Photography during a time of pandemic

When lockdown was first upon us, the cameras in our household lay dormant – not unloved, but like us – pining for the outdoors. Slowly, cautiously, we stuck out noses outside, and exposed our lungs and our cameras to some fresh air. Initially we stuck to our local park. Visiting at a time when it was largely deserted, and we were able to linger without guilt to snap the local flora.

But soon we were allowed to get in a car and drive to somewhere reasonably local to take the air. Craving some sea air, Himself and I made a dash for the coast very early one morning. We didn’t pick anywhere traditional or pretty, for we knew they’d be more attractive to crowds, but we were blessed with a rather lovely sky at sunrise, and there was no-one about except fishermen …

As Spring moved into Summer, we made regular visits to one of our regular haunts, catching first the empty expanses on a cold and extremely windy day, when we also found the display created by local children of painted pebbles taken from the beach …

Whereas, on the next visit, the focus was entirely on seagulls …

An increasing need to be creative took us to one of our go-to seaside street photography locations, but this time for another early morning session …

Pretty much every event in our schedule has been cancelled, and far too often we’ve set out from home, only to return due to the overly large volume of people. Places which only we visited before the pandemic are now thronged with people.

But we’ve made the most of our opportunities, sometimes just sitting on the beach with our cameras hanging by their straps while we listened to the lapping waves and the calling of the sea birds.

The Seaside has been the saving of our sanity this year – what’s been saving yours?

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© Debra Carey, 2020