Diana's Last Salute to Summer

Summer had never been my favorite weather. The perfect weather for me can only be described as "gloomy". I'd love to look outside and see overcast skies then feel the cold on my skin. The kind of weather that would make you, nay, force you to stay at home.

But this year, I found myself wishing that I'm on the beach, just lounging and watching people play in the water or sunbathe. I don't know I guess I just wanted to see and feel a bit of sun.

I've recently acquired a new film camera, the Diana F+ and a bunch of accessories. I got lucky when I was camera hunting online.









When doing test rolls, a sunny weather is always the best option, especially if your film camera does not have "special quirks" that can help you shoot in low light conditions (like selenium cells and that thing inside the LC-A).

So I was thankful when I finally had the opportunity to test the Diana. Brought both the LC-A+ and Diana to the beach with me and snapped away. I was only able to use the Diana with a 120 Superia 100 film and the 55mm wide angle and close up lens.



Some lessons learned (which can also be useful to you, dear reader):

1. If you're using the 55mm wide angle lens, go ahead and take the mask off. Go on, don't be scared. Shoot mask-free! the vignettes would be more pronounced and you'll see your lens' full wide angle-ness. You won't see it my test shots though because I used the 12 shot mask. No need to put that mask in; you're still going to get 12 shots out of your film.

2. Embrace the sun. I've read so many first time woes about the Diana lomographs being too dark or underexposed so I lathered up on sunscreen and braved the heat. I got 8 out of 12 shots perfectly exposed (the others that didn't make it were indoor shots with no flash) which is actually more than I expected. So yay!

I was also able to find a Diana Exposure chart off the internets. I'm currently trying this together with the 35mm back for the Diana. Probably a good idea to load a film with a higher ISO so you have a better chance of actually seeing results. One of the most common reasons why a lot of newbie lomographers get disappointed is their own expectations of the medium. Film is always a trial and error thing. Yes, it can be expensive especially now that there are a lot of apps out there that can modify photos as you please. But I always go back to film because of the satisfaction that I get when I "do something right." It's just different. :)

So that's my first roll of Diana lomographs. I hope I get to finish my test roll soon so I can share more lessons I learned throughout the process. Yay film!