Frugal Film Project 2022 - January

 Projects are often the bane of our existence, we take them on and part way through we get into a creative rut we can't seem to find a way out of. Nothing seems to be right and we put it to one side in the hope that spark can be reignited somewhere down the line. I have a few of those lurking on a hard drive, mostly my writing that I felt wasn't up to par and one or two photo projects I have yet to finish are in there too. It's not all doom and gloom as I had so much fun doing the Frugal Film Project in 2021 that I signed up for another year.

The Frugal Film Project 2022 has gone back to its original formula where we choose one cheap camera and one cheap film stock for the entire year. The original budget was $50, but as prices for even the most unloved cameras have risen, that budget is now $75, at todays exchange rate around £55. This gave me options I didn't have last year and, as the project has gone back to its roots, I decided to go back to mine and chose to use my Pentax SP500.

I paid £20 for the camera with a Helios 44m-4 lens in 2017, but I decided I want to get to know my Meyer-Optik Goerlitz 30mm f/3.5 Lydith a little better this year. It's a beautiful lens that cost me £30 and added to my SP500 is within the budget. I really enjoy using this combination and the extra width gives me lots of options to explore.

I also wanted to use a film I am comfortable with and have a change from Fomapan film. I am supporting a local business and using Ilford HP5 Plus. Ilford is based in Mobberly which is an hours drive from my home. This versatile B&W film can be pushed, pulled and developed in just about anything as long as it has phenols and vitamin c in the recipe. I might just get brave enough to give caffenol a try at some point.

For January I played it safe and went to the Park, then decided safe wasn't cutting it and put an orange filter on my lens to make life interesting. I always enjoy a walk in the park with my camera. I have probably photographed everything at least half a dozen times, but there's always an angle to find so I tried compositions I haven't done yet and soon finished the roll. I developed my January roll of HP5 in Kodak HC-110 dilution B, scanned it with my Nikon D700 and processed my images in Affinity Photo.

Here's a few of my January images, I have also put them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them and join me on this new Frugal adventure in the coming months.

Frugal Film Project 2022

This years weapons of choice