The BP Oil Spill is the reason you’ve seen this site and my twitter feed grind to a halt. I’m having to take out of town shoots and genres of shoots I would normally never take, but I’m in survival mode.

This BP Oil Spill is still dumping the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every few days. BP has run out of options to cap it now.  Only the relief well they are drilling which is scheduled to be complete in late August will stop the oil leak (possibly).  Currently it is still spewing 35,000 to 60,000 BARRELS of oil a day into the gulf of mexico.  The grand total is north of 150,000,000 gallons of oil so far in the last 60 days.

I can’t believe it has ‘only’ been 60 days.  It feels like 6 months to me.

Nearly all my clients are in real estate and most of them are in the beach vacation rental business.  They are getting decimated right now.  And in turn so am I for business.  So is my family which is in real estate rentals.  My parents rent an investment home they had bought years ago and the income they get from those rentals is a part of their retirement income.  Since the BP Spill disaster began in April they have  had 10 out of 13 weeks cancelled which started May 1st.  BP has paid them nothing thusfar. BP has a great PR campaign saying they are doing the right thing, but I’m hearing and seeing otherwise right here in Florida from family and clients I’ve shot for who have also submitted claims to BP.

This BP Oil Spill is like a hurricane that won’t go away.

Several weeks ago I naively said I’d have more time and would be updating this blog and on twitter more frequently, but that has not been the case at all.  No end in sight either I’m afraid.

In fact I just got a call minutes ago.  A new client wants to begin shooting a day sooner, so now I have to turn gear and pack to leave this afternoon when I wasn’t supposed to do so until tomorrow afternoon.  Time to kick it in high gear and make some more coffee.  I just got home (literally) from shooting a mansion at night (shot sunset, then night exterior, then interior shots through the night).  So I’m running on 3 hrs of sleep and not a day off in months and now gotta get ready to head out of town this afternoon for this multi-day shoot.

And I am thankful.

I’m grateful that I’ve been able to find work at all even though I’ve had to compromise health and to some extent, fair compensation. With so many out of work and hurting throughout the country and the world, I’m thankful and grateful to at least have gigs to shoot.

I’m not sure when this will all settle down or if at all, but wanted to update that the reviews of gear and applications (HDR apps) I had mentioned in past posts have been put on hold until time permits.