Pausing ? on a high note!

Pausing – on a high note!

Lockdown II – this time it’s personal! The new English Covid rules, responding to a major flare-up of cases and deaths mean that I have to stop taking pictures of models indoors. Yes – I know I could sort-of wangle it, if I booked commercial premises, or found a lady optician to pose for me, or if my name was Dominic, but the spirit of the rules requires that taking pictures indoors stops for a while. As the weather’s getting colder, my potential supply of models is very limited!

So my pictures of That_Model_Jasmine yesterday were a last shoot for a while: and – when I looked last – 68 votes and 8 user awards suggests it was a high note on which to pause. And I realised something, as I’d sent the last thank-you for a UA: I’d been saying that I was ‘ending’ on a high note.

We never know what is around the corner, but I’m actually planning on resuming my model photography when it’s safe (and legal) to do so. So this blog is about pausing, and the difference in mindset that this involves. There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover – and models in my front room – tomorrow: just you wait and see.

It’s deeply disappointing for a country that had come to believe we’d got it sorted, but the informed money was always on a second wave, and the importance that it should come after the summer and before the annual ‘flu season. So – mismanaged as things may be – we are not a million miles from where we ‘ought’ to be, perhaps. I was expecting this at some point, and I have a couple of thoughts to share.
In March, apart from blogging, I retreated into my shell. I didn’t plan exercise to replace three swims a week, and I’m duly fatter and less fit. This time, having established a daily walk, I shall be continuing, and walking further.

I have some ideas for ‘projects’ that I can do – after 15 years, my office could do with clearing up a bit, as could the garage. If I do that bit well, I’ll have additional space to shoot, and somewhere that I could leave – for instance – still life kit set up without incurring marital ire.

And it’ll be back to the blog every day. All ideas welcome, of course. Might do some more research, and I will be in the darkroom more – after all, I took a cassette of T-Max P3200 yesterday. And there’s printing to do!

It won’t all be a barrel of laughs, but we will survive it: my plan is to have as much fun as I can while doing so, and to achieve one or two useful things. I hope that – if you have extra rules to face this morning – that you’ll find good things to do, and will be able to look on the brighter side of life. Think of a family member who was involved in a war or a natural disaster: and channel what you know of their spirit and will to overcome the odds.