`WT's photostream  

My Flickr Profile
In the early fifties, while attending Anderson University, Anderson, SC, I met my future wife, Carolyn. Six months later we were married. August 16, 1953, and we're still together!

Carolyn and I had been active in the church in Anderson. My original plan was to become a minister, graduating Anderson University, then to Wake Forest Seminary, in Wake Forest, NC.

But things happen, things I had no control over, and we soon realized that this wasn't going to happen. I couldn't make it. Carrying a full load of studies, and working in a cotton mill from 3pm to 11pm $1.25 an hour. When was I supposed to study?

We were struggling to make ends meet. Carolyn dropped out of school so she could find a job. Lucky for us, she found a job right away, as the bookkeeper at
Wellborn Motor Company. She worked 8 hrs a day, six days a week for $35.

After several dead-end jobs, We decided that I would join the Navy. My dad had been a Navy Chief, a Company Commander, at the Recruit Training Center, Camp Perry, VA, for the duration of the war (WWII Dec 41 - Sep 45)

After boot camp at the Naval Training Center, San Diego, it was time for my first assignment in the Navy. My state senator, Olin D. Johnston, had written a letter for me asking that I be assigned as a Chaplains Assistant. oWith no questions asked, the Personnel Officer at the Recruit Training Command did just that. My first shore duty assignment was supposed to be about two years, and I would be a Chaplains Assistant. That meant I would be in San Diego for awhile.

More studies, but this time they were related to my job with the Chaplains. The Chaplains Department had 21 chaplains.
* * *
In September, 1955, I walked past a darkened office. I peaked in. It was something about photography. I stepped in the door, into the dark. I was blown away with the size of a picture on the screen, and the beautiful colors! He shot all those photos with a 35mm camera, a Kodak Signet. Just a few days later I bought my camera. I bought it so I could make color slides of all the places I went while in the Navy.

I received orders in September 1955, to a supply ship, the USS Merapi AF38, home ported at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. She was a an old cargo ship, and made the same runs over and over: From Pearl Harbor to Johnston Island, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Midway, Wake, Guam, and back to Pearl.

When we were in port I was out with my camera every moment I could spare. I breathed photography, and bought every photography book I could afford. It was a great hobby, and I was out with my camera every weekend. Many times I got a room at the YMCA in downtown Honolulu, and walked every place between there and Waikiki, and taking it in with my little camera.

I was mostly a loner, because I found it hard to find others who were photographers. In 1957 I was transferred to the mainland, San Diego, California. I worked in EPDOPAC (Enlisted Personnel Distribution Office Pacific Fleet) My hitch in the Navy was up in March of 1958 and I got out of the Navy. Carolyn, Greg, a parakeet, and I, headed back to South Carolina - in a 1950 Oldsmobile 76.

I found a couple of jobs, but I wasn't happy at all, and thought they were a waste of my time. I wasn't happy, and from where I was, the Navy sounded pretty good. I didn't have it so bad in the Navy, and I started thinking about reenlisting.

I was at the Navy Recruiting office talking with a recruiting Chief. I told him that photography was my hobby, and he asked me if I knew that the Navy had a Photographer's School. My ears perked up with that. I told him that I would re-up if he could guarantee me Photographer's School. He said he would be in touch. I thought, "Yeah, right."

He called me a few days later and said, "Pack your
Sea Bag, Jaynes. You're going to be a Navy Photographer!"

My first duty out of Photo School was with Light Photo Squadron Sixty-Two (VFP-62), Jacksonville, Florida. My boss, a photo Warrant Officer looked through my Service Record, saw that I had just come from Photo School in Pensacola. He asked me if I thought I could run a small training photo lab.

And I knew right away I could do that. It was perfect. Now I had the best job in the world! For the next two years I taught basic photography to our Photo Pilots. Whatever I needed to set up a small photo lab, I just told my boss. He gave the word and I got it, no questions He approved all the chits I ran through for darkroom equipment, washer, dryer. Deep sink, trays, enlarger. I had it all. Best place in the world for me to put into practice all I had learned in photo school.

After being at VFP-62 for two years, I requested Instructor Duty in the Naval Schools of Photography. I was accepted, and became the first instructor ever to be accepted at the low pay grade of E5.

I taught there for the next four years, and, in June of 1964 the Navy sent me to Syracuse University for a post-grad study in photojournalism. There I was issued the best 35mm equipment available in the 60's; two Leica M3's and three lenses: 35mm, 50mm, and 90mm. There was a Nikon also, but I hardly ever used it.

My first assignment out of Syracuse was to the Pacific Fleet Combat Camera Group, as a combat photographer and photojournalist in Vietnam. It was a four year tour. This would be the high point in my photography career, and why I had been in training for almost 12 years. I found myself in some pretty hairy situations a few times in Vietnam, but I was totally into my work. It was the most exciting job in the world. Shot lots of black and white, but before I left there, I was shooting mostly Kodak High Speed Ektachrome ASA 160.


The Naval Photo Center in Washington processed it at most any speed we rated it at, just so long as they knew as soon as the dropped the cassette out of the film can. If I scribbled Process as 320, 640, and yes, even 1280 occasionally, they turned out great stuff, making us photographers look good.

Some of my Viet-Nam photography is available in my Flickr Set "Viet-Nam."

In 1969 I left PFCCG, returning to the Schools of Naval Photography, Pensacola, for another four-year tour as Senior Instructor of PHA School, and the Supervisor of the Advanced Naval Schools of Photography, which I held until I retired as a Senior Chief Photojournalist.

It was now March 1974. I remained in Pensacola after retirement, while I continued my education at the University of West Florida, Pensacola. I had a double major: Studio Arts major and Art Education minor. Carolyn and I moved to Winston Salem, NC, in June of 1977. I painted for a for awhile...sold a few paintings, but I wasn't enjoying myself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 2004 I discovered digital photography! Praise the Lord! I was back into photography.

Well, It's 2011, and Carolyn and I are still together! Boy, did I make a great choice there!

Some have asked me if I had it all to do over again what I would do.
In a heartbeat, my answer is always "Marry Carolyn, and Join the U.S. Navy!!
If you are still reading, then bless you. :)

My Personal Photo gear as of December 1, 2010:

Cameras:
Nikon COOLPIX S8000 P&S -for everyday, everywhere.
Olympus 550UZ P&S, an excellent camera for a photowalk.
Will bracket 5-exposures for HDR
Kodak DX7590 P&S
Kodak DX7630 P&S
Nikon D80 DSLR
Nikon D5000 DSLR

Lenses:
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Nikon 18 - 135mm zoom
Sigma10-20mm
Sigma105mm Macro
Nikon 70 - 300mm.

Tripod:
Manfrotto 190MF3
Tripod heads:
Manfrotto Pan Tilt 804RC2 Quick Release
Manfrotto Ball 488RC2 Quick Release

Image editing software:
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Lucis Pro 6

HDR software:
Photomatix Pro 3 - the best, hands down.
Dynamic Photo HDR
HDR Darkroom
Photoshop CS4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was introduced to Flickr by my brother, Jerry Jaynes, who is known for his photographs of Grist Mills throughout the Southeast. www.flickr.com/photos/by_jerry_jaynes/

Two of Jerry's grist mill photographs were published in the September 2008 issue of WNC Magazine. Now the general public will be introduced to his work, and his dedication to preserving North Carolina Grist Mills for generations to come. He also ventures out over the southeast, wherever he knows there is a grist mill.

Fourteen of his photographs were used in the publication of the Bear Lake Reserve 2009 calendar. Bear Lake Reserve is an upscale resort located in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The resort depends on his work for advertising purposes. His photos are now being compiled into a photographic tour book of the resort and will be given to the guests.

TV Land purchased the rights to use three of his photographs of the train wreck from the movie The Fugitive. The photographs will be used on TV to promote the upcoming showing of the movie on TV Land.

NC Mountains is a magazine published by the Jackson County Tourism Authority. Two of his photos are published inside and his fall photo of Bear Lake made the cover. Photo credits are given inside. The Executive Director saw his photographs on the 2009 Bear Lake Calendar and contacted him about doing a cover.

Jerry's published work can be viewed on his blog.
photographybyjaynes.blogspot.com/