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Photography During The Pandemic
Keeping The Passion Of The Camera Alive & Yourself Alive

The world has entered a time and environment that I once thought unimaginable. To think that a silent killer virus was taking out many thousands of lives across the globe. Leaving even more with a serious flu-like virus to battle.

But then... When I got into photography, I would have never even fantasized about seeing my images as a screen saver on a 40" Flat Screen TV. I can think back to 1984 when I was working in a camera department of a large department store and thinking how huge a 16x20 print was.

The year 2020 has just about turned the entire world upside down. During this Corona Virus Pandemic, almost everyone’s daily way of life has come to an abrupt halt and recalculate the future paths of some kind of normalcy. Too bad we can't just fly above it all like the Pelicans that gave me some good captures during a recent "Covid Retreat" to the coast.

For the photographer it has affected throughout the range of photographer types. With no school or pro sports action, and most other areas that were affected as a result of their clients closing operations during the pandemic. As a result even commercial studios had to shutter operations and for many of them, they don’t have the bankroll to float the business during the closures.

Even for the hobbyists photographer, the time spent shooting could be greatly diminished or even completely vanished. If you favored photographing sports or activities, it is pretty much not happening.

For those that mostly shoot sporting events, you have seen your opportunities fade away and no clear picture of them coming back. Or at least with spectators and photographers. About the most sports I have seen to capture are the volleyball players at the beach.

Maybe even your opportunities to go on your usual walkabouts is still there, but the “COVID” atmosphere has found you unmotivated to go out and capture. And for me personally, since I was staying at home more, I haven't been’t going about with my camera with me on daily errands. Fortunately I was still shooting lots of my car collection for www.onesixtyfourth.info

I would tend to assume that most photographers would have hundreds of image files that they never processed, printed or published on the web. I found myself digging through my image archive and ended up producing a new gallery piece from The Parthenon in Athens. With yet thousands of unprocessed images neatly filed away on a couple hard drives. If I never capture another image in my life, I have enough I can process and print forever.

I have found this strange oddity to why photographers may not revisit old unprocessed images. Seems we also have this desire to keep capturing... kind of like a drug. After so long of a time period has passed, we have amassed a bigger backlog of unprocessed images than we can ever go through unless we just stop shooting.

And while that scenario plays out well in a pandemic...
Yet, if you just gotta capture... then you just gotta capture.

Besides the atmosphere of the Pandemic... in the atmosphere there was a huge annual sand storm blowing across the globe from the Sahara Dessert which caused quite a haze in the sky. To my dismay, I wasn't able to get my usual stunning sunrise scenes on our Pandemic Vacation Get-Away.

Although I did bring a bag full of glass, I didn't shoot every thing I packed, I did manage to fire off a couple images with the 85mm and plenty with the 70-300mm. In fact I shot very little with my everyday 24-85mm everyday glass that I shoot with a majority of the time.

The pandemic has given me some time pondering the switch from my 36mp SLR to the new Mirrorless super camera. If it wasn’t for the fact that the lens mount was changed for the new Nikon mirrorless, I would have already tried one. At the same time I found it ridiculous to investigate getting a new camera when I wasn’t even actively shooting the ones I have. Then of course, there’s the other side of your brain telling you to do it as a motivator to get out and capture more. And to be quite honest... I’m still on the fence about it.

The sadness of not being able to capture those events and scenes will linger even longer with pro sports actually competing but not in front of spectators. This makes opportunity for the enthusiasts sports photographers still not available. One of my fellow camera peeps, Ray Ashley, is a very avid High School Sports photographer and does see some revenue from it. Luckily he doesn’t need to try and live off the revenue since that would be a Big Zero for many months now.

What would concern me is the new changes that will be in place for sports photographers at events to adhere to. While yet my fellow camera peep Bob Clark does live from his camera, primarily shootings weddings and related events. Since not everyone canceled or altered wedding plans, Bob has still managed to shoot some, but there are no group shots and spectators making the fun being shared with guest non existent.

In the world of photography as a way of life, it is obviously an impossible struggle right now to maintain levels in life as they were prior to the pandemic. This will result in many small studios and commercial photographers to possibly close up their business.

There have been several occasions during pandemic that found me capturing in the flower bed in front of the house as seen in the examples in the pop up window.

This is my go-to place when I just need to satisfy that urge to fire the shutter. I have also been known to do walkabouts at auto dealerships since I tend to favor creating automotive images.

With the combined issues of business and event closures and stay-at-home request, when we do go back to some kind of normalcy... will our photography be the same? If you are going to be involved with people during the session, it is unknown how long the mask recommendations will be existent. As some cities are making mask mandatory, you at least will not need to be wearing one on walkabouts when by yourself.

Unfortunately the outlook for sports and group photographers still looks grim. Wedding planners and photographers have made some adaptations to keep going and commercial shoots that are for COVID related media will be certainly happening. There could be a permanent black mark in many areas of photography from here on out.

As for fine art photographers... hopefully consumer’s will be back in the galleries buying photographic art pieces soon. Personally my sales dropped off to nothing during the shutdown and managed to see a few pieces sold during the re-opening.

Looking back at events like The Rossini Festival where I would sell more pieces than the the entire year of gallery sales, I’m now not sure how we can return to such large mass groups of people again until the COVID has all but disappeared.

Since photography is no longer my total source of income, I haven't been affected quite like those that depend on photography to pay their bills and buy food. I have seen a loss of gallery sales but that didn't send me to the poor house. For those who have taken a total loss due to months of no income, will now have to find a new avenue to survive.

I can't really blame the Pandemic on my thoughts of switching to mirrorless, I have found that I would prefer a smaller camera and lens since I find myself rarely putting on "Prime Glass" anymore. Although I switch to the 70-300 or 105 macro for specific shots... overall my glass just collects dust and fungus. If I can overcome the loss of using an optical viewfinder, I am sure I will switch. But in a way the Pandemic has caused me to think about my future photographic journeys and evaluate the equipment I currently use compared to what I may prefer.

When the digital camera came onto the scene, things transitioned more smoothly than it has now where your total source of photography and revenue has all but disappeared. The commercial photographer will possibly be able to weather the storm but for sports and event photographers, I just don't know how things will proceed. The portrait and wedding photographers are trying to figure it out and many of them will squeak by but more limited on the captures they can make.

But of course one would think that if you couldn't make it to the wedding due to the Pandemic, that they would be wanting to purchase some images from the wedding. Of course, with the way photography is passed around anymore, it's not in prints but rather in digital images passed through mobile devices and computers with no need to buy prints.

Between the digital takeover and the Covid 19 Pandemic, the world of photography has been hit hard in many ways. Then mix in the mass of cell phone photographers, it surprises me that the 35mm style digital camera still exist. Since a majority of photographers impacted by the Pandemic probably shoot with that style camera, it seems as if the industry will take another hit. Eventually wiping the prosumer camera out of the picture to be overtaken by either a cell phone camera or a pro level camera.