Netty Cracknell - Lockdown Walks: A Picture Story

Netty Cracknell is a pharmacist by background, but since a young age has always loved photography. She has published in scientific journals and co-authored chapters in textbooks but until now had not authored her own book in her passion, photography.

She purchased her first DSLR camera in 2014 and was a photographer of weddings, newborns and families during her spare time. However, in early 2017 she injured her knee and was unable to walk without crutches. She stopped taking photographs altogether and concentrated on her health, family and job. Then in March 2020 the country was put in a forced lockdown due to the pandemic. At this point with no sport, childrens clubs or even school runs to do and a nervous energy of what the future would bring she rekindled her love of photography and found landscapes, sunrises and swans to photograph during this unsettling time.

Copyright 2021 Netty Cracknell

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

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ISBN 978 1800468 269

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

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Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

To Aaron, Mara and Nicholas. Letting me forever take photographs on our family walks.

To all those people throughout the world who have passed on the kindness, before, during, and after the pandemic.
Please continue to do so forever more.

25 th April. 10:12am. f/1.8. 3secs. 4mm. ISO-50 (smartphone)

Dear Reader,

Every photograph in this book was taken within walking or cycling distance of my home in Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex. This was during the coronavirus lockdown period in England between 27 th March 2020 and 25 th May 2020.

The lockdown and the threat of coronavirus to the population changed the way we all lived overnight. It was a shock to most people and required a total readjustment to what I considered normal family living. Each person had to try and work out their own way to cope in the pandemic due to the disruption it caused to home, work, school, social lives and the subsequent emotional toil. My husband, children and my love of photography helped me immeasurably throughout this time and was essential to me for my physical and mental health.

This project unofficially started the first week that lockdown was announced, when I went for a bicycle ride early one morning. As I was cycling, I saw a picture-perfect landscape. I stopped, took my smartphone from my pocket and snapped. After a few photographs and a lovely ride, I returned home and dusted off my DSLR camera which had been pushed to the back of the cupboard. I have always loved taking photographs, even as a teenager, but due to hectic family life and an injury several years ago, I had lost this focus. Since the day of that bicycle ride, every time I have left the house for a walk or a bicycle ride during lockdown, I have taken my camera.

I hope this book will uplift your mood and may even bring out the occasional smile. It may also leave you feeling distressed seeing towns and roads empty during rush hour and peak periods. It was eerie and melancholic. The pandemic caused by this coronavirus was a sad and depressing time for many people not knowing what the future would bring, however, it also allowed families to spend quality time together and people to reconnect with friends and family using the various technologies available.