This is my first blog post in about a month and I can’t believe how much has changed in that time frame. I’m not going to go into a deep discussion regarding the epidemic is affecting the world, but I will briefly discuss how it effects me, and specifically my photography. Before the virus I would go out almost every day to take photos in the city streets. Since I work from home, and my wife is a teacher, it left me a lot of time during the day. I used photography to get my creative juices flowing before I settled down to do my work from home.
Not only do I find photography fun, I also find it immensely relaxing and therapeutic. I’m not really the type of person to worry too much, or at least I like to think I don’t. Along with the gym, photography calms my soul. So once this epidemic took over everyone lives, I, like everyone else, found themselves having to self isolate. Luckily for me, I have my wife and step son at home with me. The good thing about the current situation, is that my wife and I have been able to spend a lot of time together.
The one thing I have missed doing is going out and taking photos. With that being said, I have still been trying to get out, safely, for walks to fill that void. This evening, I made it out to downtown Fort William and walked the empty streets. My camera of choice was my (borrowed from Dad actually) original Fuji X100. I almost brought my Canon EOS R instead but I’m glad I chose the Fuji. I haven’t been shooting with it too much recently, but I will definitely be using more now. I always forget just how fun of a camera it is to use.
I owned the original one a long time ago but ended up selling it to feed my G.A.S. I actually owned the Fuji X10S and F too. They were all lovely cameras. As most photographers do though, I sold them and bought other cameras I thought I needed. I will say though that I own a lot of older cameras that I still shoot with. I have the original Canon M, Canon 5D and even the Fuji X10. There is something about those old cameras and the files they produce. So, even though I am still trying to cure my G.A.S, when I do buy cameras, I almost always go for used older ones.
As always, I didn’t have a set route in mind for this walk. I just followed my eye and looked for textures, lighting and anything interesting. it was very strange seeing such empty streets. Thunder Bay isn’t the busiest city, but usually there are a lot more cars and people walking around. I’m very much looking forward to things going back to normal eventually. I know it may never be exactly the same as it was before, it will just be different.
