About this Project….

This project started because it was a story that I felt had to be told for now and for generations.

It has personal ramifications for us like everyone in this country.

Our portrait and wedding business is on hold — our late April wedding is not happening and is rescheduled for next spring. I have a June wedding on the books though not sure yet if that will take place. In some ways I am blessed that I don’t have a lot of weddings on the books for this year (we are new to the area) so we have less problems rebooking to next year.

There is so much uncertainty and fear caused by not knowing how long this will place our lives on hold. Many of my colleagues have far worse situations with the loss of income and their weddings. My heart goes out to them.

Personally my sister and her husband (who lives 1/4 mile from us) will not come by to visit — we visit now outside the houses with our dogs while social distancing.

My niece, her husband and their kids who live on the other side of our small town won’t be visiting until this is clear. She is a hairdresser and is not working now because of the shut downs to her industry. Her husband is still working. They are the first few images in the images below and seeing them when I stopped by to collect an item made it clear what this story means. Thankfully we are all blessed with our health and want to keep it that way.

My wife and two kids are home and we are social distancing from our neighbors, though we can still chat to them across the fence or from a safe distance. Luckily we are in a neighborhood where many residents walk animals at the evening or are out with family. We all practice safe social distancing.

Nothing like it has been seen in of our modern era. My photojournalism background is clear in the portraits and the drive to do this story.

For the health considerations. I have followed all the current CDC guidelines for social distancing, photographing people who are healthy and have not tested positive with the COVID-19 virus.

For the photographic technical aspects, I am photographing with a Sony a7RIV, and a9II and the 70-200 f2.8 G Master lens, the 135 1.8 G Master as well as a 24-70 f2.8 G Master lens.

I will sometimes use a small Ikea step ladder to raise my height a bit for portraits of people in windows or to help keep the perspective of their home if including the face of it in the portrait.

The project is a voluntary project and I am doing it pro bono. The subjects will receive the high resolution images for participating at no charge to them.

We have talked about doing a book after we get through this time and I think it will be a time capsule for our town and what happened in March 2020 that changed the world.

This is not a project for every photographer — I don’t want to either encourage or discourage anyone to do one of their own.

We have stopped booking sessions and have added a wait list so that we can hopefully schedule sessions when the time is right.

Here are some images that I have captured before Wednesday 3/25/2020