JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 03.28.20
The week seems like an eternity without even a real weekend to look forward to. I’d look forward to saddling Bo up in the truck on a Saturday morning to drive to the recycling center.
We’d listen to music, I’d open the back window and he’s stick his head out, the wind blow back his shaggy black fur to reveal his kind almond eyes.
Now that is shut down too. We drove out to get a pizza last evening (keeping respectable distance from the local staff but still being able to help out their business), but drive was quick and uneventful.
On the plus side, I haven’t had to put gas in my truck in over a week. But not many more pluses than that.
My fear is that I’m not alone. The American people will not continue social distancing – not that we’re doing a great job of it already – will tire of the restriction (after just days, not weeks) and people will continue to congregate, and this pandemic will continue to spread.
What is keeping you sane, keeping you busy? My day job kept me busy all week. Now, more than ever, web and digital communication is a a premium. I think back to the bad advice I once got “You don’t want to be known as just the ‘website guy.'”
Well, the website guy has been busy craft new content and building new webpages for a site that gets 50,000 hits a month.
So, I’m busy M-F. And probably last Sunday to Friday, because part of my team is in India.
But I’m also planning some photoshoots when this is all done. Really planning them out. There were some really great workshops on line this week that I’d keep on in the background. That Zoom app is coming in handy.
Flipped through a few others books of visual inspiration as well – once called High Country Landscapes from a longtime-online friend, Jeff Lynch, who had a birthday this week. Another of great LIFE photographers, a book I bought for about $8 on a Barnes & Noble bargin rack onetime, but which propelled me into to learning about the greats whose names I never knew.
So, keeping busy. But staying close to home, too.
How about you?
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What I Read This Week: I started The Shooting Party by Isabel Colgate
What I Watched This Week: That Little Ol’ Little Band from Texas
What I Listened To This Week: UN of Photography 100 podcast
NY Times: We take the dead from morning till night
Vanity Fair: Lockdown: The Eye of the Storm
ArtNews: Polaroid through two lenses
PetaPixel: Drone portraits of people having fun, staying in isolation
PetaPixel: 1,100 photo course for free
Shifter: What’s the difference between Blurb and MagCloud?
Huck Magazine: The Solace of Sketchbooks
“The first thing that I found out about myself was that having a camera made me walk about… made me look at everything that I saw. It made me study light.” ~ Harold Chapman, who was born March 23, 1927
Stay safe everyone! Wash Your Hands! Back up Your Work! Make Prints!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2020
The JSP Home Office In The Time of COVID-19
I’ve been working from home for three years now, so this is whole “Working From Home” or “WFH” really is nothing new to me. But, I did spruce up my working area this past weekend by hanging some photos that are special to me.
The big 16×20 Springsteen print is one I shot in Asbury Park in 2018.
The one below it is a very famous shot by photographer Barry Schneier. I’ve gotten to know Barry over the past few years, and he gifted the beautiful print to me.
On the left side of Barry’s print is my shot of Little Steven and Bruce that I took last May at Stevie’s kick-off to his Summer of Sorcery tour. I love their expressions here – two friends, forever.
On the right side, a little hard to see, is my photo of The Gaslight Anthem on The Stone Pony Summer Stage in August 2018. The New York Times licensed this photo from me to run in their big article about The Stone Pony in October 2018, so this will always be a special print.
On either side of the big Bruce print are photos of me and my family at the entrances to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons from July 2019. We loved that trip.
And the paintings were two that my daughter did. She’s quite artistic and I love them.
The little straw hat is a pava I got during my last trip to Puerto Rico – it’s now the back cap to an old 17-85mm lens.
The Yashica camera works – bought it for $25. Like a tank.
The wooden letter opener is from a trip to the Dominican Republic about 19 years ago – the first trip my wife (then girlfriend) and I took together.
Coffee mug is from the music club, Crossroads in New Jersey.
Laptop is an IBM ThinkPad. Work issued, no big screens. No idea the last time it was color corrected or balanced.
The notebook was $1 at A.C. Moore. I like orange.
And, my Adidas. One of two pairs. I like these.
It’s not a big office, just a corner of our master bedroom. But I have light, I have coffee, I have photos and I have WiFi.
Every picture tells a story. Show me your office!
Stay healthy, stay well, folks!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2020
JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 03.21.20
Whew.
That week felt like it took about three months, didn’t it?
I don’t need to tell you these are unprecedented times.
Honestly, it’s like a science-fiction film.
And to think we’re all experiencing this – all of us visiting this blog – are going through some form of upheaval and unease.
I check my stats. I see where visitors come from.
Mostly the US, yes, but the UK, Spain, India, Canada, Italy, France, Paraguay, China, Romania, Serbia, UAE.
94 countries in all in the first three months of 2020
Whew.
It’s a new world order though. Many of us are under curfew. My kids are learning remotely until at least April 20. My wife’s personal training business is on hold. I’m working from home (though I’ve done that for almost three years now.)
And yet, Spring is bursting forth.
We are all in this together.
And we’re all here for each other.
Need me to post more to take your mind off of things? I’ll do it.
Want more creative inspiration? More BTS shots? Books to read? Music to listen to? Films to watch?
Let me know in the comments below or email me.
Over on my IG, I’m highlighting some of the musicians I’ve photographed now affected by all this. Click my IG link, and my LinkTree below find out more about them.
It’s crazy times.
We’re all in this together.
And we’ll come out the other side of this.
Together.
Peace.
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What I Read This Week: The Road To Paradise
What I Watched This Week: My Darling Clementine
NY Times: Photos from a century of epidemics
UX Design: 20 things to do to boost creative confidence
NY Times: The birth of the coronavirus economy (Photojournalist Ash Gilbertson)
Rolling Stone: The NYC subway during the coronavirus (Photojournalist Yunghi Kim)
Profile: George Rodger, who had a birthday this week.
“It’s not when you press the shutter, but why you press the shutter.” ~ Mary Ellen Mark (March 20, 1940 – May 25, 2015)
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2020
Shop Small to Stand Tall
This is a crazy, crazy time.
This is all like waking up in a science fiction/horror movie (see The Fog, The Mist)
Big businesses are surely being hit.
But many small businesses may be ruined.
Now, more than ever, try to shop small if you can, especially the local businesses in your towns and neighborhoods.
And wash your hands, practice social distancing.
We’re all in this together!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2020
