Why I love my diana mini...

After yesterday's amazing post (which I've updated again) I decided that I should explain why I love my diana mini, so here goes.

Honestly, I didn't adore my diana mini from the start... I had severe disagreements with the advance mechanism (see broken film here, sob. Note: if it doesn't want to move, don't keep trying to move it) and I also struggled with the distances and the bulb setting (though I should really have known better after using my holga...) and I'm not even going to talk about the process of getting the film developed (lets just say, now I've found a great place to develop my films, I'm sticking with it...)

However, once I conquered these problems and really started to look at the final results properly, I completely fell for this camera - the way it captures light, its soft tones compared to my holga, the gorgeousness of the square format, the fun of the half frame... its a versatile little thing which adores the sunshine yet produces beautiful photos without it too and I love that.

My main problem with this camera was that I compared it to my holga and really that wasn't fair - it's really nothing like the holga... they take different photos, they have a different feel and ultimately they both make you a different photographer when using them... and it's taken me a little while to appreciate that and the photos that I took with my diana mini at the start but I'm really excited about sharing some of my favourites in this post with you now.

Compared to my holga 135bc, the diana mini was a little harder to learn how to use and to get used too, a little harder to befriend and a little harder to love... but once you're there, once you've fallen for it - that's it... you've fallen hard and the world is your photography adventure to explore - one camera little diana mini around your neck and the others in your pocket!

For more of my diana mini photos see here and here!

p.s. can you believe I haven't shared some of these photos already?!