Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

Tohono Chul 10 x 10 show 2022

From March 4th until May 29th, 2022, Tohono Chul Park in Tucson, Arizona is having their annual 10 x 10 fundraiser. A ton of art work created by a bunch of artists.

Everything is 10 inch by 10 inch, bagged and boarded, all for the low low price of $100. I have five pieces there. If you don't see the work of mine that you want on display, just ask James or any of the great museum staff and they will help you out. Great people.

10 x 10 helps Tohono Chul and it'll helps me. Good all around. (I get $50, they get $50 for each sale.)

And if you want something specific of mine, you may want to get up there early.

Love y'all.

Stu.

Hoop Dance for Aunt Orlean Puckett.

"Hoop Dance for Aunt Orlean Puckett, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia" (c) 2019 Stu Jenks.

 

From the National Park Service website.

Born in North Carolina, Orlean Hawks Puckett received little formal education before she married John Puckett at about age sixteen. They settled close to his family near Groundhog Mountain in Patrick County. Her first child was born in 1862 but died a few months later of diphtheria. Of her twenty-three subsequent pregnancies, none of the children born living survived more than a few days, possibly as a result of Rh hemolytic disease.

Orlean Puckett and her husband moved in 1875 to a nearby farm in Carroll County, where he built a two-story log house. She first served as a midwife in 1889, when no doctor or other midwife could be found for a neighbor. Puckett soon began traveling around the region, sometimes up to twenty miles distant, to deliver babies. She never charged for her services and became known throughout the area for her compassion and skill, having never lost a mother or baby during the more than 1,000 deliveries she attended.

Orlean moved from her home in 1939 because of the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. However, she died three short weeks afterward. A small cabin on her property was preserved by the National Park Service, and is known to be Puckett Cabin.

Continuing her legacy of care, the Orlean Hawks Puckett Institute, in Asheville, North Carolina, works to promote and strengthen child, parent, and family development.

Her story to many is a perfect picture of the strength of Appalachian women in the 1800's and the early 1900's.

P.S. from Stu: Zoom in on the window if you can. I got lucky and captured reflections of the spinning Xmas lights in the glass of Orlean's cabin. Also, this image was a prayer for me: to let go of the past, be fully here in the now, and to have hope for the future.

New Christmas Hoop...

"New Christmas Light Hoop, Flame Spiral Studios, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

Night before last, I made a new Christmas light hoop. 200 lights wrapped around a large embroidery hoop I inherited from my sister. May have to take this into the woods sometime this winter and shoot some nocturnal work. And happy 90th birthday, Mary Jenks. You taught me to be generous with my money, my time and my compassion. Thank you for that. Rest in peace, Mom.

Stu Jenks featured in B & H article, on safety and etiquette when photographing at night...

I'm featured in an article by Jill Waterman of B&H Photo/Video/Pro Audio, regarding being a good and safe person while photographing at night.

Many thanks to Jill for contacting me to assist with this article. It's a big deal to be asked by the largest photography retailer in the world to help keep people safe and sound. More than happy to help y'all.

Click here or above to go to the article.

...As a bookend for the encounter, Jenks offers one last piece of etiquette for the end of the night. “As you load up and prepare to leave, turn back to where you’ve worked and thank the land. Say, ‘Thank You’ out loud,” he suggests. “Show a bit of gratitude to the land that provided your images and this experience. For me, it puts food on my table, but it also puts joy in my heart.” - Jill Waterman, B&H.

The Rules Of The Night...

The Rules Of The Night by Stu Jenks.

I've been asked to write for B & H Photo, regarding safety and etiquette when shooting nocturnal photography.

I've made my mistakes in the past. Yes I have. (See the chapter in my book "Flame Spirals" regarding the shooting of “Owl's Head Flame Spiral.” I had a white gas incident where I used too much of the fuel but I had a fire extinguisher at hand. And luckily within seconds, the flames dissipated. Dumb.)

I learned and grew from those mistakes. (See "Altar of Repose" where I created the illusion of the flame spiral, made with a Zippo lighter, being much closer to the lace than it actually was.) 

I also changed lighting instruments over the years to be less dangerous. (See "My Ghost Likes To Travel" or "Abajo Mountain Hoop Dance" that were created with large hula hoops with Christmas lights attached.)

And of late, I've gone lighter, making it easier to hike into the wilds or around the cities. (See "Paris Hoop Dance," "Catawba Falls Hoop Dance," and “Avebury Hoop Dance” where I now use swinging strings of battery-powered LED Christmas lights.)

That's the progression of how my lightning instruments have changed in my 20-year career, but it just talks to how I make stuff. It doesn't speak to how to be a good person as I make stuff.

Here are some simple rules that I try to live by when shooting at night.

Rule One: Do no harm. Don't hurt the plants and trees, disturb the rocks, or make a mess on the streets. Go in, get the shot you want, and then leave the land or the cityscape as you found it.

Rule Two: Don't be a jerk. This is a big one and those of you who are jerks don't think you are. But you are nonetheless. You getting that cool shot at any cost. Good folk with morals and values feel guilty when they hurt the land or are loud and obnoxious around other people or burn an old abandoned store to the ground just to get that cool steel wool shot. Many photographers and people in general, feel no shame these days. We live in a very self-centered, shameless culture now. I don't know what to say to change that. Jerks are jerks. Some people just have to get The Shot. Whatever. I'm telling you, your photos are not as important as you think. Nor are you. For the good folk out there, (and I would include most everyone reading this article), just be the good man or woman you are. Be respectful. Be quiet. Be kind. Be generous. Be nice. Not only will you feel better, but your photographs will look better.

Rule Three: I quiet my mind as I unload the truck to go shoot at night. I say a little prayer. I take a deep breath. I close my eyes and meditate for a couple of seconds. I open my eyes in the full moon light and see what I see. I think. I feel. I plan. I throw away that plan and do something else. I breath. I breath again. I take a better photograph than the one I first had in mind. By quieting my mind, I open my eyes.

Rule Four: Bring at least two extra camera batteries. Bring at least two flashlights.

Rule Five: Hiking boots with hopefully good ankle support. Really. Even in the city. I mean it.

Rule Six: Don't fall off a cliff while shooting a shot. (See "Ghost Horses.” Dancing with that hula hoop of light was a little dicey there for a moment. It was a long way down. I almost went. Glad I didn't. My motto now? Don't die dumb.)

Rule Seven: As you load up your vehicle at the end of a shoot or sling your bag and tripod over your shoulder as you prepare to leave, turn back to where you've taken your photos and thank the land. Say it out loud. Say "Thank you." You, as an American, are living in a relatively safe country, where you can walk the city and trek into the woods and out into the desert, and shoot these images without the fear (mostly) of being shot and killed yourself. So show a bit of gratitude and thank the land that gave you this image and this experience. For me, it puts food on my table, but also puts joy in my heart.

Hope this helps, buckaroos. Be good out there shooting at night. Remember, the condition of your body and soul are more important than the pixels stored in your camera.

Love and light,

Stu Jenks
www.stujenks.typepad.com
https://squareup.com/store/fezziwig-press
P.O. Box 161
Tucson, Arizona 85702
[email protected]

All photographs (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"The world is falling to pieces..."

"The world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

 

The same can be said of me. I vote and I try to be a good man, but besides that, there is little I can do to change the world in a big way, beside taking photographs of rocks and trees, and add a little mystery and beauty to an already ugly world.

 

Photo: "Catawba Falls Hoop Dance, North Carolina" (c) 2011, 2016 Stu Jenks.

New low $0.99, $1.99 & $2.99 prices on all e-books and audiobooks from Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

All my e-books are available on Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Bookbaby.com and many other digital providers. (Links below go only to my Amazon Kindle pages.)

Audiobooks at the new low prices are only available on CDbaby at this time. (Links below go only to my CDbaby pages. Hopefully iTunes and Amazon will soon update their prices.)

 

E-Books at Amazon.com:

Flame Spirals: Journeys Through Nocturnal Photography: $0.99

Dementia Blues: $2.99

The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010): $1.99

Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair: The Deaths of Pamela and Mary Jenks: $2.99

Step Zero: A Sober Love Story in 2076: $1.99

Air & Gravity: Book Two In The Step Zero Series: $2.99

Balthazar & Zeeba: A Christmas Novella: $1.99

A Rolodex Of Haikus by Tunafish Smith, found by Stu Jenks: $0.99

Victor Mothershead: U.S. Secret Service: $2.99

 

Audiobooks at CDBaby.com:

 

Hoop Dancing: More Journeys Through Nocturnal Photography: $2.99

Pamela’s Baby Rocking Chair: The Deaths of Pamela and Mary Jenks: $2.99

Balthazar & Zeeba: A Christmas Novella: $2.99

 

Thanks for reading and listening to my books and buying my stuff. It puts gasoline in my tank, a roof over my head and a smile on my face.

 

   

"Bristlecone Hoop Dance, Methuselah Grove, California" (For Mary, Pamela, and somebody else.)

"Bristlecone Hoop Dance, Methuselah Grove, White Mountains, California" (c) 2008, 2016 Stu Jenks.

This tree is between 4500 and 5000 years old. The primary reason that Bristlecones eventually die is from erosion, over the millenniums, of the soil off of their roots. They simply die of thirst.

This night image was taken in the Methuselah Grove. The oldest living thing on the planet lives there. It's 5065 years old. That's right. That tree sprouted at the beginning of the Bronze Age.

This is one of my favorite places on the planet. Walking there puts everything in perspective. The prayer 'I am small and I need your help' comes to mind. If you are ever on the east side of the Sierras near Bishop, it's worth the side trip.

Not so fun fact: While driving up the last few miles to take these nocturnal images in 2008, I got a call from my poor demented mother from a psych ward. She was very frightened. The people at the high end assisted living/nursing home where she lived (The Villas at Sin Vacas in Tucson) had sent my mother to the psych facility, because a) they had no room in their own locked ward and b) because Mary walked around too much for them and was underfoot. I got back to Tucson as soon as I could, got Mary out of the psych ward, and moved her, with the help of others, to Crossroads Adult Care Homes, where she lived another two and half more years and was taken very good care of there by its staff. Thanks, Wendy.

I wouldn't send a dog I didn't like to Sin Vacas. Neither should you.

It'll be five years soon since Pamela and Mary Jenks died. Five years. Seems much longer ago than that.

"In A Secret Place"

"In A Secret Place (Hoop Dance), Dragoon Mountains, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

"Sunset Crater Angel Ghosts"

"Sunset Crater Angel Ghosts, Arizona" (c) 2016 Stu Jenks.

Everything you see here is on the digital RAW negative. No fancy Photoshop was done besides some color saturation changes. And the Angel Ghosts were drawn with a string of battery powered Christmas lights. Enjoy y'all.