Smiles in shooter's porch photos brighten neighborhood during CV19 pandemic

It's been a challenge for photography enthusiasts -- both amateurs and professionals -- to indulge their hobby or livelihood during this COVID-19 pandemic and state-imposed lock-downs.

Kelley Jordan Schuyler, a professional photographer in Indianapolis, found a way to deal with it ... and help make things a little better for others. She recently went onto the Facebook page of my old neighborhood, Garfield Park-South, to pitch an idea to help bring some smiles and cheer in the neighborhood to help distract from the CV19 gloom and doom: She offered to walk through the neighborhood on a near-future evening to take portraits of residents with their families and/or fur buddies on their porches -- and, most important -- a safe distance separating photographer and subject in observance of the community social distancing admonition.

Kelley is a relatively new resident of the neighborhood. I thought hers was a brilliant idea, and the neighborhood responded immediately and positively, so she did a walk-through on May 3. Thursday morning, she posted some of the photos on the Facebook page and offered to do additional portraits for anyone still interested.

Kelley pitched her idea by characterizing the portraits as "porch photos," but in most instances, the subjects -- as you can see from some of the samples in this post -- were not under cover of the porch. They are seated on steps of or to the porch. I certainly understand that; a shooter trying to photograph anyone standing or seated on a porch would have to get close up, which would compromise needed social distancing space in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kelley no doubt chose early evening for her shoot appointments to allow for almost uniform lighting -- shade. She started at 6 p.m., which in Indianapolis meant the the sun was low in the sky -- which in turn means it was behind buildings, thereby preventing any chance of throwing unwanted white key light on people's faces if they were facing the western sky.

I contacted Kelley to ask if she would welcome a little splash about the project on this blog, and she agreed enthusiastically.

"I'm delighted by the positive response our neighbors have had to this idea," she said. "I couldn't tell if people would be skeptical about it, but it looks like I have a lot more work cut out for me -- there's a lot more interest!" 

With her permission, I sprinkled this post with a few shots from her first wave of results, posted at the Facebook site Thursday. I found them uplifting. I didn't want to steal all of her thunder, though. If you'd like to see the full gallery of first-round of porch photos at her  site, just follow the link I dropped into this sentence.