Meet my new friend, Diana. She took all these photographs with her surprise light leaks, super saturated colors, and vignette frames. These are exactly how the photos turned out — I didn't tweak the photos at all. Getting the medium format film developed yesterday was like waiting to try my first croissant in Paris. I had a feeling it was going to be good. These are a few favorites from my first roll of film using my Diana F+ camera. I love the dreamy quality of photos taken with a Diana+ camera. If you're looking for a fun camera where you don't need to think and you're rewarded for just playing around — check out Lomography's remake of the 1960s Diana camera. You'll be seeing much more from Diana here — we're attached to the hip right now up in Maine.
a few tips if you treat yourself to a Diana+ camera:
+ check out this little video on how to load it — super helpful. I don't know about you, but I completely forgot how to load film after years of using a digital camera. And there are a few special details with loading film on a Diana.
+ you can do double or triple exposures with your Diana. For the most part, I don't think that's the look I'm shooting for, and I did forget to wind the film a couple times. Try to get in the habit of winding right after you take the photo if you want each shot to be its own.
+ remember to change the focal zoom on the lens to reflect how far away you are from the subject. I inadvertently chopped off Dan's head in a couple shots because I forgot to change the focal distance.
+ I'd love to splurge on some of this film. Sounds like it creates gorgeous photos!
+ remember that it's a fun camera and there are no mistakes — that's the beauty of it.
+ get ready for people to remark on your "antique" camera. But it's actually a remake of the plastic camera from Hong Kong that arrived on scene in the 1960s, selling for just $1. The Diana quickly fell to discontinued status when 35mm cameras started their run. Lomography started selling the Diana+ in 2007 — it's the original design with a few extra bells.
p.s. these photos are all from our Fourth of July party at the camp. We ate lobster, corn on the cob, and then another thunderstorm promptly moved the party indoors where we huddled together laughing on the porch. Hope you had a fun holiday weekend wherever you were!
