Author Archives: Amanda Raney

{Diana F+} Fourth Time’s the Charm

Originally, this was meant to be a post celebrating the fact that I’d gotten a new Diana F+ camera. It replaced one that had been chewed up by a dog when the package arrived (as chronicled here.) That camera worked and all, but having to use it with all the broken and caved in bits didn’t spark joy 😂

This Diana is the first one I’d gotten that was in the classic turquoise and black colorway

Would you believe it’s my fourth Diana camera! (More about the first two here.) I did not realize that it was going to be a span of years before I’d get all the film for this post developed (*facepalm*) So instead, this post is more like “Hey, here’s some photos I took with a Diana F+ at some point in history!”

Unfortunately, I accidentally had the wrong setting for this photo, but I’m including it because it’s my lovely mom ❤️

We were at Memphis Botanic Gardens for Japan Festival. There was also an exhibit of large metal origami sculptures that was really cool.

Muscle car

Not my best pinhole photo, but these were flowers my mom brought back from her younger sister’s memorial service

Spotted in Oxford, MS

Donuts for my niece’s 18th birthday

My niece’s birthday coffee. I did a long pinhole exposure for this. I like how the coffee cup changed places throughout the long exposure, so you can see the movement reflected in the photo.

Happy 18th birthday, child (this was so long ago haha)

Another long pinhole exposure at a coffee shop. The photo itself isn’t as notable as the fact that we saw the singer/songwriter Ben Folds getting coffee that day. We didn’t bother him, but my sister and I were massively geeking out over it!

{Quarantimes} Volume Five

This is one of those rolls of film that was shot over a long period of time – spanning Christmas 2020 through June 2022! Which is a shame, because the camera with which the photos were taken is my all-time favorite: a Fuji GA645i! I say it’s a shame because I hate that I went so long between taking photos with this camera that it was possible for such a great length of time be depicted on one roll of film!

The first set was taken at Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, where we’d visited on a rare pandemic-era outing that Christmas season.

This photo right here is so special to me. I didn’t get this film developed until after my mom had passed away, and I just felt like it embodied her sense of awe and wonder. I think that’s one reason my sister and I liked to take mom to see beautiful things.

In this particular case, she was marveling at Crosstown Concourse. This building was a Sears for many years, and she remembered visiting there when she was younger. She was always fascinated by the way it’d be renovated. Here, she was looking over the great expanse of the building.

No wonder mom was looking out over Crosstown with awe that day. It was beautiful.

As you can see, the rest of the photos were not at Christmastime!

My puppy dog 

Some snapshots taken in downtown Memphis

These last three photos were taken at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis. An old friend of mine was being ordained as a priest that day, and Mom and I went to support him. Another instance where Mom was in awe of her surroundings. She may not have been Catholic, but she loved beautiful holy spaces such as this. I always wanted to take her to England with me to see cathedrals there, but the best I could ever do was sharing photos from my visits to that country

 

Fuji GA645i • Kodak Portra 160, expired (but cold-stored)

{Quarantimes} Volume Four

Fall 2020. I had gotten a Nikon mount version of a lens I have already have and liked and shot the whole roll with it!

Started this film out in Oxford, Mississippi, where I’d gone to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment

I always took pictures of flowers for mom (though she never got to see these 🙁 )

Hello

The iconic Ajax Diner

I was thrilled to see these pictures of my niece, whom I’d gotten to shoot a roll of film in one of my cameras! I want her to be my protege, of course.

I’d told her to take pictures of the flowers to show her Gramma, but again, I wasn’t able to get this film developed for a couple of years and mom didn’t get to see the photos 🙁

My little love

I was so proud of her for being creative enough to kneel down to get this shot

Ice cream shop in Oxford

We did something that fall that I felt betrayed all my fellow hunker downers: we went to see one of our favorite movies, Bend it Like Beckham, at the Orpheum. All safety precautions taken, and it ended up that there were probably only a total of twenty people in the whole building that night!

I feel some regret that so many photos I’ve gotten developed after mom passed away featured her wearing a face mask, so you don’t get to see her in her full glory. But at least I got to see new pics of mom after we lost her.

You may not be able to tell, but she’s smiling (you can tell by her eyes!)

I’ve said it before: the Orpheum is probably my favorite place in Memphis. So may good memories of going there to see their summer movie series with my family.

The iconic Beale Street

Umbrellas, for some reason 

Double exposure of said umbrellas

 

In Oxford again for mom to visit a doctor

Mom really loved this metal sculpture near the town square down there, so I took some snaps of it 

Little one and her coffee

Us

It was hard trying to get this shot straight! It’s a covered area with seating in downtown Oxford

The closest thing to fall colors that we get down here 

Nikon F3 HP •  Tokina RMC 28mm f/2.8 lens • Fuji Superia 400 film

Side note: I got kind of emotional putting this post together, because so much of it involved mom

 

{Quarantimes} Volume Three

More film from 2020 when we weren’t going many places, and it was all to-go coffee, all the time.

God bless the lemongrass tofu from Pho Bihn

Love peeping my mom and niece in this photo of a very of the era coffee shop visit

The plants at City & State all have names

Also very of the era: someone’s face mask on a bush outside a restaurant

It felt weird going to a restaurant, even though we were outside. But Mom loved this place in Oxford, so it was a joy to go with her when we were down that way

Canon T70 50mm f/1.8 lens ⋅ Fuji Superia 400, expired in 2005

Post Navigation