Exactly one year ago there were 23 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK and one death. Today there have been over 4 million confirmed cases in the UK and 122,000 deaths.
Schools were closed on the 20th March last year and we entered our first national lockdown three days later. One year on and we are hoping our children will go back to school on 8 March and no matter how many times the governments says “AT THE EARLIEST” we are counting on it all being over on 21 June.
With the end in sight (?) and the vaccines rolling out it is now not too painful to look back over the year.
MY First lockdown diary - EXCERPTS
“I just watched Alfie Boe duet Don’t Stop Me Now remotely with Gary Barlow and I don’t know if I’m having a fever dream.”
“@WelshGasDoc is on Twitter asking IKEA to send disposable paper tape measures to ICUs so they can measure patients faster for life support calculations.”
“12 March: 2 weeks ago you could still buy toilet paper.”
“We are turning to submariners for advice on how to have a routine and find privacy at close quarters.”
“One. Day. At. A. Time.”
“Watching Spooks in the middle of the afternoon is normal.”
“Mountain goats roaming the streets of Llandudno.”
“ICUs asking to borrow ventilators from props departments of TV studios because they use real ventilators.”
“Things we never thought we’d understand: R0, log scales, the difference between an aerosol and a droplet.”
“Today a single toilet roll is more expensive than a barrel of oil.”
Photographers all discovered their doorsteps
How many of us thought we were the only ones to realise the creative benefits of shooting the same thing over and over again? Every single photographer, myself included, who had to walk the same walk day in day out has put together a “Lockdown portfolio”.
I shot mine all on a 5DIV with 50mm at f1.2. Once I got over having COVID and got a shred of creative motivation back it was nice to work with limitations of place and gear. A year later and I have definitely slowed down when I’m shooting. I am pickier about when I press the shutter. I’m enjoying working with my new Hasselblad 907X 50C: the main criticism of this camera is that it’s too slow to work with but for a landscape photographer who’s priorities have been reset this is all good. Fingers crossed we don’t get mutations and we can start to leave the house a bit more.
