then and now - diana mini photos

I am the very lucky owner of a Diana Mini camera. I've wanted one for sooooo long, and recently I won one in a giveaway from Sunshine and Carousels. Amazing.

As soon as it came (after I gazed at it lovingly for a bit), I grabbed some film that I found, and loaded it up. It was old and expired, which I figured would produce some interesting shots. The film sometimes caught while advancing, and I struggled a bit while taking this first roll of film. I read that it was normal, and continued on. I expected mixed results, and definitely some double-exposures. Here's what I got:





But then, something interesting as I flipped through the photos (which didn't get cut square, I'll deal with that issue another time...).



In case you can't tell, that's a pig. Now, I haven't been around any pigs for a long time. About 20 years, to be exact. We press on.





These are of me and my little sister when we visited a pig farm. What?!?! It seems that the film I found had already been exposed, and it just had the tail of film poking out, making it look fresh. Crazy! At first, I thought, "No! I've ruined old photos by shooting over them!" But then I realized how cool they came out. Many of them it's difficult to see the double-exposure...it's more the coloring that was affected. But then there was this one:



This hasn't been edited at all. On the left is me then. On the right is me now. The diptych happened on it's own, and it happened to have been cut perfectly for this. Also, I'd like to point out the shoes I was wearing 20 years ago are nearly identical to those that I'm wearing now. Seriously...how did that happen!?!

I can't wait to shoot another roll (a fresh one this time!), and see what happens. Of course, I won't expect anything like these again, but it does seem that this Diana Mini is magical!

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Unrelated, but also a sort of flashback, you can read about my adoption story over on Take Heart today! Go visit and say hello!