Frugal Film Project 2021

 Before I talk about my first foray into the Frugal Film Project I must say thank you to everyone who read my previous blog, "Why does everyone talk about Leicas?" I appreciate you giving my thoughts a few moments of your time. I also linked to it on the Negative Positives facebook page and got some nice compliments there too and it's all thanks to Mario Piper for inspiring me to write it.

Right, onwards to the subject of this weeks musings, the Frugal Film Project 2021. I mentioned in my first blog of 2021 that I had signed up for this year long project with the aim of shooting frugal film in a frugal film camera with a combined cost of no more than $50. After some thought I decided to use Fomapan 200 from the good folks at Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic and my Olympus 35RC, a great compact rangefinder. This choice was deliberate as I had not used the camera as often as I should, but enough to know what it is capable of.

My first roll was shot at box speed and I developed the roll in Rodinal 1+50 for 9 minutes at 20c just to have a solid start to this years FFP. However the ever changeable winter weather here in the UK meant I was challenged from day one by low light and ice that I really shouldn't have tried walking on. I have mentioned in my blog about my spine injury and the fear of paralysis is ever present, particularly if I fall on ice during winter. Being in lockdown again didn't help either and I really only got three chances to shoot that first roll. All I can say is thank the photography gods for the glorious sunshine I got on my third and final photo walk whilst doing some shopping in Wigan town centre. I haven't really got much experience of film photography either during or shortly after fresh snowfall, so I took my time and tried to get a good baseline to compare against as winter progresses.

The Olympus 35RC has a superb Zuiko 42mm f2.8 fixed lens and I tried to get a couple of close ups, but mostly I was standing way back to get most of my subject in the frame. I never tire of photographing Wigan Parish Church, it is a beautiful building that was built in the 19th century and refurbished in the 1980's. Thanks to some skilled and witty stone masons, the congregation of gargoyles and grotesques have a mix of 19th and 20th century influences. I was shooting in the automatic setting as the light and my limited skills with the camera generally wasn't suited to using it in manual, but that will change as the year progresses. I enjoyed getting this challenge started by revisiting locations I have photographed many times and I now have to find a new location for February. Wigan is not short of things to photograph so I have plenty to choose from and by the end of the year I should have mastered my little pocket powerhouse 35RC.

Here's a few of my images from January 2021, I hope you enjoy them.