As I come to the close of my 6th week working from home due to the current COVID-19 global health emergency, Governor Pritzker just moments ago extended the current stay-at-home order in Illinois. Previously set to expire on April 30, this extension is through May 30.

What that means for me isn’t the same as what that means for you from a thousand different directions. But I expect we all have in common exploring ways to stay occupied, positive, engaged, and healthy. The fact that I’m even posting here again after 18 months of inactivity is testament to that. While there’s no shortage of Netflix or Prime Video content, PS4 games, or Kindle books available, 6 weeks of staring at these same four walls demands I diversify my non-work activity a bit.

Picking up a camera helps. I’ve posted here before (yes, I know..years ago) about my struggles with adding variety to the shots I take. That is compounded these days as I try to follow the spirit of the stay-at-home order. I enjoyed walking around downtown with Dad, armed with a couple of lenses and getting some decent street life or architecture shots. Or taking the grandkids to the zoo. Even accompanying my wife to the ranch and her horse offered some decent opportunity. It looks like I still won’t be able to do any of that for at least another 30 days, so I have to consider other options.

Also, I was fortunate to add a Nikon d850 to my gear bag just before everything went into lockdown. It’s my first full frame DLSR, and it’s a beast. I won’t spend any time repeating accolades about the 850, since there is no shortage of glowing reviews. In my experience there is a level of truth to the “it’s not the gear, it’s the photographer” adage, but I think that really does a disservice to the technical quality of the images that the 850 produces, and the flexibility it offers the photographer. But I’m really itching to get back out in the wider world and running around with the 850 in hand.

A closing note: we are experiencing complicated, stressful, uncertain and…cliché or not…unprecedented circumstances. As a result, there are a lot of voices contributing to local, regional, national, and international conversations. It’s exhausting and stressful to consume…so, I won’t be contributing to that cacophony here. You might (if subject to one) support your state-level stay-at-home order, you might oppose it.  This will be a pandemic-free zone, unless tangentially relevant to the post topic. I would not normally discourage comments or feedback on my posts, but please allow a moment of reflection before using this platform to air any grievances about lockdowns. There are plenty of things to talk about otherwise.