What a strange year 2020 was, I have to say for the most part I enjoyed the streets being empty I really reveiled being the only person walking around, the peace and quiet was something I don’t think any of us had experienced before.
Throughout the year I was reading stories about how people were struggling, maybe they had lost their job, or money was tight and so many stories of people struggling with mental health issues.
For me this wasn’t the case, I really didn’t think the pandemic was affecting me in a negative way, in fact, I can be honest and say that I didn’t want the lockdown to end, yes I missed sitting in Starbucks but this was a small price to pay.
As we’ve started to come out of the latest lockdown in 2021 I was excited to get back to street shooting, the people were heading back onto the streets of our towns and cities and I couldn’t wait to pick up the camera and start shooting. Since April I’ve been out almost every day trying to shoot and I’ve started to notice just how much the lockdowns have affected me and not in a good way. My approach to shooting is normally getting up close and personal with people, not caring if they notice me but I’ve been feeling like I’m doing something wrong and instead of taking a photo I move away. I might also find a good spot with great light like the photo below:
This is the entrance of the Abbey Gardens in my hometown and its an area that I’ve worked before, there’s a small amount of light coming through an opening at the top of the building, so I’ll set my camera to F8 manual focus and then I’ll use burst mode, these settings normally would be perfect and I’d work the area for a few hours, the last couple of times I’ve been here I can’t seem to get the focus right, or I’m missing lots of great moments and I find myself second-guessing each shot.
These problems have left me struggling with my photography, I thought I’d hit the streets running, back to normality I was shocked to find this wasn’t the case. I’ve been trying different things to help me get back into the right frame of mind, from music, photography books, and meeting up with other photographers and nothing seems to be working. It’s really frustrating to find myself in this position, yes I have struggled with my photography in the past but it’s never been like this.
I think I’ve been pushing too hard, trying to make something happen instead of just enjoying being back on the busy streets. So my plan moving forward is to find somewhere new, a fresh place with fresh eyes, and my hope is that this will get me back into the right frame of mind and I hope this will reignite my passion for photography.
I’m added some of the photos taken in the last few weeks and you’ll see they're not up to my usual standard.
Please feel free to comment below or message me on how the pandemic has affected you and your photography.
