To say 2020 is off to an interesting start would be, by many measures, an understatement. As a nation we’ve been treated to a presidential impeachment (voted for in 2019) and trial, a change in provider payment rules that severely affects my livelihood, and a pandemic which has infected, as of 4 pm EDT on 29 Mar 2020, 140,904 people in the United States. 2020 is also an election year, which makes everything even more interesting, perhaps even surreal. I’ve been seeing a lot of memes regarding 2020 and how much people think it sucks, but I am trying to stay positive about the whole thing.
The county where I reside is currently under a stay at home order. As such, we should only venture out for essential activities and only those who are essential workers should be reporting for work. My spouse is a Licensed Physical Therapist who specializes in home care for the elderly. For many of her patients, she may be the only one who is able to check on their wellness on a given day. I worry about her every day she goes out.
For me it’s been business as usual during the day given that I work from home supporting my wife’s activities – paperwork, phone calls, billing, etc. The only thing that really impacts me now is the lack of choice in what I can do with my day. I can’t run normal errands and there is the matter of my client agency employees now working from their own homes. That makes customer visits and getting paid in a timely manner an interesting prospect. Again, it’s time to stay positive. I just need to stop posting YouTube links to songs about disease on Facebook.
As part of the stay at home order (and I believe under the orders of the Governor of Texas), bars in my county have been forced to close their doors. This, of course, makes it impossible to photograph concerts. I do miss going to the local shows right now. The people in the metal community (both the musicians and employees) in Houston are near and dear to me. I can only hope they are weathering the storm and can hit the ground running on the other side.
The dearth of concerts right now isn’t such a bad thing. I mean, I am saving a little bit of money on cover charges, drinks, and CD’s. It’s also rekindling the creative flame in me. I thought about it earlier today – I’ve spent so much effort on concert images over the past 6 years that some of the other ideas floating in my head are being pushed away. In fact, one of my started projects has been on hiatus for the last 3 years due to my efforts on the Houston Metal Project. This would be a good time to achieve some balance in my creative efforts. The only problem with the hiatus project is that it’s portraiture. That isn’t very conducive to social distancing right now.
But hope exists because lately I’ve been rediscovering my macro lens. The panic buying in the run up to our current state of affairs in Texas left the shelves of most retailers rather barren. It appears to have calmed down since then, but it got me thinking what it is that people are seeking for the end of civilization (I know that’s hyperbolic, but I strongly feel things are going to change; whether the changes are positive or not remains to be seen). I’ve seen images arranged as formal still life compositions, but that’s about it. I’m using the macro lens because I want to really get to the object and to see what it is about the object that has people making obsessive purchases. This is what I have so far:
These are by no means final images for the series. I have more objects I need to photograph. I am also going to explore different ways to capture what I’ve already done.
Has anyone been able to resolve why there’s been such a run on toilet paper in response to a pandemic involving a respiratory illness? My wife’s sisters in the Philippines told her they are laughing at Americans over this particular phenomenon.
I read somewhere a few days ago a blog post title that encouraged creatives to write about their “quarantine” experience. I didn’t read the post as I was trying to get something else accomplished and, unfortunately, forgot to bookmark it. Going off that headline advice, this is my first foray into that. We’ll see if I write more in the coming days, especially now that President Trump has extended the social distancing guidelines to until 30 April 2020.
As for now, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I do need to sign off. Stay safe, practice your social distancing, and for those of you stuck at home – avoid naps, make sure to get dressed in more than your pajamas every day, and stay in contact with your friends and family. These are all mental health tips provided by one of my local news stations. I will be writing again sooner rather than later.
