These three things, photography, printing and covid-19 pandemic, did not have any connection for me, not until the circuit breaker measures were put in place by the Singapore government from 7th of April to 4th of May 2020 (update 21 April 2020: the circuit breaker period has been extended until 1st of June 2020).
I am an outdoor family portrait photographer at masakecil.com. Many families prefer to stay home rather than going outdoor to have their portraits taken when the outbreak started and rightly so, but the circuit breaker measures makes it mandatory for us not in the essential services to stay home. I have been joking with my family and friends that my income curve is a lot better than the Covid-19’s new cases’ curve. It has plummeted to zero and will continue to be flattened at zero for the next few weeks or months.
Initially, I thought of applying for Exemption from Suspension of Activities since I thought I would be shooting with a medium to tele lens which will position me at least 4 meters away from my clients. But I don’t drive, so I would either be taking train, bus, taxi or grab to travel to the shooting location. There could still be a risk. Even if I get the exemption, there could be no family wanting to do their family portraits during this period. Hence I decided not to apply and will stay home except for running the essential activities for my family.
But outdoor family photography has been my bread and butter since I decided to quit my corporate job in 2017 to pursue my passion for photography. Although this is a hard situation, I will use this time to reflect and think of some online business ideas, ideally still within the domain of photography. One of them that came to my mind was offering a photo printing service.
I have two photo printers at home, both running on archival pigment inks. I have been using them to print my clients’ photos. They need to keep running regularly to avoid clogged printheads, so I thought of offering printing service for those who would like to print their photos. Your photos will be printed on special photo papers using archival pigments inks. These prints when stored and kept properly will last a long time before any fading may start. I will also customize your prints. Adding text, colour, border, layout, anything humanly possible.
So, since the last one week, I have been working on this website and I am proud to launch the printing section today.
Made with love on the sunny island of Singapore, I will print your photos.
Thank you!