I took this Tuesday of last week at a local Publix. I photographed this because I’ve noticed that the shelves all around the store have holes in them where there is no stock, while other shelves had limited stock spread across the front and pulled forward. I don’t know why at this time a major grocery store like Publix would be having stock issues. The store shelves were like this in 2020, during the height of the first phase of the pandemic due to panic buying. This time, it doesn’t feel like panic buying has set back in again. It just feels like the system that supplies us our groceries is breaking down a bit. It tends to stir the apprehension.

Commentary on the Photo

This photo was taken with my iPhone 11 Pro’s wide angle lens. It came “straight out of the camera” with no post processing whatsoever. The barrel distortion, especially in the outer thirds, is horrible. I haven’t seen anything this bad since I first started with interchangeable lens film photography back in the mid-1970s. I know that distortion like this can be corrected in-camera because my Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras do it (as does the few Panasonic bodies I also own). Fortunately the regular and telephoto lenses produce much better photographs. But the wide angle? I use it only when it’s absolutely necessary, and I have no other choice because it’s all I have at the time. I’ve read too many times that the best camera is the one you have with you. Not if the camera you have with you is an iPhone 11 Pro using its wide angle lens.