Per CDC’s recommendations, Covid-19 has it in vogue to run around looking like you’re about t0 rob a joint these days. That’s right. I was in Home Depot the other day, and while there, I saw a few people walk through the door wearing various types of face coverings, with caps, and some of them wearing sunglasses as well. My first instinct was to look for something to take cover behind with great haste. So, as a result of that experience – this visual came to my mind: A Covid-Crisis era self-portrait of me out running errands – looking like an Old-West train robber that’s traded in my six-shooters for a spray bottle of apple cider vinegar – as a warning spritz – and for those extra pesky people – a spray bottle of bleach. Stand back six feet, or get spritzed!

Edit: For any of you that are interested in photography or the creative process:
Below is the original uncropped version of this photo. I’m standing right by the stairs that lead up to my place, and was wanting to make the shot more environmental and have a very dramatic look. I got the dramatic look down, but didn’t realize until editing through them that I should have been standing much closer to the camera to take up more of the frame.

I would have spritzed my camera repeatedly if I had though. I still got it looking where I was pretty happy with it as you see here in this uncropped version last night – overall – but it still didn’t have the energy or action to it that I wanted. I realized when I cropped way into that it had more of the energy I wanted. The disappointing part is that I could have made this much better had I shot it with my 70-200 lens cropped in as I have done, or shot it as a studio type portrait.

Anyway, to somewhat represent the situation we’re all in, I gave the cropped version the dark, low-contrast look, due to it looking too clean when cropped in tight as. Not having the drama that the larger background area brought to the uncropped shot really killed it even though it has more energy cropped in tighter. So, hopefully the hazed dark look convey’s some of the feeling of uncertainty and sadness much of the world is dealing with right now.

Since I shot this for fun, and didn’t want to take the time to reshoot it, I just tried to find a balance between the two.