Walking in Beauty: My Favorites

Posted By Glenn B. Jenks on Sep 15, 2018

By Glenn B. Jenks

Occasionally a friend will ask me which of my tens of thousands of photos are my favorites and why. To me every one of my photos has a story and the story of a photo has as much to do with how I feel about each photo. And sometime the photos with at the best story are not technically the best photos and vice versa. Having said all of that here are a few of my favorites and the stories that go with them

“The Lady of Benin” by Glenn B. Jenks

The tiny country of Benin in West Africa, is where the first two photos were taken. This lady in her canoe passed by some netting that created a perfect frame for the subject of the photo. I was just lucky that she had a bright red head covering that highlighted the muted colors in the rest of the scene.

“Pondering” by Glenn B. Jenks

This boy is sitting on the front of his family canoe looking out over the only world he has ever known and probably ever will know. Because I shot the photo from directly behind the boy, we get to see what he sees from the same angle he sees it and are left to ponder what it is that he is pondering in this quiet moment

“The Lady I Wish I Had Met” by Glenn B. Jenks

Now to Ecuador where I took many photos of people, but none more appealing than this lady. Her traditional dress, her expression, her eyes and the wrinkles on her face make me want to know her, but I never did. This was a candid shot in a crowd and suddenly she was gone.

“The Swan” by Glenn B. Jenks

While on a trip to Michigan a few years ago to visit some family, I went out to a small lake and a group of swans. I took a shot of the whole group and then one cropped this image from the lager image. Next, the cropped image into a monochromatic image and used sepia to finish the image. There is a graceful elegance in the pose the swan gave me.

“The Last Goodbye” by Glenn B. Jenks

The lady in this photo devoted her whole life to caring for horses, hers and those owned by others. She operated a stable where she taught countless children and adults the joy of to riding horses. Eventually age and declining health caught up with her and one by one all of the horses she cared for were taken to other stables my their owners. Finally only one horse was left and it belonged to her, It was a avery emotional scene andI was asked to photograph t he horse on the day the new owner came to take it away. I was able to capture this tender and tearful goodbye. I treasure this image.

“Let Me See” by Glenn B. Jenks

We go back to Africa into at the slums of Nairobi where a group of boys who seem to have heard that white people were inside a shack poked their heads in to see what we looked like. As they appeared at the doorway I turned and pushed at the shutter.

“Two Photographers” by Glenn B. Jenks

I have taken many photos of the Grand Canyon, but this is my favorite. One cold morning in late September two photographers set out to photograph Imperial Point on the North Rim at dawn The photographer in the photo focussed on Imperial Point. The second focussed on the first photographer as he focussed on Imperial Point. These two photographers never met and never saw each other’s photos. But these two people have one thing in common. They both froze their respective “wazzus” to get a photograph.