Dirty Diana

Last month I bought Elaina and I a new toy, something that I’ve been wanting to get for some time now but just haven’t gotten around to doing. I purchased a Diana F+ camera!

It might not look like much, but that’s because it ISN’T much! The Diana camera is a low budget plastic “toy camera”. It’s called this because it was so cheaply made in the 60’s for people in China. Back then, the construction cost of a single camera was about 1 U.S. dollar. One of the major drawbacks to the camera was that it was not sealed “light tight”. Light would leak into the exposure compartment from the sides and give all the photos an orange-ish exposure. The lens was plastic so the photos came out grainy and sometimes distorted depending on if you got a well made unit. It also only used 120mm film which would give you only (12) 4"x4" photos and with the new cameras of the 70’s all using 35mm it soon became extinct.

Well the Diana is back in reproduction and the exact reasons for it’s demise in the 60’s, are now it’s reasons of success today! Those wanting a non-digital photo with over exposures, light bleed, and distortion have been lining up for this “toy camera”. It even still uses the 120mm film!

This camera is truly a manual camera. If you want to zoom you just twist the end of the lens. You have no idea how much you are zooming because it isn’t reflected in the view finder, not to worry though, there are little stickers of people around the lens that are different sizes so you can gauge how zoomed you really are. At the bottom there are 5 light settings, sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, night, and pinhole. These are designated by, you guessed it, little stickers of a sun with more or less clouds in front of it! The shutter actuator isn’t a traditional button as you would expect on most cameras, it’s a lever that you push downward. There are two shutter speed settings, N which means that when you push or hold the shutter actuator the shutter will open for 1/60 of a second and capture your image. When you set the shutter speed to B, this means that as long as you hold the shutter actuator down, this is how long the shutter is actually open. You can keep it open for seconds, minutes, or hours! Just be sure to have a tripod because if you move the photo will be blurry. The final thing that makes the Diana so great is that you have to manually wind the film once to take a photo. This allows you to double expose your photos if you like. I actually forgot to wind the camera a couple of times and came out with some pretty cool shots.

Anyways, here are a few shots with the new Diana that we took on Christmas night at Johnny’s Saloon with Jerry and Jakki. They are 100% unmolested and unphotoshoped images.  Now we just need to find a place to develop the 120mm film that doesn’t charge $27 per roll!!!

I also bought a fisheye lens for the camera so stay tuned for updates on that. If you’d like to learn more about the Diana camera and it’s counterparts you can visit www.lomography.com

This is a cool shot that Elaina took herself. It’s a double exposure meaning she took a photo of her self, didn’t wind the film, and then took another photo of herself with her head turned. Pretty sweat!

After Johnny’s we went to Norm’s for some late night grub.

Jakki and Jerry should have been in this one but I forgot to change the zoom setting before handing it to the waiter. Oh well, Jerry's hand looks good at least!

The next morning after Sunday brunch in Uptown.

The photographer in action!

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Udon Noodles are the Bomb

They're so good that I go to empty Japanese restaurants to have a romantic lunch with myself on Christmas Eve since Mike had to work 1/2 day. BOOOO!

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse"

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Johnny's Saloon

Punk rock and Johnny Cash can be found together in this almost pitch-black hole in the wall called Johnny’s Saloon. I used to live across the street from Johnny’s in Huntington Beach so it became one of those places to go to after work and have a drink. We could walk into the bar, have a seat and not have to ask for a drink. Bruno (bartender and co-owner) knew I loved Cadillac’s he’d make my drink and put it in front of me as soon as I’d sit down.

All the walls are decorated with beautiful religious art, pictures of musicians, writing, paintings by local artists, spider webs and an Oompa Loompa in the corner next to a tall standing bass.


It’s a great bar if you like cheep booze, stiff drinks, punk rock and not being able to hear the person next to you. The juke box carries all the music we love like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, The Misfits, Social D, etc. Everyone is always in a good mood and the bar isn’t infested with gross guys who reek of bad cologne and try to hit on you all night. At the same time, it’s almost pitch-black in there so you can’t tell if the person next to you is a mutant or gorgeous.

Anyway, it’s great to go there with friends and just simply hang out, have a few drinks, and listen to good music.

Mike and I used to go to this bar after work with friends pretty often but over time everyone stopped going. I lived across the street, how could I stay away? Mike was always up for it so eventually it was just us two. We’d go to the bar and just talk and listen to each other about our petty life problems. Sometimes 5 o’clock rolled around and Mike would send an email from his desk at one end of the building to mine, “want to go drown our sorrows?”. You all know where this ended up… we're together and soon to be the ball and chain. I can’t complain though.

When we were going to Johnny’s as friends we started a tradition; annual Johnny’s Christmas night. My family always does Christmas on Christmas Eve so Christmas day I just lie around the house and do nothing. Now every year on Christmas, Johnny’s opens their doors at 9pm and we head over. Everyone is welcome to come and hang out with us. The first year quite a few friends made it out. This year it was just 4 of us, but I’m not complaining since the other two joiners were Jakki and Jerry. They’ve never missed a year and I can’t imagine going to Johnny’s any year without them.