First encounters with my Diana F+

The story starts here: Five years ago, I was looking for information on a lecture - I wanted students to document everyday life and "shoot from the hip". With a blinding stroke of luck, I stumbled across Lomography. I fell in love with the analogue, free-spirited way of taking photos and have been wanting a Diana camera since then.
Fast forward a few years to my kitchen tea and voila! My friends got me a nice Diana F+ with film and a couple of extra lenses. And here I was with this beautiful object, not quite knowing where to "switch it on" :-). Needless to say, the first film came out completely blank, since I was shooting away with the pinhole setting all the time. The Diana and I still have a long way to go - need to burn a couple more films before I understand her completely. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, may I please introduce Lady Di and her work...

I love the retro blue, I love the beautiful little rounded flash, I love the lightweight plastic feel...

Easter Games in the park with colleagues. When I took out the Diana, there was a lot of confused looks and questions about where the preview is...

Trying out some Redscale film. I learnt that the Diana loves light. Next time I'll definitely use more of that :-)

A couple of shots from Mauritius. Love the light leaks of the top image. 

Some of you will wonder whether I've lost the plot completely. For me the beauty of Lomography lies in the "mistakes": Light leaks, over-exposure, under-exposure, double exposure. There is a whole world to expore when it comes to lomography and analogue photography. I also got a beautifully printed book with the Diana. The first words are:

Dear Lomographer, photo-hunter, camera collector, and analogue-lover,

We do not know which act of providence brought you here. But we can safely assume that you do not know what you're in for.

Do yourself a favour and explore this world of unpredictability, mistakes, beauty, light and film. Use the Ten Rules of Lomography as your mantra and see what happens...