Growing up and living in the Central Valley of California, I’ve become a lover of foggy weather. Even driving in it (unless it’s a total white-out) doesn’t bother me. There’s something so mysterious about the look and energy of fog. I always hope for a foggy Christmas morning, and the lingering fog in February (my birth month!) is a total treat. I know people generally get sick of the winter season and the lack of sun, but I find the darkness and cold cozy—a welcome reprieve from the increasing total sun annihilation of Central Valley summers.

A little less than a year ago, I bought the Diana F+ “Meg” (a limited edition from The White Stripes) Lomography camera on eBay. With it came a bunch of expired 120mm medium format Lomography film, both in color and black and white. Until this past December 2024, I hadn’t used the film, but when the fog rolled in thick, our little neighborhood of towering trees and fallen leaves called me to play with my camera gear.

I loaded a roll of 800 ISO color film into my Hasselblad camera and went out to capture some foggy moments. To my absolute surprise, the expired film gave the photos a whole different look—much more abstract. I’ve talked with several people about what could have happened with the film, and here are some theories:

The film might’ve gone through an X-ray machine during shipping, which could have damaged it. The film is over a decade old, so who knows what it’s been through.
Speaking of age, I have no idea if the previous owner kept it in the fridge for longevity.
The film might’ve been loaded backwards.
Because the film was old, it may have needed more exposure time (or was it less? I can’t remember) to prevent the film backing from showing up after exposure.

There are plenty of hypotheses, but I still don’t know what caused that specific effect. However, after getting the images back from the lab, I was pleasantly surprised. What you’re seeing are circles from the film backing. There were countdown numbers on them, but I digitally edited those out.

For those who haven’t developed film before, 120mm film consists of both the negative and the ‘backing’ of the negative, attached together in one long strip—unlike 35mm film, which contains only the negative. When you develop 120mm film, you remove the backing in complete darkness, then just develop the negatives. So, in essence, what you’re seeing here is the film backing coming through the actual photos. It looks something like this: