Social Distance Window Series

My window series!

I wanted to document social distancing/ quarantine and how families were handling it. My idea was to shoot through Windows into their homes and shoot real life stories. I was imagining shooting the physical aspect of it, such as the family hanging out watching TV, the chaos of it such as tantrum throwing, or the emotional aspect of it all. I am mainly a fashion photographer but have always loved documenting history. When I first picked up a camera at 8 yrs old, I just wanted to document everything. I have always loved fashion as well but my first love was just to document the world!

I wanted these to be as real as possible with barely any editing and just show what's happening in the world lately!

- I was nervous for this series. I had about 8 people's places to go to and most of them I have never even met before so it was definitely an awkward feeling to do this shoot. My thoughts were, how are we going to communicate since we can't really get close to each other and i just wanted to shoot through some windows. Also when I was looking online, there were pretty much no photos of exactly what I wanted to do - which was shoot a window showing what family members were doing inside their homes for the whole social distancing/ quarantine thing going on and to keep it as real as possible. I QUICKLY realized duh Tawny, reflections are going to make this idea pretty darn hard lol. But i wanted to set off and try and accomplish my goals anyways! The first house i went to had a great window and glass door with 2 cute 11 month old twins at the glass door just waiting for me to shoot them hehe sooo cute! Luckily, they were so cute and i just wanted to capture that so alot of my worries went away! We were able to just talk right through the closed door and windows so communication was not that big of an issue. Of course my biggest issue was REFLECTIONS. It was definitely hard and there was no way i was going to be shooting into the home with all the reflections going on and the bright outside and darker inside. A polarizer filter helped a lot with reflections but not nearly as much as I needed it to but you DEFINITELY need to have a polarizer filter to shoot windows! So I was just shooting the cute littles at the door for a bit. the boy twin was loving it. He was curious about what was going on and loved watching cars go by outside. The girl twin was a bit more suspicious lol and you can definitely see that in my photos lol. She was wanting to know what the heck im doing at her house and was not so sure about it lol. We tried to shoot the mom sitting down reading them a story but it was not working out so much with the reflections so i realized most of my photos for the day are going to have to be close up to the window. I shot for about 10 to 15 minutes and said our goodbyes.

Off to house #2....

I was on my way to house # 2 but could not get ahold of that person. By the time I got to her place she had texted me that she slept in. It was kind of a disappointment since we drove all the way out to Provo and I was unable to shoot her but oh well, onto house #3!

Home #3 was so fun! Jessica Fox was such a hoot! We kind of played this one up a bit on how her days are going with the kids being home due to the coronavirus. She was so funny with her wine poses lol! Later on, she threw on some face mask stuff and had toys and cereal in her hair lol. (A typical house mom day currently and I am sure other moms are feeling this way as well haha) Another reality we shot was her bills piling up on her table and her thinking about how she is going to be paying for all of these. Something pretty much everyone in the entire world is having to deal with right now. Thank you Jessica for letting me shoot your reality during these crazy times in life.

My next stop was at Meleanes place! I don't come from a big family at all but if I had one THIS is the type of family I would want! Her entire family is very close. I think they pretty much do everything together lol. I would say one of the most loving and beautiful families I know! However, today was just a shoot with one of her sisters and her. I love these photos. It really shows the sister dynamic and how this social distancing is not all bad when you have family around! This is such a good time to be with the fam and just enjoy them. Communication for this shoot was harder. They must have some serious noise canceling windows installed, because we could not hear each other through them. I called her and she put her phone down and on loud speaker so we could communicate. Whatever works right?! haha! I also learned that you CAN use a reflector to light up the subjects in the window as long as you are shooting in the same direction you are reflecting the light. I figured it would add to the flare issue but it didn't and worked perfectly!

Next House...

Tip: Don't park your car right in front of the extremely glarey windows you plan on shooting lol! Michael Sauerwein had to move his car twice for me to get it out of the photos.

This was the hardest house to shoot. I could not see anything through these windows at all and it was the most reflective. I have never met this family before. The father of the family was the one that was willing to let me come over to shoot. He is a fellow photographer I know through instagram. However, I'm not too sure the family was into it though lol. Once I found my angle we shot for about one minute and they were off! lol but there was no need to keep them any longer. I like the shot I got. There is definitely a story there in all of their eyes. Plus I loved the banner that they had up in their window! We will all get through this together!!!

A couple other homes had to cancel so the next house was my last house for the day.

I am glad I got out of my comfort zone to shoot something I am not used to shooting. Windows are tough guys! Even with polarizing filters. I could have went and shot at night but the whole point of this series was to see what people were up to during the day while going through these crazy times in life! It was fun shooting all the families and Im thinking about doing another day like this so let me know if you are interested in me swinging by!

This was suuuch a fun family!

Tea Party time! Even with daddy!! Gotta love a dad that can get down and do a tea party! The windows here were casting a very strange glare but we were able to open them and I just shot through the windows!

I know that so much pain and suffering has come from this virus but i just cant help getting such a fuzzy warm feeling with all the extra love and support I am seeing throughout this mess! Just watching families get to spend more time together makes me soo happy!

#quarantine #socialdistance #socialdistancephotoshoot #families #TawnyHortonPhotography #windowseries #quarantinephotoshoot #socialdistancephotographer