James G. Jacobs Photography

03/15/2026

Good morning from the Sam R. Murphy Wildlife Management Area in Beaverton, Alabama! Woke up super early to get here and catch that sunrise. Been missing my sunrise/sunset photos since l left Texas! Swipe or move phone to see the full photo!

02/28/2026

Finding the perfect shot often means heading off the beaten path. 🌲 Every adventure requires time, travel, and a bit of caffeine! If you’d like to be a part of my next photography expedition, feel free to show your support via my Buy Me a Coffee page. It’s a simple way to help me get further into the wild to bring back the photos you love. Thank you for being part of this community!

I am a passionate photographer devoted to finding beauty in everyday life. Whether it’s a breathtaking landscape, a vibrant city scene, or even, once in a while, a candid smile, my lens transforms fle

02/24/2026

Went out Sunday, trail riding, and basically, getting out of the house. While out there, I stumbled upon this grave. I had no clue this even existed anywhere close to here. I passed by it the first time, not thinking much about it, as I had other things on my mind ( as I normally do ). I didn't even notice the flags. All I saw was the railing around what I thought at the time was something to do with a gas pipeline. While on my way back through, something made me stop ( pardon the pun ) dead in my tracks! There it was, I saw the white headstone, and then I knew I had to back up and take a look! So I did just that! I parked my car at the pull-off on the side of a dusty dirt road that bears the name Military Road. I walked up, paid my respects, and sat there for a moment as I collected my thoughts and pondered where the hell I was and why this wasn't marked a little better! As far as I can remember, this has to be one of the oldest graves I have ever seen! With no exact date of death on it, but still, it's somewhere over 200 years old! Makes you stop and think, He paid the ultimate price for our freedoms, even 200-plus years ago! Pretty darn cool to see that his grave is still being taken care of today. His name may have been unknown, but still, NOT FORGOTTEN!

Thank you, sir, whoever you are! 🇺🇸

According to a Google search,

Andrew Jackson’s Military Road was a strategic 516-mile route constructed between 1817 and 1820 to connect Nashville, Tennessee, with New Orleans, Louisiana. It was designed to provide a more direct path for moving troops and supplies to defend the Gulf Coast. The road entered Alabama in Lauderdale County and traversed the northwest corner of the state. Decades later, both Confederate and Union forces used segments of the road for significant troop movements, including General Hood's retreat in 1864. Portions of the original route are still visible or serve as foundations for modern roads, such as U.S. Highway 43 through Russellville and Hackleburg.

War of 1812 Unknown Soldier Grave

This site is a small, quiet memorial located within the Sam R. Murphy Wildlife Management Area (WMA). It honors a soldier who reportedly died while traveling Jackson's Military Road. It is located South of Hamilton on Unknown Soldier Road.

So if you go to see the grave, please be respectful...You never know when or where a camera or possiblly someone is watching you!

02/22/2026

View this amazing photo collection, get inspired and unleash your creativity!

02/21/2026

While out on my excursion last weekend, I stumbled across this scene on a backroad just north of Hamilton, Alabama, at a place called The Valley. Would have shown more, but there is literally a house at the dam and another close to the barn, so it is private property! I try my best to be respectful of their privacy, and anyone else's that I may encounter while shooting a scene such as this from the road. Places such as this are why I get out and explore and hit the backroads and slow down a bit. No need to be in a hurry all the time. I'm generally the one in a hurry 5 days a week at work, so no need for my weekends to be that way.

To get this shot, I was standing on the edge of the road on a bridge, hoping no traffic would come through from both directions at the same time.

This scene reminds me of the Hallmark Barn at The Hallmark Farm next to Interstate 65 on the southbound side in Jefferson County, Alabama ( Birmingham )

02/16/2026

FEBRUARY 17, 2026, THE RING OF FIRE ECLIPSE WILL CROSS THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES, AND IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE WITHIN THE PATH OF ANNULARITY — OR EVEN OUTSIDE IT, WATCHING A PARTIAL ECLIPSE — THERE IS ONE NON-NEGOTIABLE RULE: YOU MUST PROTECT YOUR EYES AT EVERY MOMENT THE SUN IS VISIBLE. Unlike a total solar eclipse, where the Sun's disc is completely covered and the corona becomes safely viewable for a brief window, an annular eclipse never reaches totality. The Sun's photosphere remains exposed throughout the entire event, emitting enough ultraviolet and infrared radiation to cause permanent retinal damage in seconds. Here is your final safety checklist and path map to ensure you witness this eclipse safely and successfully.

EYE PROTECTION — MANDATORY AT ALL TIMES: You must use ISO 12312-2 certified eclipse glasses or a solar filter for telescopes, binoculars, and cameras during every phase of the eclipse, including the annular phase. Regular sunglasses, even very dark ones, do not block enough UV and IR radiation to protect your eyes. Unfiltered viewing — even for a fraction of a second — can burn the retina, causing solar retinopathy, a painless injury that destroys photoreceptor cells and results in permanent blind spots or distorted vision. Symptoms may not appear until hours after exposure, by which time the damage is irreversible. If your eclipse glasses are scratched, torn, or older than three years, discard them and buy new ones from a reputable vendor listed on the American Astronomical Society's approved supplier list. Counterfeit eclipse glasses exist and offer no protection.

SAFE VIEWING METHODS: Eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2 certified), solar filters for telescopes and binoculars (must be mounted on the front aperture, never the eyepiece), solar projection (project the Sun's image through a pinhole or telescope onto a white surface — never look through the instrument), and welder's glass rated shade 14 (lower shades are insufficient). Cameras, smartphones, and binoculars used without solar filters will concentrate sunlight and cause instant eye damage if you look through them. If you are photographing the eclipse, attach a certified solar filter to your lens before pointing it at the Sun.

PATH OF ANNULARITY MAP: The path is approximately 200 kilometers (125 miles) wide and sweeps from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico. Annularity begins at 9:43 AM PST over the California-Oregon border and ends at 12:38 PM CST over the Gulf. Maximum duration — 4 minutes and 52 seconds — occurs over northern Nevada near Winnemucca at 10:15 AM PST. Cities within the path include: Redding, California; Reno and Elko, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah (partial, northern edge only); Flagstaff and northern Phoenix, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Lubbock, Amarillo, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Galveston, Texas. If you are within 100 kilometers of the centerline, you will see the full Ring of Fire. Outside the path, you will see a partial eclipse with varying coverage percentages: Los Angeles 85%, Denver 78%, Dallas 92%, Houston 88%, Miami 45%, New York 22%.

TIMING: Check timeanddate for precise local eclipse times. The event unfolds in four phases: First contact (Moon begins crossing the Sun's edge), annularity begins (Ring of Fire appears), maximum annularity (midpoint of the ring phase), annularity ends (ring breaks), and fourth contact (Moon fully leaves the Sun's disc). The entire sequence lasts approximately 2.5 to 3 hours from first to fourth contact, but the annular phase itself lasts only 3 to 5 minutes depending on your location along the path.

WEATHER AND POSITIONING: As of February 10, weather forecasts suggest clear skies across most of the Southwest, with some cloud risk in coastal California and potential morning fog in Texas. Have a backup location ready if clouds threaten your primary viewing site. Position yourself with an unobstructed view of the southern to southwestern sky (depending on local time). Sunrise observers in California will see the eclipse low in the east; mid-morning observers in Texas will see it higher in the south-southeast. Avoid tall buildings, trees, or hills that block the horizon.

WHAT TO EXPECT: As the Moon slides across the Sun, the landscape will dim to an eerie twilight even though the sky remains blue. Shadows will sharpen and take on unusual crescent shapes as the Sun's disc narrows into a ring. Temperature will drop 5-10°F (3-6°C). Birds may roost or fall silent. If you are observing from a dark-sky site, you may see Venus and Jupiter become visible during maximum annularity. The quality of light will feel wrong — not the warm glow of sunset, but a cold, flat, metallic dimness that triggers primal unease. And then, at maximum annularity, the Sun will transform into a perfect ring of fire suspended in the sky, impossibly bright, impossibly thin, impossibly strange.

DO NOT: Remove your eclipse glasses during annularity. Do not look at the Sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, or binoculars. Do not assume "just a quick glance" is safe. Do not use eclipse glasses while driving. Do not rely on clouds to dim the Sun enough for safe viewing — UV radiation penetrates clouds.

The next annular eclipse visible from the United States will not occur until June 21, 2039 — 13 years from now. If you are in the path on February 17, 2026, and you follow these safety rules, you will witness one of the rarest and most visually stunning events the sky can offer. If you ignore them, you will damage your eyes permanently and remember the eclipse only as the day you traded your vision for a few seconds of curiosity.

The Ring of Fire does not forgive carelessness.

Are your eclipse glasses ready?

02/15/2026

Woke up early yesterday morning, as I normally do, and decided to go capture a sunrise, seeing as how I haven't been on an early morning expedition in quite a while! Wasn't sure if I would even get anything with the cloud cover rolling in, so I got ready, checked my gear, checked the weather with ( MyRadar Weather Radar ), let Kola ( my Heeler ) out, and took off! I rode off to Hamilton, Alabama, to a spot, and darn it, someone had pulled in just seconds before I did ( guess I shoulda skiped the Hardee's biscuit...It wasn't that great )...oh well! I also left a little later than I should've as well. OK, Plan B was literally around the corner, but I didn't think the view would be that great. Boy, was I wrong! Turned out to be a perfect spot after all!

02/04/2026

I did one of these for my personal page, so I thought, what the hey! I might as well do one for this one as well. I feel like this one turned out so much better!

02/01/2026

Hope everyone is staying nice and warm with all this coldness running around down here in the south! Sure was a beautiful day yesterday to be so cold. But it's ok, I reckon, we still got out and about a bit and stumbled on a couple of locations I didn't know existed.

I went to just get out of the house for a bit and stumbled across an aircraft navigation beacon in Marion County, close to Hamilton, Alabama.

( know before you go )

*** THIS IS A FEDERAL INSTALLATION BELONGING TO THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION! DO NOT CROSS THE WHITE PIPE FENCING FOR ANY REASON! YOU CAN AND MOST LIKELY WILL GET A FEDERAL TRESPASSING CHARGE AND GO TO JAIL! THIS IS A FELONY OFFENCE, AND THEY WILL NOT TAKE IT LIGHTLY ON YOU! THIS IS JUST AN FYI !!!! ***

Back to what I was saying, it's on a hilltop with an elevation of 810ft. I don't know if it's operational at this point. When I programmed the frequency into a radio, I didn't hear anything, so I don't know! But WOW! What a view around this area. I think I may have stumbled on a place for some night shots.

Then I came across Williams Creek on Hwy 43, when I saw a parking place on a side road and pulled over. I walked down to the creek, and when I got there and turned the corner, I saw all these huge icecicles hanging off the edge of a 50-60 foot tall bluff. pretty darn cool. I wanted to explore more, but I was already freezing my t**h off! I snapped a few shots and went back to the warmth of my vehicle, and headed home! Will definitely wait till it's a little warmer for that one! Stay warm, folks!

01/24/2026

Something has changed in my camera! I noticed a few months ago that my camera seemed...well, a little off. Not quite right...the photos just weren't coming out the way I had imagined! I went from a Sony A100 to a Nikon D5300. The Sony seemed to still have a better quality photo. Now I understand, I went from a full-frame camera to a crop frame of 1.5 with the Nikon...whatever! That only affects the field of view in the frame. That would be like if I had, say, a 12mm view, which is very wide on the full frame, it would be more like a 16mm on the crop frame...no biggie! Anyway, I would set my aperture, shutter speed, and ISO for a shot, and it would fall apart..turn into a pile of mush when I got back home and downloaded it. For the life of me, I could not figure out why until the other night. I had gone out to chase the Northern Lights, to no avail! But while doing so, I noticed something had changed. It would set my ISO, but then the camera would change it to something else! Why??? So I toyed with it while freezing my tail off under the stars in the pitch-black darkness of night. Then, as I was scrolling through my settings, I noticed something I hadn't before. And what was that, you may ask? The darn thing has a dual ISO setting, and it was set to Auto. Now! I do not remember this being turned on, but ok. So I turned it off and WOW! My night sky came to life. Now, the only thing I can think of that might have caused this is the app I sometimes use to control it from my phone. I haven't gotten that deep into it, but I rarely use the app as it is a pain in the rear to get going sometimes. Maybe now I can get back to doing what I did and get back on track... smh... technology sucks sometimes... lol!

This shot was taken at Mon Dye boat ramp in Franklin County, Alabama, January 20, 2026 @ 9:50 PM

01/10/2026

Strange how things change as time passes. Way back in the early 90's, idk, maybe 90 to 92 ish, I worked with a crew that does sandblasting. For some reason, I recall there being a portion of this bridge being a steel truss type back then. This whole area is nothing like I remember, other than the fact that it's on the Natchez Trace Parkway spanning over the Tennessee River. I understand this was 30 plus years ago and indeed, things do change in that amount of time. Pretty cool still to go back and walk around while checking it out. There is a place to park on either end but the one the south side of the river also has a boat ramp and addional walking areas. These photos are from the north side however, which is where the best viewing seems to be. Oh! On a side note, This is known as the JOHN COFFEE MEMORIAL BRIDGE. I certainly do not remeber it being called that way back then either. Man this made me feel old..🤦‍♂️😂

01/03/2026

Some photos work well with others, and other photos need only that one. I felt this was one of the latter ones.

This is from the area I have been exploring over the past couple of weeks. It's where a creek crosses a dirt road, but unfortunately, it's on private property, and can be seen from the roadside. That water is absolutely crystal clear and cold. I imagine it's coming from an underground spring somewhere in those hills.