2020 - 2021: Pandemic, Lockdowns and More

Sorry to get the, um, thread on a different, errr... fork. Time to steer us back on topic. 😅 Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we were also under "shelter-in-place" orders. Eventually, they allowed socially distanced outdoor activity, but all the playgrounds were closed off.

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes.


2020.03.19 Roll #240-04552-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr


2020.04.03 Roll #241-04594-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr
 
Warner 66 80 F2

More dangerous swings...
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A few days after the escape from Docklands, it was time to drop off some footage to a client. That morning, I went to the local supermarket, masked up, and saw workers scrubbing away at the trolley and basket handles, and the doorhandles to cold storage areas. My producer and I drove to the client's place and handed him a USB drive which he promptly sprayed with disinfectant! On the way back, we stopped at a beach where many signs said it was closed to the public, but not many heeded that. Lots of people were walking their dogs and just out, albeit wearing masks.

M9 - Beaches Closed by Archiver, on Flickr

Leica M9
Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2 v1
 
On the way home, we stopped at a few places as this was likely the last time we would be out for some weeks. This is Black Rock Pier in Melbourne. The pier, funnily enough, is where my best friend's wedding photographer took us for a shoot. But that day in 2020, it was freezing cold, with a few kite surfers and surfboarders catching the final bits of freedom we would experience in Melbourne for some time.

LX10 - Black Rock Pier by Archiver, on Flickr

Panasonic LX10
 
Dear Board,

Since mid-March of 2020 I have worked from home. 2020 was a special year for me. Working from home I was able to witness the world around me unfold. Every other year I was staring at a cubicle wall and wondering what I might be missing?

That year I got to witness in real time the annual Spring and Fall bird migrations. I saw birds in my backyard that I had only ever caught fleeting glimpses of before. It became apparent to me that they weren't just casual visitors. They frequented my yard every year I lived here, I just never got to witness them.

The best thing I saw was this dude and his mate give birth and rear 2 youngsters in my yard.

Pileated 5-18-20-5-cropped by Tim Murphy, on Flickr

As Summer progressed, he and mom would come into my yard and raid my suet feeder. But they didn't eat the suet, they flew to a stump on the back of my property where they fed it to two little squawking babies.

One day when the planets aligned, I got to see one of the babies come into my yard all by herself to peck and poke around and feed.

Baby Pileated 7-29-20-1 by Tim Murphy, on Flickr

That may not seem like much to many people, but to me it was wonderful.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg PA 🙂
 
Harry the K said:
Right, we are free to decide which side are we on.
But: When the toilet rolls are bought away, EVERYBODY will have to use old newspapers.
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The funny thing was, my grandmother was alive in WWII and always preached the importance of having lots of toilet paper and canned food. Some of my earliest memories are of Grandma's cabinets stacked with what seemed like walls of toilet paper. So when the pandemic hit, I already had about three packs of 24 rolls on standby. 😄
 
Retro-Grouch said:
Oh. I thought they might be English. Or Italian. Or maybe French? Not to get this headset thread off into too obscure a direction...
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About 20 years ago I was in Berlin with my then 12 year old son. He was free to choose something cool at the flea market. I was hoping he decided on some big officer´s hat with a red star on the front, but he wanted to take the gas mask from the Russian dealer.
And Taiwan has the world´s biggest bicyle industry, so the other headset, with the thread, is probably from there.
 
Those of us with school-age kids will remember how challenging the early part of the pandemic was. Juggling working from home while simultaneously teaching a 5-year old how to use Zoom for remote learning was interesting to say the least. 🤣 The silver lining was we got to spend a lot of time with our kids.

Leica M5, Leica Summicron 50mm f/2 v3, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes.


2020.04.27 Roll #243-04686-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr
 
Interesting to see others' views of this time. Personally 2020-22 was the period i look the least photographs ever since the i first picked up a camera. I did print a lot....going through negatives from years past. But certainly in my mind, that two year period is largely uninhabited by people.
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Harry the K said:
This, the hoarding of toilet rolls, caused me the biggest worries. In case of a "real" big desaster there would be no solidarity among us, no mutual help, but only brutal egoism, I thought (and still think).
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In the early days around March 2020, the gov urged the public to be circumspect and considerate when shopping at the supermarket. But when I went for what would be a regular shop, there was at least one woman with a panicked look in her eyes, hurriedly pushing a trolley that was piled with groceries.

On the other hand, there were people who organized local help for elderly and struggling families, so all was not so bleak.
 
Freakscene said:
When these were hot commodities. The institute where I worked made several thousand litres of hand sanitizer and distributed it locally before production picked up.
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Do you remember when mainland Chinese went to every supermarket and chemist, and bought all the stock of masks and sanitizer to send back to China? There were photos of them standing proudly beside giant boxes awaiting shipping. I'm pretty sure the government stepped in after that.


www.smh.com.au

Second developer flew 82 tonnes of medical supplies to China

A second Chinese property company based in Sydney flew more than 80 tonnes of medical supplies on a corporate jet to Wuhan in late February, at the time coronavirus was devastating the regional city.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au

I recall that breweries began to make sanitizer, too!
 
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Archiver said:
Do you remember when mainland Chinese went to every supermarket and chemist, and bought all the stock of masks and sanitizer to send back to China? There were photos of them standing proudly beside giant boxes awaiting shipping. I'm pretty sure the government stepped in after that.


www.smh.com.au

Second developer flew 82 tonnes of medical supplies to China

A second Chinese property company based in Sydney flew more than 80 tonnes of medical supplies on a corporate jet to Wuhan in late February, at the time coronavirus was devastating the regional city.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
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Yes. I was hauled into State Parliament to explain our distribution strategy so the state government could be sure what we made was not being exported. 😂

Archiver said:
I recall that breweries began to make sanitizer, too!
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Anyone with distilling equipment became a sanitizer producer.
 
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