In my 89th year, my husband and I travelled upstate from our apartment in New York City to a home in Copake, New York, a town lying at the foothills of the Taghkanic mountains. There we spent the year of COVID 19 under the protective watchfulness of my son and his family. For entertainment, our car outings explored the countryside of silos and weathered barns, cornfields and border fencings, horse farms and wandering deer, and lakes with swimming geese. 

From the passenger window of the car, I used  an infrared converted camera, a choice related to this new existence.  No horns, sirens, or chattering voices rising from cityscapes. No lobbies, elevators, or glaring street lights. The silence was golden.The mountains in view changed color and form from dawn to dusk and seasonally. Curving roads, many steep and hilly, with scant traffic, furnished thrilling rides. Houses spaced widely apart were tucked into woods. How could I capture and process this new sense of otherworldliness?

Raw infrared images may be processed in several ways in Lightroom and Photoshop. I had unlimited time and the thirsty inclination to experiment and to create a vision of the surreal experience of my isolation in vacant surroundings, peopled only with my immediate family.

I tried a variety of techniques: color tinting some images in shades of green and magenta; in others, deepening the blue and tan shades that typify infrared photos with a corrected white balance. For others, I chose sepia tones. Had it not been for Covid, it is unlikely that I would have practiced so assiduously. in my case, the times shaped my mindset, effort, and output.

August by pondOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA deep purple falls...OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Snow tracksOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Velvet RoadwayOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Wide horse farmOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA AbandonedOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA GeeseOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA