I got the unique opportunity in May and June to help with dog transports while the country was on lock down.

10 mastiffs across the country, from CA to TN and then a whole menegarie from MD back to MD going in one big crazy loop down and up and around the country.

I wanted to post this big huge long story about the whole thing, but as the country shuts back down and all our shows cancel out or postpone through June 2021… Yeah not feeling in a writing mood, so instead, a bunch of photos from all over. I’ll try and update captions and descriptions, but that may take a while.

While we wait on the final episodes of 2020, we look forward to what 2021 will hold.

So far this means, few events or those that were scheduled have pushed back to pack our fall schedule and possibly creating multiple conflicts that will prevent us attending all of them and an empty schedule through June 2021, and a closed down studio because we don’t have enough space to have more than 1 person in the studio, per city regulations, we are going to have fun shooting in the chilly fall till we can reopen things up…

Add another show cancellation to the 2020 season… This was one of our consistently productive shows too, a small specialty in Pennsylvania with a group of Cavalier owners that is usually our way to get through a relatively slow summer (kind of hard to photograph dogs outdoors in the summer with scorching heat, and relatively unpredictable MD afternoon storm potentials) which is still looking to be semi productive if we can stop having these shows cancelling due to this Covid 19 shit. More importantly it’s fun to be able to see clients who are nice, and clients who have become more like family than just friends.

The July local show we vend at cancelled a few weeks ago, leaving us with nothing through the end of July when we may or may not get to go to Vermont for an Agility show with another group that is becoming like family.

It’s really hard for a business to stay open when our labs are partially closed down to be able to sell art prints even, we can’t get to see clients in studio or on location (and to those photographers breaking the stay at home and out still photographing, please stop), and we can’t even really set any up because most of our clients aren’t sure when their next paycheck is coming in to be able to budget for a shoot.

But aren’t there small business grants and loans? Yes. The Federal ones are already taken up, because of large businesses using loopholes to count locations with less than 500 employees at that location as a “small” business, not to mention some were somehow able to file before the loans opened for PPP. The federal loans also changed many rules in what was supposed to be able to be given after many were already applying or had applied for other of their small business loans, and many of them don’t count if you are a self employed sole proprietorship. Luckily Howard County Arts Council has a small grant to help artists who work in a gig based business to be able to get a little bit of help and were able to help us out, but it’s less than 65/month stretched between March, April, May and June’s bills :-(.

We hope that this doesn’t go much longer and someone realizes that maybe we should let things happen soon, and let people make their own decisions to stay home if they don’t want to go out. We will take a show making 1/3 of our averages, over not being able to do anything at all and bringing in 0 with bills piling up quickly…

April 7th, 2020 came in with forecasts of evening showers. We were hoping for a slight break or two, and we luckily got a great evening with a lot of broken clouds when we arrived so the pictures flowed.

Which do you like more?

So, in a gig based profession like we are in, a pandemic event like what is going on right now where events are getting cancelled and now non essential businesses are getting told they have to close, a lot of small business owners are going to be struggling. We are far from excluded from this, and unfortunately Maryland has mandated that all non essential business close for the foreseeable future…

We will still be able to sell images online, arrange portrait sessions, book shows and events (which hopefully isn’t going to get cancelled either) until we are able to do shoots again. We have online giftcards available through our Square account and you can order them through this link if you’d like to pick one up.

Right now the only thing that’s really clear for B.S. Photography is that we can’t shoot. And with no events, the mid term future of B.S. Photography is up in the air. If June shows start cancelling, and especially if July and August shows cancel, we won’t be able to attend most of our fall commitments, so lets hope this blows through quickly and we can get to these shows and doing portrait sessions.

I was always taught the answer is always no if you don’t ask. Well I did ask and V-No Wine Bar didn’t say no when I asked if I could come have a small display for their Must Love Dogs… and Wine event on Tuesday.

Happy Dog Baltimore, one of Baltimore’s premier dog walking services, teamed up with V-No Bar and Shop, and Global Wines Maryland to combine a great pairing of pups and international wines for this inaugural event.

It was a great night all around. Feel free to come stop down to V-No if you are ever in the Fells Point neighborhood, and enjoy a glass while getting to enjoy a beautifully different view of the Baltimore Harbor, and/or pick up a bottle for later.

June’s first Yappy Hour had us out of the area for the Cavaliers of the Northeast, so we are thankful for the 2nd of the month Yappy Hours.

The Wine Bin in Ellicott City has decided to do 2 Yappy Hours a month May-September (possibly October as well) this year. So even though we missed the first one in May because we were in Richmond for Hedgiecon, we still get to see all of our friends at The Wine Bin.

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Old Town Ellicott City is back up and going after May 27th’s devastating floods, sort of. The top end of Frederick Road has had repairs, the sidewalks are in, enough for people to use, and some business were damaged less than others and were able to repair themselves better than others, but The Wine Bin was back up and running as best it can for what roads were open.

Because The Wine Bin wanted to help more local businesses, there were a couple Main Street businesses there selling T-Shirts, Dog Bandanas, and more at this Yappy Hour. Almost so many that there wasn’t room for us, but we made sure there was room for us :-).

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The place was packed too, which made us feel better, and I got to see many of my favorite regulars and some of them were very happy to see me, despite the hot temps at the start of the event.

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One of the other things we got to see was the #ECStrong bandanas that one of the vendors was selling and many people bought them. It was awesome to see.

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