1999.

 

About the equipment: The photograph of the praying woman was made with an Olympus OM2n camera with the Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens, Fujichrome 100 film, and two Vivitar 283 flashes -- one on camera, and one on a stand to my right.

 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 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.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

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     people photography    film photography      Olympus OM2n camera     Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 lens   Robert Capa     Guatemala    Fujichrome 100 film    Jay Maisel     Vivitar 283 flash