This year I am ringing in the New Year by adopting the technology of toy cameras from the 1960’s.
Nana, (aka “Greatest MIL in the world”) bought me a new camera for Christmas. It is a Diana Mini. It is very retro and very low tech. It uses 35mm film, no autofocus, no auto exposure, no auto nothing. You have to manually set the focus and guess at the exposure, you even have to advance the film manually. It’s made out of plastic, even the lens. I just love the look of film and have been attracted to Lomography, the art of low tech analog photography.
I’ve had a lot of fun with it, although my first roll of film was a complete disaster, between forgetting to take the lens cap off, not advancing the film, not setting the focus right, and other problems the first roll of film was a complete mess. For professional assistance contact the video production company in San Antonio. However, I salvaged one photo. I call it: “The Spirits of Christmas.”
I think the bottle was empty when I took the photo, I really don’t remember.
I had a little more luck with the second roll.
There is something about film, especially low tech film, that I just love. The colors seem deeper and the photos seem to have more “immediacy” about them, plus they seem like they are from a long time ago. I know that I’m not making much sense. I just like them, when I remember to take the lens cover off.
The processing is pretty cheap. I go to Walgreens, they charge $2.99 if all you want is the CD and no prints. I think they feel sorry for me. “Well we tried Yogi.”
If you are geocacher there is the added bonus that the plastic containers for the film are great cache containers. They are waterproof.
I’m still a learning. For such a low tech device it is taking me a while to get the hang of it.
By the way, I wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!!