Keeping Busy During the Pandemic

As I write this, at the beginning of April, 2020, the Corona virus / Cover-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on people around the world.  It is hitting some areas far harder than others and there are varying levels of restrictions being put in place depending on one’s location.  Here, in British Columbia, Canada, (without going into  too many specifics, as things tend to change) we are still able to do essential things, like grocery shopping, working (in some sectors), etc., and exercise outdoors is permissible, as long as an appropriate distance between others is maintained and there are not large crowds. Many businesses are closed, as are some parks, with restrictions in many of the ones that remain open.  This has meant that I have not been getting out with my camera much, lately.  I did manage to make a few photos of flowers, though.

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I had been planning on getting back to more film photography around this time, however, about two months ago I dropped off my Hasselblad for servicing and was told it would be ready for pick up in 6-8 weeks (apparently they shipped it to Vancouver to be serviced).  In the meantime, Covid-19 hit the region and slowly more and more non-essential businesses shut down.  Apparently, film camera repair stores are not considered essential and I now have no idea when I may get my camera back.

One thing that I have been able to do is start work on a new website, which will be more of a portfolio website and once I have further developed it, I hope to be able to offer much more on it and will link it to this one.  It will take me a while before I get it to the point I am ready to publicly launch, but it is something I have been wanting to do for some time, so I’m glad it’s underway.  Of course, one of the stumbling blocks I ran across as soon as I started that project, was my computer slowing down to the point that photo editing was painful.  I knew this was coming, as the hard drive had been filling up and I had been doing all I could to make space on it for some time already.  I decided to restore it to a point about six months ago, from a time machine backup, and then aggressively thin out the files on it.  That seems to have done the trick, for now.  I also started to store my new images on a removable drive (and backing them up), which is also where I will store video, so I don’t run into issues on the computer any time soon.  It is about five years old now, so there is only so much I can do, but I hope to extend it’s life for a while, yet.

Since we are still able to get out to some public areas, as long as we’re keeping our distance from others, I have decided to pick up another activity that I let slip away a couple years ago.  I used to have access to a kayak at a club at CFB Esquimalt, however, I am no longer a member there and the base is restricted due to the pandemic, so I finally got my own kayak (although it’s not as fancy as the club ones).  This will allow me to get out on the water, well away from others, and get exercise.  Best of all, I will be able to get to places that are hard to get to on foot, and explore new locations with my camera and drone.  If all works out, I will have lots more content for blog posts and YouTube videos soon.

One last thing.  There is something else that I’ll be able to fill my time with soon.  Check out this podcast to find out (and let me know in the comments if you figure it out)! http://www.latitudephotographypodcast.com/episode/73/?fbclid=IwAR1gAI78H6qILmAtCHmsyXBBR6yqN7PP4q9FZwIeC4AfhIfydtC3YLR9oXg