The Interconnected Nature of Everything and Looking for New Opportunities.

Photo: Spiderweb with raindrops at Limantour Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California

We are all entering new and uncharted territory in these modern times where the COVID-19 virus is at the very forefront of societal consciousness. The new term of “Social Distancing” has now stamped itself into the public lexicon. Where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’ve just become the first major urban area to place itself under a multiple counties-wide Shelter in Place order. This means we’ve been asked under legal order to basically stay at home with the exception of essential travel to get groceries, etc..

Photo: Rainbow behind a palm tree, Contra Costa County, California.

I’ve just finished or am in the process of finishing several corporate and private jobs, but the workshops I’ve had scheduled are now canceled or likely to be canceled. And so in due social compliance with this new order, the time I had planned to be out making new photos has, like life for so many here and soon to be elsewhere as well, ground to a sudden halt.

While doing these other jobs, I’d been sitting on a backlog of image editing and blog posts that I wanted to share. However, I felt at this moment it was more important to reach out and express a few thoughts related to the concerns and uncertainty we are all facing at the moment. We are in this together. We’re all part of a grand interconnected natural system. The virus doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t pick out victims based on race, religion, or political party affiliation. However, it does put the lives of our parents at greater risk, which is why we’re in this situation. We all feel fear and uncertainty, although people may express it differently. My one plea to anyone willing to listen is please don’t panic. Think of your neighbor. Remember by doing your best, you may be saving a life.

If you can find any bright or silver lining at this moment, I urge you to embrace it for whatever it might be worth. For myself, I’m planning on trying to be extra productive on the home front, catch up on a few projects that have been stuck on the back-burner. If you’re a landscape, nature, or travel photographer who is now stuck at home, now is a great time to start looking into our own backyards — literally — for new things to photograph and discover. If you have pets, make a bunch of new shots for a portfolio album. Never take flower photos (like me) – maybe look for a few of those. Keep your eyes peeled for any special moments you can find.

If you are currently in or soon find yourself and your family stuck in one of these Shelter in Place lockdown orders, try to stay calm and think about what you can do. I’m well aware there are so many more folks out there being hit very hard by this new reality, so again I say, we’re all in this together. It is a common, cliche, and very Buddhist saying, but there is truth in the saying, “This too will pass.” But with whatever time and circumstance afford you at this moment, try to use it as an opportunity to look inward, pull out that old video game, maybe learn to meditate, or do like what I’ll be doing: a good, solid, and deep house-cleaning. And by all means; Go outside and get some sun, even if it’s just sitting in your yard/deck… which reminds me, I’ll also be doing a lot of weeding.

Good luck to us all. I pray that we’ll all come out of this together, and perhaps… maybe… even as a slightly more socially-connected species.

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Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.

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