Diana in the Desert
Updated: Jun 28, 2025
When I feel like my photography is in a creative rut, it's time to play. And when it's time to play in photography, it's good to have toy cameras. My two favorite toys are both the Diana F+ medium format film cameras.
One camera has the classic 60s looking blue plastic top, the other is a 10th anniversary edition with retro looking grip and a shiny gold ring around the lens which makes people comment and smile and is an ice breaker for taking their picture.
They're plastic, weigh nothing, and readily available on ebay or at the Lomography website. So, why not carry two?
The classic blue had a 110 mm telephoto lens and the anniversary edition had it's original lens.
The plastic blue had black and white Wolfman 100 film which, true to its name has the high contrast look of old horror movies.
The anniversary edition had Lomography 800 film because the Diana F+ always shoots dark to me so I wanted a high speed film to see how it would do and the Diana shoots 120, which is big, and grain is usually not an issue on medium format.
For this outing I went on the Yetman Trail because it is in Tucson Mountain Park which is basically in my backyard and, if you're just going out to play, your backyard is a good spot.
That's all I have to say, though everything linked will lead you down a rabbit hole of lots more reading by authors who review such things.
I just use them to make pictures.
The first shot I took on Wolfman film was a closeup of a prickly pear cactus which ended up being the same as the second shot I took of Saguaro cacti because I forgot to advance the film so ended up with a double exposure.
Meanwhile, on the classic Diana, I took a picture of a barrel cactus because I thought, backlit, the needles would make a cool Halo in the bright desert sun.
It didn't. Just served as a harsh reminder that the Diana F+ hates shade and will always punish me with lackluster results.
Well, unless I photograph Ocotillo Cacti. I kind'a liked the look of that one.
I tried cropping it but could not quite get the look I was going for. Definitely encouraged to try this again though.
Remember these are plastic cameras with plastic lenses. They light leak a lot which is the red you see in the corners. They are also essentially crappy quality to get that blurry dreamlike look.
I liked what the combination of the camera and the Lomography film did with the colors of the land and sky. VERY retro old west.
Unlike "real" cameras, the viefinder is as quirky as everything else. I found out I tend to aim low compared to what I actually get in the pictures. This cut off the tops of cactuses and mountains. Changing the composition of what I intended to capture. I'll have to remember that in the future.
Loving that retro postcard look though.
Meanwhile, the Wolfman black and white was killing it with it's own style. That combined with the telophoto, made it a lot easier to aim. Though a lot narrower plane that makes it harder to focus.
Though focus is a vague term for a plastic camera.
Was definitely getting that dreamlike look I was going for though.
Though sometimes it was too dreamlike, and in Diana fashion, sometimes a little too dark.
But some of that is personal preference. I remind myself it's my first time doing lomography in the desert and when I get the light right, like when I photographed this Teddy Bear Cactus with it's Halo of thorns and then a shimmering bush in the foreground for this double exposure, the magic works and I want to go out and try again.
A lot of times you hike a few miles uphill , forgetting how far you've gone until you realize you're really hot and thirsty.
It is the desert after all.
But you keep going because you never know what's around the corner, and it all looks amazing.
Until you finally reach the top. And you have one shot left. One chance to capture what it's like standing at the summit and looking over South Tucson nestled among the mountains in the distance...
...and it's all worth it.
See you next time when we take a right turn and photograph with the best camera ever made. Right here on Fistful of Film!
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