Well, I finally went back to the office. Full fifteen months of working from home after that fateful Sunday night of mid-March of last year when the operating committee of my employer told all 250 thousand of us that we were to work from home effective immediately. Got a chance to see my old boss and friend. It was good to be back. I do not miss my hour-and-a-half commute each way to say the least, but I did miss going to the office to see people and I very much missed my old street photography lunch walk days.

Street photography is all about catching those candid fleeting moments of busy city life, day and night, whatever a place on earth it may be. Got the streets, got the time, got the place….
and no people. Ugh!

Here in the suburbs where I live, the stores are bustling with shoppers, half the people not wearing masks anymore as most of us have been fully vaccinated, yet when you go to the city, the picture is way different. All of us got so used to working remotely, that other than our employers pushing us to come back to our offices, there is very little incentive for many people to do so.

My train commuter parking lot used to be so busy that there was a 9-year waiting list to be able to get onto it. Mine was the only car who was there parked on Monday morning. For a moment, I panicked thinking I got my calendar wrong and went to the train on Sunday morning (yep, happened before!), but no, day was right, time was right, just very few or no people.

Until that improves, I will take up the challenge of learning how to do street shooting without people. If the Void Tokyo guys can, so must I. And I absolutely love their work. It’s going to be interesting.

More soon…