Escaping The Lockdown — Utah Photo Adventure 2020

After 2 1/2 months of being locked down in the quarantine, I took the opportunity to escape and go on my last scheduled photography tour of the year, with UTadventure. I literally hadn’t spent any time with anybody since arriving back home from Mexico in March, and all of my travels consisted of round trips to the two grocery stores I frequent every week or so. my mental state desperately need something to rejuvenate me. My Utah photo tour had originally been scheduled for May, but because of the global lockdowns it had been postponed for a month, assuming that everything would be opened up by then. Amazingly California, one of the first places in the U.S. to lock down looks like it’s going to be one of the last places to open up. Despite that, I undertook this interstate trip, not knowing how all the logistics would work.

I grabbed the local bus, which was still free, to get to BART. The bus was fairly empty, but not completely. On my ride on BART to the airport I had a new car all to myself. I wasn’t sure if all the cars were this way, but it had very few seats, and they were all hard plastic (easily cleanable), and had new video mapping boards. When I got to the airport, from the outside it looked almost vacant except for a line of a few taxis, and there was hardly anybody going through security. However, once I got on the concourse, there were lots of people. Boarding the plane was a bit more spread out than usual on Southwest, and the plane, though described as full, was booked so most of the center seats could be empty. I had plenty of space around me and I hunkered down with my mask on. Upon arrival I grabbed an Uber to my hotel. I felt reasonably safe from contamination along the trip and I frequently washed my hands.

The next afternoon at the first gathering of the tour, I discovered the only people wearing masks were me and another Californian. I guess our state has successfully coerced the population. Nobody else in our tour group wore masks, nor did most of the people in different venues along the way during the entire tour, with the exception of a few restaurant workers in our starting and ending sit-down restaurant. After the first evening’s ride in the car I also ditched my mask as there seemed little point with our group who was going to be together for a week. They all appeared to be healthy and had been practicing isolation prior to the tour like me. The dark cloud of the pandemic mostly faded into the background and the tour was a great break from being trapped at home.

After our kickoff lunch, the first shoot of the tour was at sunset on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Although this location seems very plain (but uniquely interesting) it is always a great location for photography. The white salt and the blue mountains and sky in the distance gives an almost studio like plainness set in nature. The salt flats are almost like a giant soft box. One of the photographers in our group had brought along a collection of fabrics, which always make for some interesting images particularly when there is some breeze. After the sun set and we had wrapped, the group grabbed some food at the Indian restaurant there before heading back, but I was working on a leftover breakfast burrito from our luncheon, which was so big it managed to get me through three meals.
[More pictures on my Photo Blog]