I thought I would write about opportunity today, because today I've been reminded of the wonderful opportunities that I've been afforded lately - even in the shadow of this COVID19 Corona Virus quarantine that we are all in together.  

The first opportunity is I'm enjoying spending time working from home, well I've worked from home for more than 10 years, but what I'm enjoying right now is that my entire family is working from home.  My son and daughter are both doing their distance learning and hanging out with their friends via screen technology.  My wife has moved her office home into what was once a 4th bedroom, turned playroom, and now turned into her office.  So it's great to have her home too!  Its kind of like working in a high rise office building, except in our case it's not a high-rise and our individual spaces are kind of like our own little office suites!  Anyway I'm enjoying having everyone home!

The next opportunity is I'm grateful to be on the Board of Directors for the Professional Photographers of America, and we were originally suppose to be meeting at the headquarters in Atlanta Georgia this week.  However, due to what's going on we are meeting virtually utilizing video conference calling.  Now it's not a great as being with everyone because its always so great to chat and learn from this amazing group of people, but being able to see everyones faces and hear their voices is still a great way to get the work of the association done.  It's also great to see how everyone is doing and see them in their homes being the amazing people they are!  The main thing is we are getting things done, and our Chairman this year even made sure all of us received a gift of some snacks from her!  Thanks Audrey!!  

The last opportunity that I'm grateful for this week was an opportunity to be a guest lecture for one of my good friends, Tim Meyer, and his introduction to black and white photography class that he teaches in Southern California.  Since they are all in the same situation as the rest of us, but still trying to manage a semester of learning via video conferencing - he invited me to be a guest lecturer last night!  It was fun to be able to see his students, ask each of them individually what might be one thing that I could help them better understand, and then go over some of my work.  I chose to use my iPad for this meeting and it worked great because there were tools to draw on my pictures to demonstrate some composition ideas, direction of light, and then switch it over to the camera on the iPad to give them a little tour of my studio space and where I process film.    Again not as great as being in person with a class, but yet again I couldn't give them a personalize tour of equipment and studio like I was able to last night.  I must have done an ok job, because Tim invited me to be a guest lecturer again this Thursday and I'm grateful for that upcoming opportunity!

It's a crazy time out there for sure, but there are still opportunities to be a part of and who knows where they will all lead one day once all of this is in the rear view mirror, but until then keep safe and healthy!

Cheers!

Pete