The Lagoon Billboard

One of the first COVID-related billboards I noticed around town also happened to be one of the best. This production by Davis County's Lagoon amusement park captured the spirit of what I saw on so many signs and marquees throughout Northern Utah in the early weeks of the pandemic, and presented it with a clever marketing twist that managed to tie in to its own brand.

Day Shift

My collection of COVID signs revealed an assortment of sub-categories, including slogans promoting safety practices and others that assured patrons that their business would be open again soon. One of the most frequent themes honored local health workers, and is best captured by this image, taken as a young woman made her way past the screening tent into a medical complex in Bountiful.

Power Chord Lunch

For years, gatherings with my bandmates have turned into meals at local restaurants as often as they have become actual band practices. Shortly after the pandemic started, the quarantining members of Thunderlips convened one evening to try out the new Zoom teleconferencing platform the world was buzzing about. The original plan was to get our own takeout from local restaurants, but I opted for a more cost-efficient meal. The important factor was the company, anyway.

Team Spendlove vs. the Quarantine

Prompted by his wife Sarah, my longtime friend Steve suggested we get some photo practice by taking informal pictures of the families around our neighborhood. The Porch Portrait Project was a huge success, both as a collection of creative images and an opportunity for our friends and neighbors to interact a little more closely than we had in recent weeks.

Coronafashion and Flower

The first time I wore a mask in public I felt embarrassed, uncomfortable, and agitated. But in time, I got used to the practice, even if I still to this day feel like I'm getting ready to rob whatever institution I'm masking up for. As this portrait of my third niece demonstrates, however, masks became a creative fashion statement in the right circumstances.

Drum Solo #6,375,309 (self portrait)

With social distancing at a premium early on, band practices were replaced by not-so-quiet evenings alone, playing my drum kit along to a carefully culled playlist of favorite songs playing through my headphones. Eventually the band was able to get together, but our August 2021 reunion show was cut short after eight songs when a windstorm blew through Farmington's Heritage Park.

The Masked Reception

The telltale signs of the Coronapocalypse showed up wherever I took my camera after March of 2020, including this wedding reception for my good friend Scott's youngest daughter the following August. I've never thought of myself as a wedding photographer--I'm good for about one a year--but this event felt like it was documenting a different kind of history.

One Gust from Oblivion, November 2020

It took a little while, but eventually travel opened up enough to get me out on the road in November 2020. A 1,500 mile six-day loop brought me to Yosemite National Park for the first time, where I caught this adventurous soul demonstrating some creative social distancing at Taft Point.

Resilience on the Reservation, March 2021

The Navajo tribes were particularly hard-hit during the pandemic, and one silver lining of losing two trees in a September 2020 windstorm was donating some of the resulting firewood to a collection for the reservation. Early the next year I saw this striking mural on an abandoned building on my way to photograph Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico.

Sunset at the Refuge, May 2021

I've often felt encouraged by the indifference of nature, how in spite of my daily issues and concerns, wildlife just goes about its business. During the pandemic, the Farmington Bird Refuge became a go-to location for a pretty sunset, and this spring image overlooking a collection of heron nests is a particular favorite.

A Funko Pilgrimage

During the first year of the pandemic, I started collecting diecast replicas of cars featured in my favorite movies. In year two, I took a headfirst dive down another pop culture rabbit hole, and started collecting Funko Pops. To justify my new hobby, I decided to photograph as many Pops as possible in their natural habitat. This special edition set of R2-D2 and C-3PO was photographed at the Mesquite Sand Dunes in Death Valley, in the same place where George Lucas shot the corresponding scene from 1977's "Star Wars." If you look closely, you can see a tiny red ant just to the left of the plastic base.

Tiny Fingers, October 2020

Like many people, I've lost good friends over the course of the pandemic, even if not all of them were COVID-related. In 2020 my mission president passed away after an accident at home, and in 2021 my closest gym buddy called it quits after 90+ years of mortality. But the clearest evidence of the slogan "life goes on" arrived in October of 2020 with the birth of my fourth niece.