Bye bye May!

I can't believe that tomorrow is already the last day of May. I don't know where the time goes, seriously. No matter what's going on, it just flies by. So cliche, I know, but so true!

May was mostly filled with good things around here. The weather has been super nice and so early in the month, I started working on the garden a lot.

I used to garden rather recklessly, just buying whatever caught my fancy. But these days, I usually have a plan. It's so dry here and we have don't have the best soil so now it's all about finding things that work well in such conditions and planting a lot of perennials that hopefully will return each year. Last year was one of my worst gardening years ever, but so far things are looking good this year. Today I planted a billion seeds and except for some starter zinnia plants and dahlias for some of my pots, I am done planting. Fingers crossed that everything takes and does well!

The first weekend in May, Will played a few rock shows with some friends. Both nights were fun, although the second night was more enjoyable for me because the show started much earlier. So I actually got a little gussied up.

It was fun and the music sounded great at the venue. (Although apparently the venue didn't like it so much as they were told they would not be invited back. Go figure.)

That same weekend, I did a little photo shoot for Words To Shoot By.

The word was "chair" and I was quite pleased with the results. It was a lot of fun shooting double exposures as well! [All images were shot with a Polaroid Automatic 250 camera and expired Polaroid 690 film.]

The Impossible Project does this really great interview series called "8 Exposures." I was invited to participate in the series and man, I can't even tell you how excited and honored I am to have been included in it. It really made my day. For a lot of days in a row!



I am not super confident about putting myself out there so of course I agonized over each and every answer. I wanted to be true to myself without sounding like a total dork. And I had numerous friends proofread it for me. In the end, I felt good about it. It doesn't sound sophisticated and arty, but I guess that's not really who I am. I think it mostly sounds like me. I love instant film and I get excited about all the new films and cats and flowers and oceans and birds. And road trips.

Anyway, the interview came out on May 7th and you can find it here.

May also brings our anniversary, this year was our 8th! Eight years! Crazy. We both had to work all day and the weather was windy and cold so our original dinner plans didn't work out. Instead we had giant burgers at Rio Chama.

One anniversary tradition is getting dressed up and taking photos before we go out. This year, we just couldn't do it. Will didn't get home until 7:00 and by then, all we wanted to do was go out and get some food. So no dressing up and no photo shoot. When we got home, I did manage to take one shot of us.

We were both exhausted so it's not the best photo, but hey, we're happy! [Taken with a Polaroid Spectra camera + Polaroid Softtone film.] We still hope to get dressed up and go out at some point this summer.

And then...Meesh moved to Brooklyn! With his mama, of course. His mama was one of our tenants, and one of the best tenants we've had. And Meesh, well, I fell in love with Meesh. There were occasional skirmishes with our cats, but for the most part, they all got along. Meesh is so furry and sweet and he loved to watch us through our big front window. (Okay, so that was creepy sometimes.) I am happy for the adventures ahead for his mama, but very sad to see Meesh go. I still miss him.

But hey, we got a new table!

It's bigger than our other one (which now lives in the laundry room) so we could actually have a dinner party and seat 8 people comfortably. Now if only we had 6 friends to invite over for dinner, haha!



Will celebrated his 36th birthday on May 12th. We had a few folks over for a cook out and had a blast. I love this shot of Will and Rocky. Rocky LOVES to hang out when Will grills so it's a familiar sight. [Photo taken with a Polaroid SLR 680 SE + PX680 Gold Frame film from The Impossible Project.]

All the while, I kept gardening, running, running A LOT actually, knitting and working at the gallery some.

So of course I had to take a picture of my feet on some of the pretty rugs there.

And then came my sister's wedding and my youngest niece's high school graduation. Will and I went up to Albuquerque for the weekend and it was so much fun. All three of my nieces were home which was quite a treat. We don't get to see all of them at once that often anymore. And it's probably even going to be less as time goes on and they can't make it home as often. They are just the most wonderful girls ever. I love them so much.





My sister's wedding took place about 10 minutes before my niece's graduation party! My dad walked her up the pathway in the backyard, they exchanged their vows in front of the judge and that was that! I think it was actually a few minutes longer than our wedding at City Hall in Manhattan!

We're really happy for her and her husband, Mike. They seem to be just perfect for each other.

The next day we went to my niece's graduation ceremony. Only something like 6 more graduations to go! Good grief are those ceremonies long and boring. Sorry, but it's true. I spent most of the time giggling with my other nieces and playing Scramble with Friends. Yeah, I know, I should act like an adult. Haha!

Somehow I managed to lose my sunglasses at the ceremony. Perhaps my punishment for not paying attention to all the speeches. I don't know, but I rarely lose anything and it drives me crazy when I do. We went back to our seats and searched for them, but nothing. And I called the next day and nothing. I am actually more bummed about losing my sunglasses case than the glasses themselves. It's one that I got when I was in Spain in 2001 and it had a lot of sentimental value. Oh well. At least I didn't lose my phone. Or my wallet.

And now I have new sunglasses.

This past week has been more running, gardening, knitting, and playing around with this fun app, InstaCRT.

Oh, and Ben shaved his head!

I'm sure there are a million more things that I could share, but I think that's enough, yes? Yes! I still hope to get back to regular blogging because I do miss it. It's just so easy to get caught up in daily life...and while it does include being on the computer, it doesn't always include taking the time to blog.

All in all, things are good. There are things that could be better, but there always are, right? And I am working on some of them and crossing my fingers on others. And we're always dreaming of places that we'd rather be, but we're here and we're going to make the most of it.

Here's to a happy June!!

What's been going on.

Live music, listening to the very old school radio that I nicked from my dad's giveaway pile, sleepy kitties, fresh cut flowers, spring poppies, bicycle rides, gardening, new cactus for my indoor collection, fruity cocktails in the backyard, margaritas at Maria's, working at the gallery and, of course, some dinners at Second Street Brewery.

Mailboxes.

I love the bright yellow of the forsythia that blooms here in early spring. I especially love it when it's next to the bright blues that you can find throughout Santa Fe. It's such a lovely combination of color.



It's the small things, you know?

A list.

I've been missing this little space of mine. I want to find my way back to blogging regularly, but I don't even know where to begin. I never intended to take a break; it just sort of happened. And while there is plenty going on in my head, I feel like I don't actually have much to say.

So, here's a random list. Just because.

- Shopping at Trader Joe's makes me crazy, but I've started going there about once a week to buy fresh cut flowers, Munster cheese and tomatoes. I love having flowers in the kitchen and they are so much cheaper at TJ's than at Whole Foods.

- The fresh cut flowers have led to a lot of flower photos. A LOT. Not that this is anything new, but there for awhile I was able to resist the urge. But then the ranunculus arrived and the Gerber daisies and I went a little crazy.

- Too crazy, maybe. I have now cut myself off from flower pictures on instant film until I have flowers in the outside garden. I love flowers on instant film, but sometimes I end up feeling like I am "wasting film" or that I am just damn boring by always photographing the same thing. Really I should probably just give myself a break and shoot whatever the hell I want.

- I've been beating myself up a lot lately. It's not helpful at all, but I seem to have forgotten how to be compassionate with myself.

- I love taking instant photos, and doing so typically cheers me up. But I worry that my photographs don't mean anything. Like they're just empty and that's why they don't pull people in. They don't evoke anything in other people. And let's face it, the flower photos are pretty, but beyond that, I am not even sure what they mean to me. I guess it's just something I do and oftentimes they are an experiment in light and color, especially with the new films from The Impossible Project.

- Sometimes I worry that I am just empty.

- I can't believe it is already May. This month brings our 8th wedding anniversary, Will's birthday, my youngest niece's high school graduation, and probably some things that I don't know about yet.

- I don't think there is going to be any traveling this summer which makes me rather sad, but we just don't have the funds. Hoping to at least take a few little day trips.

- Gardening season is full on now. In fact, that's what I am doing today. I hope to get the front bed planted and finish the small beds in the back. Next week I'll get the vegetables planted. And my zinnia seeds.

- Really focused on running right now. I've always been addicted to it, but now I'm in super addiction mode. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do need to be careful that I don't injure myself. I take one day of rest and one day of cross training (biking or walking).

- Just trying to get through each day. Take care of the little things, work on the bigger things...but I really don't know where my life is headed right now and it's a bit terrifying.

- I keep telling myself that things will work out, one way or another.

Words To Shoot By: Green

Check out more green over at Words To Shoot By!

[Top image was shot with a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1 SE + PX70 film. Bottom two images were shot with a Polaroid SLR 680 SE + expired Polaroid 600 film.]

The road trip on Instagram.

The trip to Pittsburgh was awesome. Well, actually, being in Pittsburgh was awesome, the driving part was a lot of time in the car, knitting and listening to The Hunger Games trilogy. Driving east, the days were especially long and by nightfall, we usually just ate, found a hotel and conked out. (Two 10 hour days + one 6 hour day.) I always have such visions of taking lots of pictures along the way, but in reality, we usually have to push through without too many stops. So I usually end up just taking photos with my phone to entertain myself.

Here are most of the Instagram shots from the trip. There are some that I took in Pittsburgh, but the majority are from the road. And the majority are part of my "hotel carpet series."

You can check out all my Instagram photos here.

The history of my SX-70 cameras + replacing the leather.

I am lucky enough to have 3 SX-70 Polaroid cameras. Two of them get a lot of use and one of them has been sitting in my closet in a box for many years.

When I first discovered the joys of the SX-70 folding cameras, I was lucky enough to be gifted an original one by a friend when we still lived in Brooklyn (c. 2005). It's in good condition and has always worked well for me, but I have a ND filter stuck over the lens so I mostly use it to shoot the dwindling stock of expired Polaroid 600 film that lives in the back of the refrigerator. I suppose I could take the ND filter on and off, but I don't want it to lose its stick.

My second one is a SX-70 Alpha 1 SE and I think I bought it at a thrift store when we lived in Pittsburgh (c. 2005-2006) At the time, Time Zero film was still around, and to be honest, I didn't even know you could shoot 600 film in that kind of camera. This camera was in good shape but for the white coating of some chalk-like substance on the leather. I put film in it and if I remember correctly, I shot a few photos and then the camera pooped out. So into a box it went. (Throw out an non-working Polaroid camera? Never!)

Fast forward to 2007 when I actually know more about SX-70 cameras and how it's absolutely possible to shoot 600 film with one. (This little fact totally changed my life. Seriously. Just being able to focus makes a huge difference.) Hence the ND filter on the original SX-70. Then of course Polaroid film decided to stop making 600 film as well, but fortunately, by then, I was savvy enough to stock up on it while it was still available at a reasonable price.

Then came all the fun new films from The Impossible Project and I decided it would be convenient to have a second SX-70, one without a filter on it. I dug the Alpha 1 SE out, put some film in it, shot a few pictures and then it died. Again. Back into the box it went.

I ended up finding a decently priced SX-70 Alpha (red button instead of blue) on eBay. It came to me all the way from Germany. It's in fine shape, but it has a bit of a spitting problem. Sometimes the film just flies out of it. I'm used to it, but it's tricky sometimes when, say, the shot lands in the mud. Or it flies right out past the dark slide and the photo is exposed.

So once again I started thinking that I could use one more camera, one that doesn't spit so much. And also so I could use two different films at the same time instead of having to shoot through a whole pack before trying something new. Of course I can't afford a new camera right now, but then I remembered that I still had one that doesn't always work sitting in a box. So after stumbling across some of Dr. Love's tips on camera care, I decided to pull it out and give it another shot.

This time I loaded up some empty cartridges with "blank" shots and shot them off. And lo and behold, all the shots came out. Woohoo! I did that every day for about a week just to let the camera work out its cycle or whatever, and it kept working. Suddenly I had another working camera. Covered in some gross white stuff.

I decided that the next step was to recover it so I could take it out without getting white dust on my hands. The thought of scrapping the old leather off kind of scared the crap out of me, but I figured I could get through it. Of course before doing anything, I did some research on the internet. I found that you can get pretty nifty skins at skinslove.com and I was super tempted by that black one with the rainbow stripes. Then I found this Flickr discussion thread and discovered Aki-Asahi Camera Coverings. I decided that I would like to stick with the original look of the camera, plus people seemed to have only good things to say about the quality of the coverings.

The company is in Japan, but no matter, my order shipped quickly and I had the new covering by the following week. Also had a bit of a mix up when I placed my order and it was dealt with quickly. I would definitely recommend Aki-Asahi.

Next up, actually removing the old leather. I pretty much followed the instructions here. I also got a few tips from the Flickr discussion thread that I mentioned earlier + some tips from Dr. Love via Twitter.



You can see the white stuff I am talking about here. I tried to wash it off any number of times, but it always came back. So I guess the leather was just old.



I used a putty knife to start scraping off the old leather. It's the only tool that I have that seemed suitable and it's not so sharp that I could do too much damage to myself. First scrape and the leather pretty much disintegrated and made a big mess. That made me panic a bit as I figured getting all that crap in the camera would not be such a good thing. So I decided to try heating the leather with a hair dryer first. And, as you can see, I also decided to put a little artist's tape over the holes just to be on the safe side.

I heated it up one section at a time, and boy, did it make a HUGE difference. Still got a bit messy, but mostly the heat allowed me to get right to the sticky part and lift a whole block of leather off at once. After removing the leather, I was left with all the sticky gunk. And again, I only did one section at a time. In other words, took the leather off one section, rubbed the sticky stuff off and then moved on to another section.



Initially I tried soaking a paper towel in rubbing alcohol and letting it sit on the sticky area for a few minutes. This did not work so well. The gunk was moving around more than coming off. I ended up using Goo Gone and boy, that stuff works like magic. Rub a bit on and let it sit, then basically the sticky gunk came right off. And the stuff isn't toxic, but because I have sensitive skin, I wore gloves for this part.



Once I switched to using the hair dryer and the Goo Gone, the whole process was done pretty quickly. I now had a naked camera!



Actually putting on the new leather was not so intimidating. It's cut in the exact size of each section. I brushed alcohol on each piece before applying like Aki-Asahi recommends and that was pretty key in allowing some time to get the sticker straight before it really adhered to the camera.



And then, like magic, a freshly covered camera!



This baby makes me feel like I have a brand new camera. It's so clean and slick and it's been shooting film just fine. I've shot a couple of packs of Impossible films with it and it makes shielding easier since the film doesn't fly out. I'm so happy that somehow everything worked out so nicely...seeing Dr. Love's tips, finding the leather and getting it done.

If you have a camera that needs new leather, you should do it! Just take it slow and it'll all be fine. Put tape over any hole just to avoid getting dust in there and don't pour on too much Goo Gone or whatever remover you use. Best to soak a paper towel and apply it that way.

My only regret? That I didn't get the red leather covering! Next time, for sure.

Pay phone (at the liquor store).

[PX600 Poor Pod film + SX-70 Alpha 1 SE]

We live a few blocks down from what my dad says is the oldest liquor store in Santa Fe. (I assume he means modern liquor store as opposed to one that is 400 years old!)

It is not a nice liquor store and it draws a lot of homeless people from the shelter that is a few blocks away from us in the other direction. My running route used to take me near there and I finally had to change it because I got tired of people making odd comments or trying to "race" with me as I ran by. Nothing against homeless people or drunks, but I run for peace of mind so I don't particularly like such interruptions.

We bought a six pack there once and both felt awful after a few beers which may or may not have been the fault of the liquor store, but we haven't purchased anything there since.

As I write this, I realize that I don't even know the name of the liquor store. It's a rundown white adobe building on the corner of Juanita and Agua Fria. I think there's a Budweiser sign out front. And I've passed by it a million times yet can't put a name to it. Maybe it doesn't have one. I tried to google it, but nothing came up except a random geotag for "House of Booze." I guess that works.

There is a pay phone on the side of building. A pay phone that probably doesn't work since the receiver is taped together in a rather half-assed sort of way. (Probably hard to see in this particular photo, but if you look closely and squint a bit, you can see what I mean.) It's always been there, but on this particular day, I took notice of it, wondering how many pay phones are actually left in Santa Fe. Left anywhere, really.

And as I think about pay phones, I think about all the times in my life that I've used pay phones. Because when I was a kid/teenager/twenty-something, cell phones weren't around. (And yes, they probably existed when I was a twenty-something but not in my immediate world.) So if I was out at the mall and wanted to go home, I called my parents on a pay phone. When I would fly somewhere to see friends, I called them from the airport on a pay phone. That time I drank too much in Portland and wanted so badly to speak to my crush on the phone, I walked down the street to a pay phone. And oh! Oh that time I left my journal in Spain, my journal of my entire time spent there, I left it on top of a pay phone in a train station. (Pains me to think about that incident to this day!) Shortly after Will and I became involved, when I lived in Pittsburgh and he lived in Brooklyn, he called me from a pay phone in the middle of the night. He had just played a show at 9C (a bar that used to exist in the East Village) and *had* talk to me so he called from the pay phone on the corner. (Insert big smiley face here.)

I used to go on long runs with a quarter stashed in my running clothes so I could make a call if some sort of emergency came up. I don't think that would work anymore! When me and an ex-boyfriend broke down on the side of the interstate outside of Indianapolis in his VW bus, how did we even get a tow truck? We must have walked to a pay phone. And obviously there are a thousand other pay phone calls that I made, but there are certain pay phones memories that are stuck in my brain forever.

Who knew that posting a photo of a pay phone on Flickr was going to lead to this reminiscing?! Not me.

As much as I love my iPhone and my iEverythingElse, sometimes I miss those quieter days of not so much stimulation from so many places. Not so much access. Not so much mind-numbing entertainment. But here we are and it's all good. I'm just glad that I have memories of the days that all this technology didn't exist. Does that make me sound old? Nah, I'm just being nostalgic.

On going back to Pittsburgh.

I still haven't gotten all my film developed from our trip east last September and here we are getting ready to head back to Pittsburgh in a few weeks! I'm quite excited about the trip. Excited to be on the road again. Excited to see so many good friends again. Excited to be back in Pittsburgh, a city that is forever full of wonders to me.

I've been agonizing over what cameras to take along. I feel like I always take too many and then spend too much time trying to decide what camera to use. I also end up with too many of the same photos taken with different cameras and film. That can be interesting (to me, at least), but I want to approach things differently this time. Take less and shoot more. Of course sometimes I just get caught up in being there instead of having half of my focus on what might make a fabulous photo. I think that is important as well.

But this is a year that I really want things - some things, all things, I don't know - to be different. Maybe not hugely different, but a little different. And I have to admit that not a lot of change has happened thus far, but there has been some progress in certain areas. Baby steps of change. And it gives me hope.

So I would like my approach to photography to be different on this trip. Maybe try to be less self-conscious about what I am doing. Maybe actually make a plan of some places that I want to go to take photographs. Maybe focus on using one or two cameras instead of five. And I would really like to take some portraits of our friends (on instant film) even though I am not great at taking portraits these days.

And perhaps I should not reveal all here, perhaps it is putting too much expectation on myself, but I would like this trip to be different in other ways as well. I hope that I can let go and truly have a blast. Not worry so much about sleep and schedules and all the anxieties that often get in my way of having fun. (But still take care of myself; there's got to be a balance, right?) I want to laugh and smile and let myself out. I feel so trapped here in Santa Fe sometimes.

But no matter what happens, I imagine it will be a good trip. And it will also be okay if I have to feel anxious about some things. That's how I roll and denying it only makes it worse. One thing I constantly have to remind myself: be compassionate with myself as well as others. Because constantly being hard on myself, reprimanding myself or feeling bad about who I am or how I react to things, isn't particularly helpful.

Anyway...here a a few shots from our last trip taken with my Lomo LC-A + Kodak Gold 400 film.


Gorgeous, giant zinnias in the Larimer Community Garden.


Steeple + sky.


The view from the third floor of the Mayflower house.


The Mayflower house!


The church down the street from the Mayflower house.


Peeping alien!

Vacant.

After a holiday hiatus, Words To Shoot By is back! Now go check out all the awesome photos for this week's word, vacant!

[All of my photos were shot with a Polaroid Automatic 250 camera + Fuji FP-3000B film.]

The train station.

We went out to Lamy, NM a few weeks ago to pick up our friend Stephanie who was arriving from NYC by train. She's doing a documentary about the Southwest Chief, a train that I have traveled on a few times myself.

I love going out to the train station. It's the original station which was built in 1880s. And there are just so many things to photograph out there.


Old rail cars.


The train tracks and the mountain views.


And watching the train arrive still makes me excited. It also makes me want to go somewhere by train myself!



I should probably go hang out at the train station more often. It's always so inspiring.

[Ha! I see that I said practically the same thing three years ago!]

****

The pretty Moroccan star lamp gifted to us from CC and Dana. Love it!


New birdy for my collection. Love that red!


Sweet Rocky.

All shots taken with a Polaroid SLR 680 SE + PX680 Color Shade Gold Frame instant film from The Impossible Project.

I absolutely LOVE this film! Happy Friday!

What's been going on.

Nieces and nephews, holiday cheer, holiday shopping, knitting, selfies, cats, gifts, new film and work.

[Yes, I have become the lazy blogger. Or rather, the busy blogger. Hope to have more time soon!]

Sale time...again!

Yep, it's sale time again at the Mad Orange Shop! Enter coupon code ORANGE2011 at check out and receive 15% off your entire order, even on items already on sale! Go take a peek.

Hope you are enjoying this holiday season! Happy New Year!

What's been going on.

More here.

The boys.

[Polaroid Spectra + Softtone film]

I can't help but smile every time that I look at this photo. It's one of my all-time favorite shots of the cats.

Both of them LOVE to sleep on the futon in the back room when it's put down for guests. I have no idea why, perhaps they think that we put it down especially for them. But usually when I walk back there, there's only one cat on the futon. This particular day, I rounded the corner and was shocked to see them both napping on it. Albeit on opposite ends, but still, it's a rare occurrence. Naturally I immediately backtracked to my office for a camera.

I was positive that in the few minutes it took for me to grab a camera, one of them would leave, but no, they stayed. And they stayed while I fussed with the camera and tried to get it lined up perfectly, trying to remember if the Spectra shifts one way or another sometimes.

I wanted to get them both looking at me, but once I was ready, Simon had looked away and I figured I didn't have much time left. Snap! And I actually kind of love that Simon is looking at Rocky. It basically sums up their relationship, that look of "what the hell are you doing here?!"

They have lived together for almost 7.5 years now (I got Rocky in 1999 and Will got Simon in 2000 before we met each other) and still they can only manage to tolerate each other. They is no kitty love between them at all. Both want to be the only cat and the alpha cat. Sometimes I wonder how many of Rocky's wounds have actually come from Simon.

Occasionally they lick each other on the head, but that usually ends up with hissing and ears put back.

Of course there was that one time that we had Rocky up on the kitchen counter, doctoring one of his wounds. It was a particularly bad one and the treatment was painful. Rocky yowled as if he was being tortured. I was the one holding him while Will dealt with the wound and Simon actually came over to me and attacked my leg. I mean, full on attacked. I don't know if he thought he was next or if he was trying to protect his brother.

These cats. My boys. They bring me endless joy and entertainment. They also love to torture me, but a little snuggling on my lap and I forget all about it!

Sale time!

15% off everything in the Mad Orange Shop today through Monday, November 28th!! Enter the coupon code ORANGE2011 at check out.

Instant kitties.

[Blixa]


[Clem aka Clams]


[Fred aka Fritters]

It's not just at home that I end up taking a lot of cat photos, I do it everywhere we go! I just can't resist a cat!

These are all Pittsburgh kitties and all were taken with a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha + PX70 Color Shade instant film from The Impossible Project.