A scan of these photos just doesn't capture their charm. A big part of it is in the printing, little 4x squares, matte with a white border. If only there was an option to get the date printed on tiny letters on the side, just like the real vintage photos. Really though, everything about the Diana F+ makes me happy. I love the silly plastic lightness of it, the shutter that you pull down, the way you can hang it around your neck by it's plastic strap, the little rolls of 120 film that come wrapped in plastic like big candies. I like going to the little camera store in Kenmore to drop the rolls off, and the way all the guys there are completely intimidating in their knowledge of photography. They show me pretty $600 cameras that have the viewfinders you look down into, and talk about what might have caused most of one roll to come up totally blank. "It's really hard to underexpose with a Diana," they told me. Later, I realized it wasn't hard at all if you accidentally had the camera set to pinhole. Yeah.
Lately, I've been thinking that some of the excitement I felt about writing has been redirected to my little photo experiments. At night, I dream about taking photos, and driving to work I think of whole photo stories I want to play with. In the writing arena, it's been quiet. Trying to let that be okay for now.
8 comments:
It's interesting to hear you say that---about photos--because just recently in your latest batch of photos on flickr I was really struck by some. I felt so much STORY in them. So much intention and this sort of awkward raw beauty that I love so much in photos... You have something going with the picture taking and I say GO! Keep going. Also, I totally hear the Diana photos...
Hey, if you want other crazy experimental cameras, I have a whole slew from my failed camera documentary. You can see some of them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatideaslooklike/sets/72157607790613050/
Love seeing people embrace the old!
You might also like processing your images through these guys, the results are fantastic!
http://www.dr5.com
You get back beautiful chromes that have cool warm tones, like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatideaslooklike/21109816/in/set-327819/
Christina - that is so nice to hear! I can't wait to have my toy camera for next writing group.
Phil - I am dying. DYING!! We must talk. I used to have a Tazmanian Devil polaroid camera (the photo was his tongue when it came out!) and I was SO heartbroken when it got stolen out of my car. It was maybe the coolest thing I've ever owned.
We totally had that camera in our collection for the 100 Cameras Project but we were convinced it wouldn't make the final cut of 100.
Essentially because the entire polaroid/instant camera segment of machines was already going to have to be tailored down to 15 or less and there was so much competition just to get it down to that amount.
So, that puts Taz in the "Novelty" category (although I think that is a disparaging term for such a beautiful object) and that category too had many, many cameras that were fighting for inclusion. Charlie the Tuna being pretty a given, but Snoopy Classics, and MIckey – which I am not a HUGE fan of Mickey per se – had amazing specimens that were developed.
See, I could go on and on...
More more!! I love it!!
I can't believe I don't already have a novelty camera collection. Such a sucker for that one. Snoopy! Yes! I'm with you on Mickey, but still.
The beer camera is pretty awesome too. Boy do I want one of those!
The Beer camera was how we were going to take pictures in Casinos in Vegas. I haven't been in years, so I don't know now – what with the advent of cell phones and the like, but when our project was going on, Casinos were a NO WAY for cameras.
So, we had the idea that we could try the traditional spy issue, Minox, with one photographer, and another walking around with the beer camera in their hand and see who could get the most revealing shots AND who would get caught and kicked out first!
Ugh, I love that so much it hurts.
I heart the new camera too...
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