March was shaping up to be a good month for Brian Bowen Smith, a photographer in Los Angeles who has worked for Vogue and GQ. He had five big jobs lined up, including shoots for two movie posters. All five were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is no work whatsoever,” he said. “It’s kind of scary, actually.”

To fill his newly free hours, Mr. Bowen Smith drove to Joshua Tree National Park and trained his camera on the barren landscape. It was a long way from the work that usually pays his bills. In recent years, when he is not photographing Christian Bale, Miley Cyrus and Issa Rae for major magazines, Mr. Bowen Smith has shot ad campaigns for Marc Jacobs and other fashion companies.

Now he is telling himself that everything will be OK. “A lot of stuff can be done remotely,” he said. “And maybe that’s going to be our future. Everyone wears masks.”

As practitioners of a craft that requires long hours of getting up close and personal with their subjects, photographers have been affected by social distancing restrictions perhaps more than other media workers.