Ok, it wasn’t a happy start for a new year, thanks to Coronavirus. We can’t do our jobs, we can’t socialize or travel. We are all confined to our homes.

As a photographer, I had to cancel all my newborn sessions and studio shoots. It hurts not being able to do your job especially if it is also your passion. Cancelling everything when you are planning various photography projects, getting new props and ideas.

Anyway, it is real and it is here. We have to accept the situation and start working on “how to make the best use of this depressed lockdown time and get things done. I want to share a bunch of ideas that I come up with and start doing myself during this dormant period.

1. Start your garden!

Spring is here, it’s a good time to start flower and garden veggie seeds indoors as well as garden/yard clean-up. We have planted some tomatoes, sunflowers, basil and daisies in tiny starter kits. Looking forward to transplanting them to the community garden a few blocks away. It’s also a healthy leisure activity for kids to visit the garden once in a while to water and weed.

2. Online learning

This is a great opportunity for online learning on subjects related to your job or any skill you want to learn. Calgary Public library provides its members with free access to Lynda.com with tons of learning videos with exercise files you can download from their site. Here is the link to access Lynda.com through your library membership: https://calgarylibrary.ca/read-learn-and-explore/digital-library/lynda-com/ I use Lynda though our Roku device from the comfort of our living room couch, sipping my tea. Learning has never been this easy! 🙂

Calgary public library has lots of other online resources for kids and adults, I highly recommend to check it out.

3. Crafts

Yes, crafts that you always wanted to do but didn’t have time. It can be anything from watercolors to knitting, from wood working to robotics. YouTube is a great resource where you can find very specific how-to videos on almost any subject.

The last few weeks, I have been knitting like crazy and making newborn hat-wrap sets and cute headbands which comes in handy to stock some newborn photography props. I can’t wait to try them on my littlest models!

4. Basement clean-up

This is a perfect time to get rid of the clutter and turn your basement into a space you can use for different purposes. People are still using Kijiji to sell stuff, practicing social distancing when pick up stuff or just do porch pick up. I’ve been working on organizing my photography equipment and props in an IKEA Pax wardrobe in the basement and try to get rid of the items we don’t really use to make more space for my studio.

 5. Quality time with kids

It is a difficult time for everyone, especially for kids. You can set a time everyday to do something with kids, like boardgames, home schooling, outdoor play, crafts. Our favourite family board game was “Pandemic” until recently. It’s scary now!

6. Daily walks or biking around the neighbourhood

As a result of the Coronavirus lock-down or social distancing, we all became much more inactive. When you add eating out of boredom to it, it is not going anywhere good. It is fortunate that this pandemic coincided with good weather, so we can at least go out for fresh air and some activity. As a family we are walking around the neighbourhood everyday after breakfast. As the weather gets better, we will add more rounds to these short walks and biking.

 7. Organizing old photos

Organizing old photos and putting together family photo books is another thing we tend to procrastinate. After switching to digital world, we all compiled thousands of photos in our discs without revisiting, arranging or printing them with the comfort of knowing that we “have” them. It is as much difficult to browse through so many similar photos as it is easy to take them. Lock-down time is perfect to go back to old photos, delete the bad ones and organize the good ones in separate albums. On top of that getting a few photo books to share on the coffee table would be great! Online print places are still servicing.

 8. Small repairs around the house

Is the bathroom faucet leaking? is bedroom door squeaking? Are the felt pads under the furniture worn out and chairs are rubbing against the floor? Little malfunctions that annoy you everyday but never have time to fix. I accept It’s not fun, but this is the time!

 9. Free entertainment at home

It cannot be all about work of course. For entertainment and feeding our soul, we need music and arts. Here is a few online resource where you can access free concerts and shows:

For live music performances, you can go to https://nac-cna.ca/en/canadaperforms where Canadian musicians perform live on Facebook.

For theatre plays, UK’s National Theatre records their live plays at high definition quality and put on youtube which stays there for a week. A play for each week. You can find their schedule here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home

For musical plays, check out Youtube channel The Shows Must Go On!  When they post a new video, it stays available for 48 hrs because of the rights restrictions. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag

For opera, you can go to New York Metropolitan Opera website as they are streaming HD video recordings of their live performances on their website with each performance available for a period of 23 hours. https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

If you are using Apple, Amazon, Roku devices or Samsung Smart TV you can watch the videos through the Met Opera on Demand app. To access them without logging in, click “Browse and Preview” in the apps for connected TV and you will see some of the videos are marked “free preview” on the corner.

Dim the lights and enjoy it!

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