What Will You Do During the Plague Year?

[John Camp]

If we're all pretty much forced to sequester ourselves to some degree, what will you do during that time? I'm lucky to have worked at home for 30+ years now, and will continue to do that. But, I won't be doing my usual routine of working, photographing in crowds, going out to eat most nights and at least once a day...I'll be somewhat isolating myself. I'm 76 and worried about this thing, and I plan to stay away from the virus as long as I can. Right now, I'm thinking about structure -- how to structure my days with work, exercise, hobbies, etc.

So what are your plans? Business as usual? Are you staying mostly at home? Hobbies? Can't sit and watch TV all day...

[JoeKitchen]

It's already getting really cheesy here!   

[Martin Kristiansen]

Business as usual for as long as I keep getting business. I chose to do product photography decades ago and it has been very resilient so work is still coming in and as long as it does I will do it. I was kind of hoping for a break and had/have plans.

I want to do more meditation, that’s big plan. A local retreat centre has asked me to take over its management and I was planning on working on that. Then There is my personal project where I take photos every day on my dog walk through my neighborhood, I need to start sorting and sequencing that.

By the way Joe my partner also makes cheese. Mostly Halloumi. I love that stuff. Perhaps she will make some of that. We both like to cook so that will happen. Mutton curry this weekend I think. Oh and Ice cream. I have developed a very nice recipe for ginger and Tumeric Ice cream. I will definitely make that. Perhaps I will just get fat n this period. If it gets reallly quiet there is a small reserve about 30 min from here with a very nice 17km walk. Eland, baboon wildebeest and zebra. Will head out that way as well.

[JoeKitchen]

Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up.  Seems you can grill it? 

Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream.  So high fat content cheese is hard to do.  More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking. 

I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere.  If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum. 

[Robert Roaldi]

Timely. Just saw a thing on Petapixel yesterday about stay-at-home photography ideas. I might try to dream something up in that vein although I haven't been successful in the past. I'm more an opportunist, might be a good mental exercise to force myself. I've been procrastinating about making some goofy stop-motion videos about traffic using matchbox cars, so may finally get around to that. I may return to my tongue-in-cheek physics videos, my former colleagues have been asking (I'm retired.)

When I shoot outdoors it's rarely of people and never in crowds. Not my thing. If anything the current situation may help that a bit. I'm going downtown early in the morning this weekend hoping for desolation (sort of, not real desolation). The hardest part about that is walking past my favourite cappuccino places and not stopping. My wife has asthma so we're being very cautious, bypassing all frills. This is difficult for me, because of my Italian family background I have to have 2-3 cappuccinos per week or I might lose my privileges. Hope nobody rats me out.

I'm curious about outdoor full moon urban photography, except I keep missing the full moons, or it's cloudy, or really really cold, or I am glued to a book.

The other thing I do a lot of is to photograph local bicycle racing and/or automobile rallying. Although those activities draw crowds, as a photographer I'm never all that close to the competitors. But all those events for April and May (and probably June) are cancelled, so that's that for a while.

I won't stop the outdoor and nature photography though. Those are solitary activities, as risk-free as anything, less risky than buying groceries.

Constraints sometimes force you to be creative, maybe it will work on me this time. Fingers crossed.

[Alan Klein]

Fortunately my wife and I are retired so we can stay home and isolate.  Unfortunately that means we're old enough that if we get sick, who knows what will happen?  Getting out by yourself and taking pictures seems reasonable thing to do.  Fresh air, some exercise.  Good for the head.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I'm doing working with some of my pharma retiree friends and tracking COVID-19 drug and vaccine trials.  We already have a spread sheet of 28 different drugs and vaccines.  Some of these are used at multiple sites and in various combinations.

[Martin Kristiansen]

Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up.  Seems you can grill it? 

Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream.  So high fat content cheese is hard to do.  More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking. 

I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere.  If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum.

We can get goat milk but it’s expensive, also sheep milk. Halloumi can be made with cow milk, an extra culture helps with the flavor when doing that.

It is possible for us to source whole raw milk from farmers not far from the city.

[James Clark]

Both my wife and I own (separate) companies that support or otherwise interact with large scale corporate and entertainment events, so.... we're just hanging out.

The plan is to update her company website with some revisions we've been planning for a year or so, then I might actually get my long-planned photography website online.

[Rob C]

It's already getting really cheesy here!   

Cholesterol will get you before the virus can.

It almost killed me, that cheese, cream, beautifully-made quiches, Christmas puddings, Christmas pies; succulent roasts, cauliflower with cheese... the list would go on to represent everything that today I cannot touch. I won't even mention the Spanish champagnes, Riojas and the likes. Our trips through France meant the cheeseboard almost every night; oh, I can't eat at night anymore.

;-)

[Rob C]

Never had Halloumi, but just looked it up.  Seems you can grill it? 

Problem in the USA, it is hard to get anything besides cow's milk, and they like ultra-pasteurize any cream.  So high fat content cheese is hard to do.  More and more stores are not selling cream that can be used in cheesemaking. 

I mainly make Rochefort, Gouda and Gruyere.  If I posted a picture of a wheel of Rochefort though, I may ruin blue cheese for many on this forum.

This time, the French would kill you rather than aid your battles against the Brits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d%27origine_contr%C3%B4l%C3%A9e

;-)

[JoeKitchen]

This time, the French would kill you rather than aid your battles against the Brits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appellation_d%27origine_contr%C3%B4l%C3%A9e

;-)

Yes, you're right.  Same reason my wife, who is very Italian, does not let me make Parmesan Reggiano.  It just cant be made outside of Italy. 

Thankfully my wife is not french; I can go without Parm, but Rochefort is a must have. 

[Ken Bennett]

I work as a staff photographer at a university. We've been sent home, no one knows for how long. I am lucky enough to have my personal photo office in our finished basement, so it wasn't difficult to bring home my work computer setup and have it all working well with plenty of space. The main downside is that I'm in the basement the upside is that I can play loud music and not bother my colleagues. (My wife is also working from home now, but her office is upstairs so I'm not bothering her, either.)

As for what to do, well, that's the question. I've been wandering campus looking for photos as we transition to online classes. Not finding much. I have several projects to keep me busy for a few weeks. One semi-bright spot is that I may finally have time to shoot the sort of spring landscape photos that we use a lot, and I rarely have time to make. (And that don't require people in them -- think "chapel bell tower framed by cherry blossoms.")

At home, we've been cooking and eating well. We both like to cook, and stocked up pretty well last week. Trying to get out every day for a long walk. We've had to cancel all our music events, which hurts a lot -- I love playing tunes with our friends. We have more time to play and practice ourselves, I guess. Trying very hard to maintain contact with friends via FaceTime, text messaging, etc. Hoping this doesn't last too long, but starting to understand that it might.

Hope you all hang in there and stay safe and healthy.

[LesPalenik]

This summer, I'll let my hair grow, skip the dental cleanings and avoid any waiting rooms with other sufferers.
Instead, I'll attempt to make my drone pilot licence.

[Craig Lamson]

This summer, I'll let my hair grow, skip the dental cleanings and avoid any waiting rooms with other sufferers.
Instead, I'll attempt to make my drone pilot licence.

I just finished and passed my FAA part 107 test and I’m now also a licensed drone pilot.  The weather has been pretty crappy for flight and I’m pretty bored flying around my neighborhood.  So I guess more interesting locations will have to wait awhile.

My wife and I work together, work from home and the work is seasonal,so time like this is not unusual other that dinners out

I have a bunch of parts I have been purchasing for my hobby car and I’ll spend some time twisting wrenches.

We stocked up on grilling and smoker nests so I’ll fire up the smoker and try a few new rib recipes.

Finally I think I’ll clean and oil the firearms in my arsenal.😎😎😎😎

[Rob C]

What to do during the year of the modern plague?

If I were an American, I suppose I'd be tempted to buy another comfort gun.

As I am not, and can't buy one anyway, I expect to do much the same as I have during all the years since my wife died, but instead of eating lunch out every day, eat my own rubbish instead. In place of walking through the marina after lunch and envying the Riva and Sunseeker owners, I shall make the most of the permitted, essential purposes walks to buy food or visit banks and chemists, and do the rest of the required walking on my fortunately quite large terrace.

I can also relax all thought and tensions of selling up because nobody in their right mind will be buying - nor can they get here if not Spaniards - and even if I could sell, no way can I presently leave the country and drive back up through France and get a ferry across to Britain; so where would I live post-sale? So yeah, that's a sort of peaceful by-product of isolation.

Photography: I kinda gave up on that a couple of months ago; anything I really, really want to do I can't do any longer, and what I can do doesn't interest me much anymore. I'd like to buy a few more monographs, but have no space left for new without forcing me to relegate one favourite or another to the other rooms where nobody goes, not even my family, since they can no longer get here. That said, the Sarah Moons and, in particular, the Deborah Turbeville one I want are all too steep for my pension - especially as it tumbles in translation to the Euro. Books over 300 bucks are out, way out of my junior league, so Debbie will have to linger until the Euromillones lottery starts up again and my number floats in. At least, no lottery running means I save five euros a week; almost three coffees! Oh, and I can't sit at the pavement tables and buy the coffees anyway. All closed.

Perhaps one might buy shares in Netflix? They must rocket, with so many people unable to go outdoors at night. Not many new shows will get filmed, though.

I am thinking that a year may be an optimistic expectation. As with climate change, so many people in deep, deep denial may make this an existential situation for mankind.

Rob

[faberryman]

Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html

Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."

It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.

[Rob C]

I work as a staff photographer at a university. We've been sent home, no one knows for how long. I am lucky enough to have my personal photo office in our finished basement, so it wasn't difficult to bring home my work computer setup and have it all working well with plenty of space. The main downside is that I'm in the basement the upside is that I can play loud music and not bother my colleagues. (My wife is also working from home now, but her office is upstairs so I'm not bothering her, either.)

As for what to do, well, that's the question. I've been wandering campus looking for photos as we transition to online classes. Not finding much. I have several projects to keep me busy for a few weeks. One semi-bright spot is that I may finally have time to shoot the sort of spring landscape photos that we use a lot, and I rarely have time to make. (And that don't require people in them -- think "chapel bell tower framed by cherry blossoms.")

At home, we've been cooking and eating well. We both like to cook, and stocked up pretty well last week. Trying to get out every day for a long walk. We've had to cancel all our music events, which hurts a lot -- I love playing tunes with our friends. We have more time to play and practice ourselves, I guess. Trying very hard to maintain contact with friends via FaceTime, text messaging, etc. Hoping this doesn't last too long, but starting to understand that it might.

Hope you all hang in there and stay safe and healthy.

She loves you and is just being nice: bass reverberates through entire hotels!

Show her you love her too, and get Bluetooth and some good 'phones.

My wife used to smile as she closed the office door on me at such moments of musical excess.

;-)

[Rob C]

Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html

Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."

It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.

Quite agree, but this is hijacking the thread.

;-)

[JoeKitchen]

Maye the NYT wasn't wrong in its headline that Trump said it is up to the states to find their own medical supplies.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-masks-ventilators/index.html

Every day Trump invokes the old Hans Solo defense: "It's not my fault."

It's getting old. He needs to stay off TV.

Whats your point? 

Ordering things directly is much faster that going through a middle man.  Not to mention the Federal government really is not a shipping clerk.  They do not have the knowledge of say UPS or FedEx to move items across the country quickly and efficiently, and ordering direct allowing those companies to deliver would be much more efficient. 

More fake news out for a gotchu moment then actually looking at the reasonings why. 

But as Rob said, maybe you should have some self control and not hijack the thread.