I've walked across this bridge hundreds of times and never
experienced the reflected light off an apartment building shining directly
across the lake this way. It was exciting. I'm glad I thought to bring a camera.
In a little over a month and a half we'll be coming up on the first anniversary of the pandemic in the USA.
When the news first started breaking we were expecting the first few months to be bad but we calculated that if we all wore our masks and stayed home for a couple of months we'd keep the curve of the spread low and give our health care professionals time to work out live saving best practices to keep deaths at a minimum then, we presumed, we start getting back to more normal routines. Few expected things would be much, much worse nearly a year down the road.
I think many businesses have determined that they now must get back to work, aggressively, as soon as possible, if they are going to survive. It's very much an existential dilemma.
The choices seem to be to shut everything down and watch your business collapse and die or risk going full blast and potentially contracting Covid-19 and then collapsing and dying --- personally.
I'm old enough not to have to make these kinds of life and death choices. I can decide to retire from the field if I feel the personal risk is too great. I assume most readers here are either retired or have put away enough to do so. But what about the younger photographers and videographers who must work to survive financially?
It's interesting to see the host of "over 60" retirees talk with authority about "making the right choice and "hibernating" until everyone is vaccinated but it's rightly compassionate to realize that, statistically, quite few people can actually choose "the extended vacation" option offered by not working and not having income.
What would I do if I was once again 35, had a recently acquired mortgage, and had recently added a new child to the family?
Many smart photographers had money in the bank for emergencies but who could have predicted that they would still be hampered from working almost a year later? I would presume, by this point in time, that I would have already used up most, if not all, of my non-retirement savings and I'd be digging into my SEP now.
In our society, with few and tattered safety nets for the self-employed, I would have made the decision that working would be necessary, not just preferable. I would not consider losing the house or giving up my family's standard of living without a fight. But I want to get back to work as safely and sustainably as humanly possible.
On the other hand, if I had an enormous trust fund I would begin my new career as a "fine art" photographer or novelist. Ah. If only we could all have been born into families that were comfortably ensconced in the one percent zone!
So, for most of us it would boil down to choosing option #1. Back to work as safely as possible.
But, how to do it?
I'd say that your first and best move would be to create a sound working safety methodology and write down how your will operate, in the future, with clients. How you would operate in a new environment of commercial engagements.
Having written and shared policies is the best way to avoid slipping back into cutting corners, getting complacent, allowing clients to erode your procedures out of a misplace sense of economics, or for expediency's sake. Being able to fall back on your company's policies is something every business client will at least understand and it could help prevent them from pressuring you to take unnecessary chances.
I would suggest operating with a healthy dollop of paranoia; along the lines of thinking that everyone I might come across on the job is a potential vector for infection!
This all calls for a re-doubling of your efforts to always follow universal best practices in dealing with Covid. No hand shaking. Control the number of people allowed on your set. Make sure everyone who is not actively in front of the camera being recorded is properly masked. Enforce proper mask wearing: the masks must go OVER the nose (not under) and extend down to the chin. No bandanas, just masks. A we'll bring extras in case anyone "forgets" to bring one. These rules must extend all the way up to the CEO and the company's roster of "heavy hitters."
The higher most people rise on the corporate "food chain" the higher the probability that they are greater than average risk-takers. You don't want them sharing the results of their risk tolerance with you and your family.
Have a plan to keep people well separated and make it a rule not to set up in small rooms or work in them for any amount of time. The "plan", written down and shared with clients gives you the authority to enforce your rules. After all, if the client signs off on your plan it becomes part of your agreement, part of your contract with them. If they traditionally relied on you to be responsible for the outcome of each shoot you have a right to rely on them to make each shoot safe.
Part of my plan, should I go back and start working on commercial projects again is to have the right PPE. The single biggest personal protection device we use right now is the face mask.
I have three different kinds of masks. I use a three ply, cloth mask when I am "off duty" and walking around outside with a camera. These are for times when I'm outside, walking alone on sparsely populated city sidewalks and quite capable of avoiding coming anywhere near six feet of other people. Low population density in downtown is achievable right now in Austin because the vast majority of the people who worked in the big office buildings are still working from home. Most of the people I see in the downtown space are masked. That's certainly true of the tech workers who have much to lose; if I do see unmasked people they are invariably tourists from less progressive towns. Mostly, I assume, Fox News watchers...
I have boxes of the ubiquitous light blue "procedure" masks that are three ply and meant to be single use masks. I use these for trips to the grocery store (our Trader Joe's is still mandating masks, with no exceptions, and also requiring density control in the stores. You might have to wait in a socially distanced line to get in but you will have the assurance that you are a hell of a lot safer than you would be in a grocery store that's regressed to an all comers group scrum. I also keep a box of these blue masks in the car and provide them to anyone I might be meeting with or working with outdoors.
Then I have a supply of readily available, non-medical, N-95 masks that fit tight and purport to filer out 95% of...everything, all the way down to 2.5 microns. I stocked them in anticipation of projects where I'll be a client's facility, working on a portrait set up or some sort of environmental imaging. Even though they are well made and fit well wearing on of these N-95 rated masks doesn't obviate the need to follow all the other rules.
There are some clients I don't think I'd want to handle right now. These would include clients bent on doing traditional, convention style gatherings (shows, trade events, etc.) Nor would I want to photograph in occupied classrooms or other tighter, static places.
If a client or one of their employees violates my company mask policy I'll ask nicely, once, for them to fix the problem and comply. At the next infraction I'll be packing up my gear and heading out the door.
I'll relax a bit after I get both doses of a vaccine (can I please have the Johnson & Johnson version?) but will continue to mask up to help insure I don't become and inadvertent carrier.
If we set firm rules and are willing to enforce them with no exceptions I believe we can return to doing certain kinds of work. The biggest rules are to limit the number of people in any area, make sure everyone is suitably masked, and to limit the amount of time spent in any interior space.
If I were asked to make portraits for a law firm I would want them to schedule one or two people on days when everyone else in the office is working from home. If the firm is closed over the weekends and we want to do environmental shots in the offices then a Saturday or Sunday makes much better sense.
The thing I dread is clients pushing to do too many people in too big a rush. We're going to have to train them to think more about safety and a bit less about efficiency. At least until everyone is safely vaccinated.
I think many, many older photographers (over 40) are already economic victims of the pandemic and have or will have to leave the field. When the economy recovers it might be an unwelcome burden to try and rebuild a clientele from scratch. With a huge number of knowledgable workers pushed out of their industry a quick recovery in a year or so will find a vacuum for skilled photographers. It's the ebb and flow of a market disrupted by events beyond our control.
But if you are going to serve the market right now you owe it to yourself, your peers, your competitors and your families to understand the risks and to minimize them in every way you can. Work healthy by design. It beats the crap out of dying.
Just a few thoughts I had while waiting for my local Subaru dealer to service my car. I actually went long hand today. I brought a notebook and a ballpoint pen. Refreshing to go "old school" for a blog.
16 comments:
I don't live in Austin but I haven't heard that its level of infection is any less than other cities in Texas so please don't make it an example. I live in Dallas and believe that the problem is essentially young adults and those who, unfortunately, live in extended families who have to work. It doesn't result from those of us who may watch Fox News or are conservative in our politics.
Just as you do, I try to maintain every possible protection because my wife and I are both in our 80's. We simply can't cure stupidity where not wearing a mask is thought to be okay. Keep preaching, but don't get snarky.
hi Kirk. I live in Abu Dhabi, where i instruct helicopter pilots in a large simulator training center. The airlines here, like everywhere, have experienced a bloodbath. We helo pilots have been largely spared, because our work is mostly in support of military, offshore oil, medical, and VIP. But our "fixed-wing" brothers have been hit hard, and some who are also heli-qualified have come begging.
In the past several years I have done lots of travel to pursue my hobby of photography. My heart breaks for all the millions of folk in the travel industry, especially in 3rd world countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines!
as bad as we've been hit in the USA, it is so much worse in many places. Thank God we are rid of the "ugly American" who constantly brags about putting America 1st. Of course that is what all nations do, but we don't need to boast about it. As a Christian i am embarrassed & heartbroken at the mean-spirited (fear-driven) behavior i see from evangelicals )-;
Keep up the good work Kirk
Sound advice. Here’s hoping those who are younger and must work can follow it. The line between prudence and absolute necessity gets erased easily. Being in the much older group and sequestered to the max, my big personal concern (purely selfish) is that the vaccine supply disruptions don’t prevent my wife and me from getting Pfizer shot #2. If all goes well that should happen February 2.
By the way, has anyone actually read The Ugly American? He was the good guy.
Rewster, I feel compelled to comment on your assertion that I suggested Austin had lower rates of infection than other major Texas cities. It's an a suggestion I never made in the post. What I did say was that the people walking around downtown are very obviously split between tourists from outside the Austin area and young, techie, Austinites who work in the downtown area. The locals who work in that area (downtown) are much more likely to have college degrees and some have advanced degrees. Since they also lean much more liberal (what we should all want) than people in general from other cities they are less likely to have negatively politicized mask wearing and have a much better understanding of why masks can be effective. So they are much more apt to wear them.
The opposite demographic marches around in groups, is less likely to be masked, less likely to social distance and much more likely to sit in large, multi-family groups in downtown restaurants. My conclusion? They are dumb asses and much more likely to be disease spreaders.
Fox News is also renowned for spreading misinformation about masks, virus transmissions, election results and historic fact. If you rely on that for your information then you are "wrong" and misinformed and might as well read tea leafs or read the entrails of frogs or newts. Nothing against you personally and not to be snarky but some day we'll get back to understanding that facts are far different from one's personal "feelings" or "beliefs".
Wouldn't we really be much better off if our leaders were both smart and compassionate instead of just trying to figure out how to get richer, regardless of who they lie to or step upon on the way up?
Dallas, Ft. Worth area leads the infection rates in Texas followed by Houston, then Austin and the winner (fewest infections per capita) is, surprisingly, San Antonio. Just facts, not feelings.
Those rates of infection are just within the major metro areas and don't count lower population areas such as El Paso and McAllen which may have much higher rates per capita. The numbers come from the Texas DHHS dashboards.
I've read "The Ugly American". Put in context, I think the title has merit. As we heard from a federal judge recently, "just saying it's so doesn't make it true". Interesting how the author was able to predict the outcome of America's presence in SE Asia based on his experience with the first American's to arrive there. I guess this will make me sound unpatriotic in today's context, but might doesn't always make right.
I think it was here on this blog that I read, a few months ago, "wearing a mask is not a political statement, it is an IQ test." That sums it up nicely. Frankly, if everyone followed those safety practices - particularly wearing masks and putting safety first - the death rates would have been falling through the summer, fall, and now winter, instead of rising, and the economy would've been on the way to recovery.
Ken
Ken, that is so exactly right. We desperately needed a leader who would model that behavior. Instead we got something else.
On another note, I've asked five or six of my acquaintances who've actually contracted Covid-19, and had family members contract it as well, where they thought they were infected. All of them profess to have been so careful. All of them took their families on ski vacations or other vacations out of state in the last six months. All became infected after coming back home from vacations.
I guess people didn't get the memo about not traveling out of your own city during a pandemic. It was in the original (and all subsequent) CDC suggestions. Maybe the information from the health professionals was TLDR.
None of them died from their course of disease but....they sure tempted fate.
I've stopped singing in the church choir, riding crowded elevators just for fun, sitting for hours in smoky bars trying to hit on strangers, picking up hitchhikers in my car, and making face masks out of single layer of my girlfriend's nylon stockings.
Every little thing seems to help. I even keep my Nikons under UV lights when I'm not using them. I'm just doing my part.
I'm sure Fox News will tell me when it's safe to go naked bungee jumping again.
My brother died on May 31, 2020 of COVID at age 59. Yes, he had other health issues but that is beside the point.
What is relevant is that at every possible point our government failed to take even the most rudimentary steps to protect the country.
Instead they chose to cast the issue in political terms and use the pandemic to manufacture another wedge issue. Coupled with the inarguable strategy of lies and disinformation we now have 393,000 dead and growing.
Yes, I get that we have freedom of movement. Yes, I get that we have to support ourselves and our families. But the naked hypocrisy and selfishness of so many has killed more Americans than all our wars back to WWII.
It is no accident we have an unemployment structure that is a patchwork of hard-to-claim benefits. It is no accident that the right has always sought to reduce benefits to the hungry, the sick, the poor and the homeless and to address issues that have created a sweatshop class we blithely refer to as the "gig economy".
These policies are framed as attacks on "waste, fraud and abuse" and also as programs designed by liberals to steal money from working citizens to reward drug using layabouts who are laughing at the suckers who work.
The fact that we have a meager safety net in place intentionally designed to weaken labor so they remain fearful and compliant is further evidence of the distance we have to go to realize the promise of equality, justice and security for all citizens.
Mark, I agree with everything you said. I also wanted to tell you that I'm very sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Mark the tog.
I very rarely comment in online fora and blogs but I have done so several times on this one. I have started to wonder why. Then I read about your brother and realize that somehow this blog has gotten under my skin and I have started to relate more and more, not just to Kirk, but also to other regular readers who comment. So your brother's death has really affected me. I truly commiserate with your loss. Being a Canadian we seem to have a slightly better attitude toward the pandemic (although still not good enough) and a slightly better social safety net - but I also have a 59 year old brother living in Seattle and I am constantly thinking about him. Again, my heart goes out to you for your loss and also to you and your fellow Americans that have had to endure the unfortunate incidents of the recent years in what I actually believe has been, and still is, a great country.
Kirk,
I hope you realize that you have not only feasted us with your masterful, entertaining and insightful writing but also created a wonderful community. For that I am truly grateful.
I read that American Airlines will vaccinate their own employees, much like how hospital systems are vaccinating their employees, whether or not they have patient contact, or even if an employee has worked from home since March.
The federal government has completely fouled up vaccine distribution and passed off responsibility for administering vaccines to the states. Many states are broke, however, and have been starving public health departments for years.
So it makes sense for business to do it themselves, because the vaccine is the key to getting back to work.
I'm keenly aware that I, 65+, mostly retired and of comfortable means, should roll my sleeves back down, and get out of line so a parent with kids at home can get the vaccine before me. Will I? Not sure.
"risk going full blast and potentially contracting Covid-19 and then collapsing and dying --- personally." Unfortunately, we are surrounded with MAGA types who claim there is no such thing as Covid (What virus?) and feel (note I wrote "feel," not "think") that there is no risk at all going full blast. And then they infect others and sometimes end up in the hospital, sucking resources from the medical industry while they deny the existence of the virus. Sigh.... Our race to the bottom in the USA.
Exactly. A race to the bottom. I have three or four medical practices that I provide images and video to. I personally know dozens and dozens of doctors, nurse anesthetists and R.N.s. They see Covid-19 up close and continuously. I'd believe them before anyone I've ever seen on right wing "news" television. And they tell me it's absolutely devastating. Fortunately, at least for them, most of my friends and clients in the medical industry have been getting vaccinated in the last few weeks.
There's nothing to debate. There are facts and there is stupid. And it's tough to argue with stupid.
Wanna cure Covid? A good first start would be to shut down all the Fox TV affiliates across the country. It should be illegal to lie to the public about matters of life and death.
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