Lockdown not Shutdown

Lockdown not Shutdown

Random images from isolation March - August 2020 1

ot n n w o d own k c Lo hutd S

It was mid-morning on Wednesday 18th March 2020 that I received the notunexpected call from my consultant “asking” me to please stay home for my own safety. It was an instruction dressed up as a suggestion/recommendation.

14th June at least – ironically Amanda’s birthday and the day after our 39th wedding anniversary.

From the start I was determined to keep my Picture-a-Day Project going. This might be Lockdown but I was determined it would not be a shutdown photographically.

She conceded that I could use my back yard for fresh air but insisted that this should be my boundary until further notice. Like so many others with medical conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to Covid19 I was in Lockdown before the phrase had been uttered by HM Government.

When Lockdown officially started the following week, and with it the concession of an hours exercise a day, I got in touch with my consultant; again, I was not in the least surprised to be given a firm “No”, there would be no daily walk around the block for me. So I was resigned to stay at home until 2

The Conversation - Piece Hall, Halifax 18/2/2020 and typical of my pre-Lockdown work.

these had become a trademark of sorts, but I realised immediately that I would need to reconsider this strategy.

Looking back there was definitely a strong bias away from colour over the Winter 2019/2020 period. As we only have a small back yard and a tiny front yard (three metres from the front door to the public footpath – I measured it) I knew it was going to be challenging.

At the start of my Lockdown I was well over 900 consecutive days into the project and I was not going to let this “inconvenience� stop me from going past the 1,000-day mark; my eyes were still firmly fixed on the end of July!

As I entered Lockdown I had been producing a lot of urban black and white images, many from around the small town where I live, and

I continued to use a range of cameras for the project, including my film cameras, and after a month or so in to Lockdown 3

posts so my usage of cameras within the challenge was unchanged from preLockdown.

My cameras lived under the coffee table next to my armchair during the Lockdown period which I never got away with prior to isolation.

The only major change from my workflow was that most images were post-processed using the Snapseed App on my iPad rather than Photoshop; I used my desktop computer only occasionally during this period for some reason.

In the end, despite Lockdown officially ending at the start of July it was early August before I ventured out for longer than thirty minutes and later than 8am.

18th March 2020 - at the time I hadn’t realised it would be four months until I’d leave home again.

I was pleased to note that the iPhone had only featured a couple of times in my daily 4

I took literally hundreds of images during this period so distilling them down for this zine has been a challenge.

19th March 2020 - the first Lockdown image

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0 6 3 : e in n O rld t r Pa e Wo th

Random images from isolation 110 - May 5th 2020

What’s for breakfast?

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Random images from isolation April 27th 2020

Snack Time!

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Random images from isolation 95 - May 2nd 2020

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8.26am on a Sunday morning, May 3rd - everyone in bed but me - the backyard looks at its best first thing I think. Thirty minutes later I had washing on the line and an hour later Harry was rampaging around destroying everything in sight with his over-sized football.

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April 6th 2020

My Patch for four months!

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May 2nd - we also have a tiny front yard - around nine feet from wall of the house to people walking past on the pavement Making the best of it

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: o Tw ld in ed t r Pa Wor nfrar theno - I Mo

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I have enjoyed infrared photography for a long time and over the years have had three digital cameras converted for the purpose.

My latest is a Fuji X-T1 which has a full-spectrum filter. I was frustrated at not being able to get down to the canal in the sunshine.

My solution? Some Rollei 400 infrared film - as in the image to the left shot on 15th May.

21st May - some fun in the sun with Rollei Infrared 400 film shot at ISO 6 necessitating a tripod, a Bronica SQ-A medium format camera and a 720nm filter.

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25th May inspired by playing with infrared I pulled the converted digicam out for some playtime

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: no e e r Mo 3 One of the ways I E kept myself amused Th E t n i r during a period when Pa orld s Pen visiting a physical W pu shop was strictly offe m limits was by searching h t ly a well-known auction -O site for bargains. One of

my favourite purchases during this period was an Olympus Pen EE3 35mm half-frame film camera.

It takes two images, side-by-side on a single frame of 35mm film and I was attracted for two reasons. Firstly my father had an Olympus Pen when I was a child and secondly because of the creative opportunities for shooting pairs of images.

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April 13th - in the front yard with Zac, one of two live-in grandsons

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r: u Fo ora t r Pa e Fl Th

Unsurprisingly, given the limits of my patch was determined by the garden/yard gate, a lot of my time was spent photographing the flowers. Being late Spring and into Summer meant there was a continual supply of different subjects; we may only have a small back yard but it is crammed with plant pots and large planters. There are at least half a dozen trees over the two outdoor spaces too, the majority in large pots.

April 16th - morning light

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May 1st - pear blossom

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May 5th - Gerbera

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A selection of floral close-ups

Shooting 35mm film in a 120 film back - for my blog. Mamiya RB67 | 50mm | Lomography 800.

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t Pos own kd c o L

Lockdown might have ended officially at the start of July but for those of us reporting to a higher authority than the Government (in my case my consultant nurse) it lingered on for a few more weeks. By mid-July I was taking short morning walks from my house, always ensuring I was back before 8am to avoid the school run.

So it was up early (nothing new there) and joining the dog walkers and joggers in the park or taking a swift walk around the block. After four months of “captivity� I was a bit slower than usual but soon got the hang of walking more than a few feet at a time.

I even took the bike out of its retirement on a few mornings!

10th July - I decided on a spot of 5x4 pinhole photography (image opposite). I was still home by 8am though!

The Park: Ilford XP2S, Bronica SQ-A 80mm

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Cromwell Bridge Lock Friday 31st July 2020 and my first “proper” outing. I’m still less than two miles from the house but I’m back on the canal - the one place I really missed during Lockdown.

Bronica SQ-A 80mm lens and Catlab 80 film. I was like a pig in muck!

Sadly, the midges had a field day and I awoke the next morning to swollen arms and face as a result of insect bites.

So, there we have it. Four months in which my personal freedom was curtailed to an extent I would never have imagined possible prior to 2020.

Truth be told I’m still staying close to home although I did manage a few days on the north-east coast but that’s a subject for another day. For now, I continue to stay close to home, avoiding shops and crowds. My urban photography has improved during this period too; restricting my movements to a mile or so radius around my house means the urban scene is my core subject - another topic for another time!

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All images and text Š Dave Whenham 2020

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