Once the pandemic hit our shores and the lockdown began, my attention focused mostly on stocking up on soup and looking for toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
Avoiding people, cancelling plans for a trip to Switzerland, cancelling my summer robotics classes, listening to the death toll, predictions of infection rates and worrying about friends and family.
We also had to reconfigure the house. My son was abruptly sent home from college, my wife now worked from home and my office moved to the bedroom. The pantry expanded into a hall closet to hold the hoarded dry goods. We added beds to our vegetable gardens.
So much to do yet so little to do also. My interest in photography hit rock bottom without new places to travel. Last summer I loaded up on masks, sanitiser and disposable gloves and got into the car to head out for a day trip around Vermont. I was able to travel around remote areas without seeing a soul. Sometimes it’s hard enough to even see a gas station.
But the entire time, Covid was in the back of my mind. All spring the distractions at the house included jigsaw puzzles, cleaning out closets, and reorganizing the garage. Without new places to explore, photography took the back seat.
One major project I jumped into was restoring a vintage pinball machine. Our whole family loves pinball and we have some old college friends with a big collection of machines. During the pandemic playing our small collection of pinball machines was a great homebound activity.
I started searching Facebook Marketplace for a project pinball. I found a good candidate about two hours away and my son and I took off to pick it up. This began a project in my garage that took several months and kicked into gear another project – insulating the garage so I could work out there in the cooler weather.
Vaccination Leads to Freedom
In late winter my wife and I started planning for a summer vacation. The vaccine was just starting to roll out slowly and we didn’t know what the summer would have in store so we looked for the most remote place we could find in Mid-Coast Maine. Somewhere we could avoid other people and do our own cooking.
Thanks to advances in vaccination methodologies and research we were fortunate enough to get ourselves and our son vaccinated by the beginning of summer – just in time for college graduation and a move to Texas followed by our vacation in Maine.
Protection from the vaccine took away the burden of worry and allowed my passion for photography to come back.
I know friends who are photographers who felt the same way as I did – photography came second over other concerns but I also have a friend in Maine who photographed even more during the pandemic using it as an escape.
