Frugal Film Project 2022 - March

Procrastination. That's been the word of the month for me this March. I have been putting off my March roll of Ilford HP5 so much that I almost missed it. I have been concentrating on other things, important family stuff mixed with my childlike excitement at buying a camera and shooting a few rolls of film with it. I gave myself a much need kick up the backside, loaded a roll of HP5 into my Pentax SP500, set it to box speed and headed into town.

I don't usually like taking photos under pressure, but I only have myself to blame for it. An hour or so wandering around Wigan town centre gave me a chance to clear my head a bit and concentrate. I kept to familiar locations and tried a couple of compositions I had recently shot in worse light than the last day of March provided me with. I was able to set my Lydith lens at f/11, focus at infinity and just played with the shutter speed on my bargain basement Spotmatic. It was mostly a 1/250th at F/11 day, but a few needed a slower speed which is no problem at all for my SP500.

I visited the Market and the Galleries, a very depressing sight as it closes down for good soon. I can no longer go upstairs to get shots from the balconies, the escalator is switched off and has been fenced off to stop people using it. The shops are all shuttered and the the only thing left is to turn the lights off and lock the doors.

I needed a happier location and had a wander to the main shopping street where I grabbed another couple of shots before heading to the Parish Church and The Old Courts to see what the shadows were like. I managed a couple of compositions there and headed towards the college for my last few shots before coming home. I developed my roll of HP5 in Kodak HC-110 dilution B for 5 minutes and hung it to dry in my bathroom with 4 hours to spare. That was just enough time to dry and scan it into my PC with my Ion Slides2PC scanner before April was upon us.

Considering I had left it until the last minute I didn't do so bad to be honest. I know there's a lot of shots that folks have seen before, but I did get a few shots where the Photography Gods smiled on me and presented me with interesting light and shadows. They also had a good laugh too as we had light flurries of snow in between glorious sunshine. Yep, definitely seasonal weather, all four of them on the same day. I love living in Wigan.

Here are a few photos from my Frugal Film Project March roll of Ilford HP5+. As always I have put them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2022 album on Flickr that you can visit using the link below. If you like my work and want to support me, please consider making a donation using my Ko-Fi link below. Thank you to Jim Grey and Billy Sandford for your support, it is very much appreciated. Every donation helps me buy film so I can continue my photography journey and share the joy I get from taking photographs with the world. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2022
Ko-Fi.com - Jim Graves