Sheltering

Everything is weird. In these strange times, I hope you’re holding up, staying healthy, coping, taking care of your loved ones, and trashing every single email that opens with any of the phrases above.

I have been mostly locked up in my apartment, occassionally going up on our rooftop, and taking my camera out almost every time I leave the building. At the top of my list of dumb purchases was a 2x extender for my camera, which effectively turns my zoom lens into a 140-400mm f8.0. It’s pretty ridiculous.

A lot of our neighbors have been making use of their roofs. I have always thought it’s odd that San Francisco doesn’t have a bigger roof culture.

I am pretty sure these two don’t have jobs. Every few days we can see them from our window, soaking in the sun in the afternoons regardless of the temperature. It felt creepy to point a zoom lens at them.

It is assuredly not cool, but that shouldn’t stop us.

I hadn’t even noticed the drawing while taking the photo.

Car traffic is way down, but it’s still odd to see people walk in the middle of the street for blocks at a time. I think more streets should be closed to car traffic, but that’s not a corona related thought.

These pieces by Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera started popping up all over the Mission soon after the shelter in place order started. Their simplicity puts a bittersweet smile on my face whenever I see them. As the first piece in the collection points out, the city feels weird without its bustling bars and coffee shops and restaurants, and more importantly without its people.

The now all too familiar sign.

Like most people, I have been facetiming and zooming with friends and family a lot more than usual. It is unfortunate that it takes a destabilizing global pandemic to remind us to make time for people who are close to us.

I really hope some good indie art comes out of all of this. One can only hope this person was on their way to film exactly that.

The city is unsettlingly quiet, and on clear days you can see perfectly well to the other side of the Bay.

A pink moonrise.

A couple of weekends ago, Hannah talked me into going downtown to be freaked out by how empty it’d be. There were only a few people walking around Union Square.

We went towards the Ferry Building, and seeing the few desolate blocks of Market Street in between was eerie.

Not sure how much it helps to have 2/5 people in your family wear masks, but you do you.

Is that… the Tiger King?

I composed, and I waited.

Who’d think I’d go there voluntarily.

A downside of having a nice rooftop on a big building is that we’re not the only neighbors spending time up there in order to avoid insanity. The upside is that we’re getting to know each other a bit better, and people have been generally very nice and careful with the distancing. Kostas is one of the few who I used to run into up there before the craziness started.

Come on dog, that’s not how you’re supposed to wear your mask.

Also not how you’re supposed to do the mask thing.

This is one of my favorite portraits in a while.

Seeing friends, and socially distancing outside…

…makes it feel like…

… things might eventually feel normal again.

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