SAN ANTONIO – As families have been stuck at home in the Alamo City due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one woman put her photography hobby to good use.
Caitlin Cox works for a non-profit, but when her hours got cut back she had more time on her hands to further her photography hobby. She says she didn’t realize what it would turn into.
“I thought it was just such a cool concept,” Cox said. “While everyone is home, not leaving their houses what a cool idea just to capture what everyone is doing stuck with their families."
She put out a note on her Hollywood Park NextDoor app asking if any of her neighbors wanted porch photos. The response was overwhelming. She says she only charges $15-$20 because it’s more about the experience.
“I didn’t do it to make money off of it,” Cox said. “I put a lot of time and energy into it but more because it’s something that is exciting to me.”
She said just being able to get out of her house and interact with people has been helping her stay sane. She believes it’s also therapeutic for the families she photographs.
“You get to see a sense of relief when I pull up. People were able to come outside and just interact with another person. Maybe they hadn’t left the house or they had been at home with their kids or spouse with anything but zoom calls or phone calls before that,” she said.
Her favorite photographs have been the candid ones. She said one of her favorite sessions was watching a family attempting to take a photo involving Fiesta confetti with small children.
“You could tell they were all getting on each other’s nerves,” she said. “The kids were just dumping confetti over their parents heads. Once they thought the camera was off and I kept capturing pictures that’s when the real chaos started to happen.”
Cox said she hopes the families can share these photos years later to remind themselves what they went through and what we can overcome.
“There are funny moments and there are candid moments and they are also really special because it will be something that is in the history books and they’ll have a way to remember it.”