COVID-19 Pandemic: Lockdown Photography.
NB: This is a rolling blog, as during lockdown this has become a place to pop images up I enjoy taking.
Let’s face it lockdown is a just a big pile of poop. If it saves lives then I’m all for it, but having been in it for over a week, it does feel a little like imprisonment. Still, I am not about to let the situation stymie my creativity, so I have made an effort to look for things around the home and property to photograph.
In New Zealand there is a shortage of flour, as with more time on our hands it seems kiwis have become a nation of home bakers. Personally, I think this is marvellous as baking is fun and relaxing, a couple of things we all need right now. Myself, I love making pasta and pizza so that is where my flour ends up.
I am a huge fan of homemade pizza, especially with tomatoes and basil out of the hothouse, along with fries we dug from the vegetable patch. I am using a cheap vinyl backdrop here as well.
Same pizza night, but second one out of the oven. Topdown view using another cheap vinyl backdrop that looks great.
I have broken about 3 pasta maker machines over the years, but hopefully I’ve learned a thing or two about making nice pasta. Above, I rough cut these pasta ribbons with a pizza roller. Behind are some lovely tomatoes from the hothouse, with parsley and rosemary. The fake vinyl marble backdrop looks awesome.
More pasta, but this time I used the fettuccine cutter on the machine. Another fake vinyl backdrop with a porous cement look.
Something a bit different with these tasty curried lentil patties, packed with flavour, and a perfect filling with salad in wraps.
You may have noticed the beautiful purple flowers of the rosemary from one of the images above. Our local honey bees have been loving them as well. So over the past couple of days I have devoted 20 minutes or so to try and take a decent ‘macro’ photo of the bees doing their thing. The image below was taken from day 2 of my honey bee photography. I love it to bits, so I might be annoying those bees a little longer.
Fujifilm X-H1, XF35mm 1.4 @ f5.6, with macro extension tube MCEX-16. I triggered a flash I held in my left hand to help illuminate the scene. The key here was getting the subject and flowers lined up on the same focal plane so not only is the bee sharp but we also have parts of the dew covered purple flowers in focus.
A different day, but a lovely shot of a wonderful honey bee using same set up as above.
An overcast day with plenty of rain made for lovely conditions to use the Fujifilm extension tube.
A lovely yellow rose covered in raindrops. Again using the Xf35mm 1.4 @ f8 with the MCEX-16 (20 odd images stacked.)
I’m not sure how long this pandemic will continue for but I know my camera will be getting a work out no matter what. Hopefully you too have found a creative outlet to pursue during these trying times. Stay safe and thanks for stopping by.
Trev Hill is a professional photographer based in Dunedin, New Zealand.