Keeping Busy

We are now three-quarters of the way through January and at the start of another lockdown, or Tier 5, as our government says. I wonder how many tiers (tears) there will be before this whole mess recedes to what will be probably a yearly jab for ever?

I do not really see any great change in the lockdown rules until early summer at the earliest. This COVID variant is running wild and with people suffering from lockdown fatigue and also the idiots who think this is all a plot by governments/Bill Gates/ aliens to monitor and control us, the rules are being broken left, right and centre.

Not by me and mine though, so I am restricted to the photographs that I can get in the local area whilst out on my permitted exercise. This all means that I am not really taking photographs, and boy do I miss it. During the week I work from home and perhaps once a week pop into the office. There’s no one else there but part of my job is as office and IT manager and as I live closest I get to call in, check the office, pick up post and check the servers which run our VPN for home working, are working as expected.

This leaves the weekend for photography on our exercise walks. After almost a year of walking the same routes, it’s not always very inspiring. Hoping (but not really believing) for better times for 2021, towards the end of last year I sorted out some projects I would like to do COVID permitting but as we all know the bug just isn’t playing ball. 

Luckily I still have the on-going printing of my photographs and I am really grateful for that. I love the whole process and I am now working on the year 2014.

Last year I undertook a 366 project –  a photograph every day. I cheated slightly in that I took all of the 7 images required for the titles of the week ahead on the preceding weekend. I found that taking the photographs in a concentrated hour or two photo session was more satisfying and engaging for me than taking an image every day. I have now completed 3 photo-a-day projects over the last 6 years. The last one I enjoyed more than the others, almost certainly due to the way that I took the pictures to fit in with my week.

So, 24 days into the new year, I have decided to start a new 365 project. I need some kind of push to get me to take photographs during these creatively difficult times. There will be no daily titles to use this time and so the subject matter is up to me. I will also take all the weeks images in one session if I can. I feel I can work better and more important, enjoy it more that way.

I’m not saying that I will finish the project, or that the images will be masterpieces but that really isn’t the point for me. I will be practising using my vision, planning composition, working with light and getting to know my newer cameras – I have had my XT4 for only a few months and the X100F for a few weeks.

Just keeping busy with my photography is a real help for me during these trying times.