My mom shot this 1960s masterpiece of weirdness

on my fourth birthday, back in the day when a roll of film might sit in the camera for a year or more before 12, 24, or 36 images were ready to be taken to the developers. Then a week would pass before we could take home the prints.

Double Exposure

began as an accident but evolved into an art form. In my mom's case, it was a fluke that could never be deliberately staged. I'm still trying to figure out how this one photo on the roll turned out this way. My best guess: the film failed to advance, so the next photo, taken months later, was superimposed over the birthday photo.

I'm not surprised that serious photographers embraced the concept.

History of double exposure photography via @dubbleapp

Cameras with light leaks, inconsistent shutters, and occasionally failing film advance mechanisms became desirable for the unique, once-in-a-lifetime effects they were able to produce.

... In experimenting with the art-form, some of the early photographers discovered double exposure photography more or less by accident, and the trend continued: Whereas half of the photographers would spend all their time trying to avoid ghosting and double exposures, the other half started exploring what could be done to create some truly magnificent artworks incorporating the phenomenon into their work creatively.

In doing so, they started a photographic movement that is still developing today.

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Double Exposure: What Happens When Exposing The Same Film Twice

Double Exposure is something most of us who ever had a film camera experienced at least once. By accident. It happened when the film got stuck, or when we used a used film again by mistake. With the digital age coming in and replacing film, in-camera double exposures became a very rare kind of photography, but in recent years, many DSLRs added the option to create a double exposure in camera, and this old style came back to life.

Modern Masterpieces of Double Exposure

are beyond my very last-century skill set. E.g.,

source

I no longer use cameras with film,

(see, I'm not totally last century!), and accidental doubles are almost impossible with digital cameras, but happy accidents still occur from time to time. Like photographing a praying mantis stuck to the window, and seeing our daughter on the other side of the glass, along with reflections of what is outside the glass, behind the mantis. That was fun! (And yes, cheetah bot, I used this photo only yesterday in another post.)

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Steemit

is a fantastic place for photographers to share their work. One of many supporters and contest hosts is @juliank. I'm not going to hyperlink all these, but click on any @juliank post to call them up, e.g.,

Why I Give Away 300 SBD Per Month On Photography Contests

New categories have been added. E.g.,

Happy Sunday Steemit, Share Your Golden Hour And Long Exposure Photography!

Community Support

is what sets Steemit apart from other social media venues.

@theluvbug is one I discovered only this week. Gotta love the luvbug!

In proud collaboration with @steemitbloggers and its founder @jaynie, @theluvbug regularly supports the Steemit community with upvotes and resteems of great content which is really adding value to this platform..you can help by spreading the word of #theluvbug...