Said the Government.
And two weeks it will be - self isolating to keep company with someone who's flying in from overseas. I have laid in stocks of canned soup and two-minute noodles and the Tuna Surprise will startle everyone.
On the photographic side, This is precisely the time when the digital revolution shines - it is an opportunity for someone separated from the shops and the studio to go into the archives and finally do what I have been promising myself for years:
- Scan the colour slides. They'll need a clean with some film cleaner and a blower brush, and the dreadful old Agfachrome CT 18's will never look good anyway...but the Kodachromes should come up well. The Epson V700 scanner has a 12-slide plate that takes regular 2 x 2 mounts so all I have to do is load and scan. Then pick out the worst of the dust bunnies and catalog them away.
- Re-photograph the old pictures that have no negatives. I have two IKEA desk lamps that provide even lighting and a macro lens that could theoretically go down to 1:1 on some prints. I suspect the standard 35mm lens will be enough anyway.
- Dig through the hard drive to find items that are unnecessary duplicates or memory wasters and pitch them.
- Ditto with the gear stash and the actual working kits. If something is patently never used, it can be put into the box slated for the Photomarkets. Mind you, they may be postponed by the Wuhan Plague just like a lot of other cultural and sporting events, but eventually they'll be back...and you can never kill a tray of old filters anyway.
- Photograph flowers in the garden. I'm still allowed to do that as the back yard is enclosed territory.
- Ditto model airplanes in the workshop studio. I'm barred from driving over to my main studio for the fortnight but I have rigged a smaller one up here to illustrate working stages for the model airplane forums.
- Photograph the Flying Doctor as it goes over the place. We're on the flight path. If they would come down to about 50 feet I'd get a much more dramatic picture and I promise not to phone up CASA with their buzz number.
- Patiently go through the big file of unpublished pictures I have taken at the two CE stores over the last couple of years and try to figure out what it was about the camera, lens, or accessory that was so interesting. Everything had some story to tell, even if I did not tell it at the time. Well, I've got two weeks to think it up.
There will be others who are going to be in this same boat in the coming months. I would welcome their feedback as to how they cope with the enforced isolation.
Note: If you are not isolated and want to get your slides or photos copied, just ask Dom at Murray Street. He's got access to marvellous new services for digitising nearly anything.
