since i’m pretty bad at updating this blog, you can keep up with my photos in a more timely environment at flickr.com/haleyluna

in not-so-digital news, my little polaroid-a-day project, polamour, has really grown! after she popped up on a few popular blogs, i decided to get around to creating an actual design for the site, which i’d previously thrown together in an hour or so. i’m really enjoying this one and just received my first test prints.

you can check out polamour at polamour.com. from there you can add the facebook page, follow the tumblr, etc.

my time as of late has been mostly concentrated on work and projects. it means a lot of long nights and not much social time, but i think it will all pay off in the end. there also might be a new house/studio to post about soon, but i have to play it cool until closing b/c my mind is perpetually filled with everything that can go wrong. in the meantime, you can watch me ramble in mini form at twitter.com/haleyluna. :)

in other news…i’ve been toying with the idea of creating another, more personal blog with snapshots from life and some occasional rambling. i’m completely hung up on the name, though! it’ll come to me eventually, i’m sure.

i hope you’re all doing great out there!

there are more of each series here: flickr.com/haleyluna

after my 5d had been gone about a week with no update, i called canon repair to pester them. it turns out that the person who originally took my repair order didn’t transfer my contact info that they’d gathered on the phone, so my poor camera body was just sitting there for days. the person i ended up speaking with was very apologetic for the mistake and as friendly as i could hope for. she expedited my repair, and i received my 5d back on my birthday. she’s got a whole new shutter assembly, new doors and dials, and is basically a brand new camera again. and they didn’t charge me a dime. canon, i love you.

despite my standard practice of asking people to not buy birthday presents for me, the oh-so-bearded as of late mr youngblood snagged a perfect ricohflex tlr with all of the original filters and cases for me as a gift. she’s a bit sticky, so i intend to clean the aperture blades when i get a spare hour or so. mom, of course, snuck in a bunch of neat things and then picked up the tab on my newest pair of boots. i find myself needing new boots far less now that i’m off the ranch and in the city, but darn if i don’t want them just as often. and, i like to think i get a pass b/c i still work in the horse industry. like, you must retain “this much” cowgirl to aquire new digs. something like that

my birthday also brought many gifts via post that i picked up for myself, including a new diana, a handful of diana lenses, two flashes, an instant back, and a crate of fuji instax instant film. i’m going to need another china cabinet soon. or house.

the instax has been quite a pain to work with, but i’m starting to get it down. protip: never start playing with instant film unless you’re comfortable with burning through many ruined exposures. i learned this much earlier in life, so it doesn’t stress me out too much now, but it’s still frustrating.

speaking on instant film, i’m on day twenty-two of my polaroid-a-day project, polamour. for those of you who don’t talk to me on a regular basis (and, therefore, aren’t in the know b/c i’m terrible at keeping you updated via blogs), i’m a polaroid nut. i grew up in the time of polaroid cameras, and i can’t seem to remember a time when we didn’t have one.

when polaroid announced the fall of time zero film, i had a moment of silence for a film i’d never gotten to know past a casual hello when we’d bump into each other. when it was 80 series’ turn, i started to panic. i was shooting 87, 88, and my good friend 84 with my custom holgaroid. when word came, straight from polaroid’s website, that they were ceasing production of all instant films, i lived in denial for a few weeks and wouldn’t even talk to people about it when they’d bring it up. the panic started to creep back in, and that began to sink into stockpiling.

did i mention that i still buy expired polaroid now, even though i have boxes at home? i’m out of my mind. but, see, i get this, so it can’t be that bad. right? moving on.

this project came about by finally making a decision to start using my film before it’s too long expired or the battery packs die. if you’re not already aware, there is a group called the impossible project, and they are bringing back some polaroid this year. i’m, of course, happy with this, but it’s a reserved glee. i don’t want to get my hopes up too high and suffer disappointment if/when i have to go through the loss again.

i have two lovely sx-70s: an original chrome and a white model 2. i’ve converted both of them for 600 film and stripped and recovered the model 2 in green. she’s a beauty. i’ve had to do pick arm adjustments on both, and i’ve already run into two other issues that i’ve managed to correct. my hope is that both of my friends make it through the year, as i’m certain that this is the most demanding activity they’ve ever been a part of.

i’m sure you’ll hear much more about polamour and polaroid in general here in the future, so i’ll stop rambling for now. you can follow polamour at polamour.com or by adding the project on facebook or flickr.

shutter lived a colorful, exciting life. he chased dragonflies, danced through wildflowers, hiked through the wilderness, and spent many cool nights watching the stars. always a brave soul, shutter saw regular attacks by jumping spiders but always emerged unscathed. he became a regular pro at free falling and even tried his luck at swimming once.

shutter’s last moment in life occurred tuesday, november 24th, while working at the all-american rejects / taking back sunday concert. it was precisely how he wanted to go, doing something he loved.

as a close companion for years, i feel confident that shutter would want us to celebrate his adventurous time on earth rather than mourn his sudden passing. with that in mind, i’m offering a 15% discount on all pendants until the end of the year. to use the discount, enter “shutter” in the coupon field while checking out.

with ending comes beginning. with death comes life. the friendly people at canon repair are making the arrangements, and we will be anxiously awaiting the safe arrival of shutter the second, who will hopefully live up to the legend of shutter the first, marquis of palace canon 5d.

you can see some in person at studio 164 in the paseo arts district, at the market’s featured artist area during december’s first friday in the paseo, or at deluxe on december 12th at the oklahoma city state fair park. i’ll have a full list of locations and events soon! :)

shop now: store.haleyluna.com

the gazette wrote a nice article about me and some other folks trying to get pet chickens legalized in oklahoma city. it’s nice to see more people starting to speak up! it’s strange to think we’ve been doing this for over two years. go chickies!

mom bought a house in ski island, a cute little private lake community in north okc, a few months ago. just as she’s getting all settled in, she received notification that the sparrow park house she bought at the sheriff’s auction two years ago is finally available. it’s really cute and six houses away from mine! i can’t wait to see it and start getting it ready for someone to move into.

i also recovered one of my polaroid sx-70s — she’s insanely adorable in white and green — and have started to wade through around fifty boxes of polaroid film. i panicked and stockpiled, what can i say? i modified both of my sx-70s to shoot 600 for my new project. i was initially planning to shoot and post one polaroid a day, with a limited number of prints of each, but it’s terribly easy to miss a day, so i might have to rethink. or try harder. i’d love to hear your opinions! either way, my new scanner is in the post and should be here this week. until then, here’s an iphone preview.

here are some of the other things i’ve been doing lately:

catching flowers inside rainbows…

enjoying beat up $20 lenses from mary’s ole time swap meet…

making new friends…

chasing leonid meteors…

and enjoying the foggy mornings…

i almost forgot! here’s another one of my favorite songs for you:

i’ve been pretty swamped at work and at home lately. our board meeting was all day saturday and half of sunday, so i didn’t get much of a weekend for myself. yes, horse organizations have board meetings. just think cowboy boots instead of business suits. our board and committee members fly or conference in from all over every few months to discuss and/or make decisions on important things within the association, which governs the whole world for this particular sport. it takes a little bit out of me, and work weekends can get frustrating at times, but it’s neat to be a part of something so big.

finding time to shoot has been difficult lately, but i’m making a concentrated effort to carry one of my small camera bags with me on a regular basis so i can get back into the habit of sneaking a snap in here and there. i haven’t carried my camera every day since i moved into town from the ranch; i’ve let myself become lazy b/c now it’s just a short drive or bike ride back to my house.

in garden news, i planted orange mums in between my tomato plants to make it less obvious that i’m using my front yard to grow food. i’m trying my best to be a city girl, but a useless patch of well manicured grass being preferable to veggies and sweet banty chickens makes little sense to me. sadly, both the city of okc and historical preservation disagree. they should appreciate, however, that my red cannas are probably 7′ tall, despite the fact that i’ve never taken care of them and constantly shove them around to get better shots of the little critters that enjoy living on them.

i might, depending on how i’m feeling, start posting some of my very favorite songs to share with you. today it’s cocobelle by the moonbabies, which i just happened to be listening to while i was making this post.

wrong.

one of my best friends, joshua, was having his birthday party at the copa. obviously, i couldn’t miss it. i was worried i wouldn’t be able to stay up late enough if i didn’t sleep first and decided that i could pull off a quick 2-3 hour nap, go to the copa until 2am, then head out to find a prime meteor watching spot.

nope.

i tried, in absolute vain, to fall asleep at 7pm. i couldn’t drift off, so i turned on a movie. i got too interested in the movie, so i turned the sound down. then i turned it on again. i got up and walked around. then i started another movie. this cycle went on until i finally fell asleep around 11pm.

i pulled myself out of bed around midnight. and, let me tell you, sleeping seemed far more interesting than meteors at that point. we loaded up, hit the copa until just after 2am, then headed out northeast of okc until there were no signs of house or street lights. we set up in an empty field and watched dozens of meteors try to turn into meteorites until just after 3am, when the cloud covering the moon started to dissipate. the moonlight was far too bright to catch anything after that, so we packed it up for home.

oddly enough, i’m not sleepy at all today. and, in case i need to point this out, i was absolutely thrilled to get the few shots i did.

best-laid plans, indeed.

my friend, jeremy, called minutes into our vegetable preparation and asked if my camera had returned. see, jeremy has a very fancy storm chasing van. he has put much time and love into it; it is to him as my camera is to me. i’d been unable to go on recent adventures, so i decided to table my dream time for the tiny chance of seeing a tornado, grabbed my camera and mr youngblood, and met jer in front of my house.

i spent the next few hours learning about storms, clouds, and other things up above while shooting out of the passenger window as we traveled 75-80mph through dark skies and rain. as such, these are not the best photos, but there was no time to stop and set up. i hope you will enjoy them, anyway.

alas, the tornado warnings lifted, the sun went down, and we started the 90 mile “drive of shame” back to okc:

maybe next time!

thanks to mr youngblood’s tireless help, the store is finished. i also put up an about page and a contact page of sorts, but i haven’t added the navigation to the blog yet. i’d like to get a few items set up before i make it public rather than rendering the entire addition moot with an empty store. i plan to have it up sometime this weekend, but you know how that goes…

oh! in submission to your suggestions (or demands, depending on who it came from), i’ve set the thumbnails to enlarge when clicked so you no longer have to click the “read more” link to see the full photos. you still can, of course, and that’s where you have to go to comment, but this will make it easier to look around.