Staying Put

Note: We’ve been at home for more than a month. Last year I had a job where I went to work everyday. This year I have a job where I go to work most days and I travel. I’m going to try to get one of these posts out every night during the lockdown.

The lockdown orders didn’t say anything about flying robots.

Flying does a few things for me right now. Practically, it keeps my hours up and gets me outside. It also gives my daughter something to look at (who loves airplanes at the moment). She will stand on the porch or next to me and try to spot “daddy’s airplane” above the yard. (I fly with the auxiliary light on and a beacon on the nose to make it easier for people to see and I fly high so I don’t bother my neighbors.)

The first week that my wife started working from home I would fly almost every day. Then it rained for a week.

That’s when I noticed how relaxed it made me feel. I’ve been making images in my home and that has helped. This gives such a sense of space both in the act of making the images and later in post production.

I see photographers going out to document the world around them, the world that seems both closer and farther away at the same time right now. It pulls at me. I want to go out. It actually makes me angry at times. I should be getting those pictures. It’s not the right thing to do. It wouldn’t be fair to my family, and besides, I’m supposed to be working. Aside from a few bike rides, I’m staying put.

This helps.

Above: an early-lockdown shot facing west above my neighborhood. Downtown Fort Worth is just visible in the distance. Mid-afternoon looking over two empty schools.

Below: A cyclist crossing an intersection in the late afternoon.