Illinois received an early spring snow yesterday morning. I had been a bit down about our winter this year as it was actually pretty mild with little snow. I’m of the ilk that actually *likes* snow so a warm and snow free winter isn’t my thing. An early spring snow was a nice surprise and I finally took a step that I haven’t so far during this whole quarantine. I ventured out with my camera.
Thus far, I have left the apartment exactly once since March 22nd. That was to go to my office to pick up a set of plans for a project that I was working on. Beyond that, I have done nothing beyond trips to the mailbox and the trash/recycle dumpsters within our apartment complex. We’ve ordered groceries online. I’m doing all of my work from home. And while Illinois’ shelter-in-place order does give provisions for exercise and such, I’m still finding that I have a little moral dilemma every time I think about leaving. Since we live in a fairly densely populated complex, there’s always a chance of crossing paths with someone in a hallway or something. So I’ve stayed put, despite my desire to go wandering with a camera.
That is until yesterday morning. I finally reached my cracking point and decided that a pre-dawn walk on a snowy day would probably not be terribly risky for “social encounters.” And indeed, it played out that way. I saw one other person and he was at a distance greater than 40 feet from me. Social distancing win!
I decided to go with a film camera on the walk. I took my Nikon FA and AI 50mm f2 loaded with Kodak T-Max P3200. I’ve needed to finish off that roll for longer than I care to admit and it seemed like the perfect emulsion for a pre-dawn, snowy morning.
Of course, now I’m faced with another moral dilemma. All of my film developing supplies are at my Mom’s house, so I can’t develop it myself and keep social distancing, so that’s a no. Sending it to a lab puts mail carriers and film lab employees at risk just to process my pictures. But it would also put money into an economy that is already looking pretty shaky. I suppose a good compromise is to wait a little bit until quarantines are a little less draconian and then send the film off. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, I have to say my little 1.5 mile photo jaunt was both welcome but also a bit melancholic. It was incredibly refreshing to get out into “the world,” even if only for a half hour or so. Doing so on a morning with a beautiful new snowfall certainly didn’t hurt. However, the realization that we’re still weeks and maybe months (or more, yikes!) away from when this could be a normal occurrence hit me kind of hard the rest of the day. As with all parts of this, all I can do is take it one day at a time and evaluate the risk/reward ratio for any given action and try to keep myself as socially responsible as I can while simultaneously avoiding cabin fever insanity. 😉
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We all have to weigh the risks vs. our sanity these days.
It’s an interesting dichotomy to ponder. One that I had no inclination that I’d be thinking about just months ago but now affects almost every decision I make.