I've been doing an ongoing project, an experiment in lo-fi photography, using a bunch of old plastic Diana knockoff cameras. I've been going back to the beaches I used to frequent as a kid and photographing beach scenes on black and white film, and then making paper negatives out of them on color photo paper in order to colorize them. It takes a lot of work but I really like the process. Of course whenever I show them to anyone the first thing they ask is if I did it on the computer.

This whole thing started out as sort of an excuse to go to the beach every weekend, but now It's becoming a sick addiction. This is not helped by the fact that I can't seem to make my little plastic cameras last more than 10 rolls. Camera #1 (Diana) melted (unfortunate dashboard incident). Cameras #2 (Windsor) and #3 (Dories) died via broken shutter spring. Camera #4 (Stellar) suffered from inexplicable film-mangling behavior. #5, another Diana, seems to be holding up decently, however.

I now have an entire pile of plastic 120 roll film cameras in the kitchen (don't ask) in various states of rust and/or notworkingness, and I've sworn myself off eBay until I can figure out why, exactly, I felt the need to buy not one but two Lomo Lubitels.

I don't know, though, maybe it paid off.