Frugal Film Project 2022 - October

As I return from a short hiatus after the death of my Dad, I wanted to get back on track and continue my commitment to the Frugal Film Project by getting out and shooting my October Roll of Ilford HP5. I loaded up my Pentax SP500 and decided to shoot it at 800 iso as it was a dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy day in Wigan. I headed into town to further document the changes that are happening as the redevelopment of The Galleries has picked up its pace.

A wall has gone up around the site to protect workers and the public from harm. Building sites are dangerous places to work, the last thing you need is a member of the public getting hurt. A little thought has gone into the partition wall to help the public navigate around the site. There are also photos showing the history of the site.  

Prestigous royal visits are depicted side by side with Wiganers shopping in the old Market Hall and The Galleries through the years. There are also pictures that show what the site will look like once it is completed in a couple of years time. It hasn't stopped local residents commenting on the wasted money spent on the development as there was "nowt wrong wi' th' old un!" You've got to love Wiganers, they tell it like it is.

The work has begun in earnest to refurbish the Market Gate section of The Galleries in order to move the Market there. Market Gate was the first part of The Galleries to close when the financial crisis of 2008 began to decimate businesses and shops closed at an alarming rate. It never recovered and it's ironic that the section that has been empty the longest will be the only survivor of this once vibrant shopping destination.

The pain in the backside about the closure and redevelopment is the once busy route between the town center and the Market has been closed and shoppers have a long walk around the redevelopment to get to and from Wigan Market. It seems even longer when it's persisting down and I got very wet whilst wandering around to take photos.

I took shelter in one of the shops to try and dry off a bit and reappeared after the rain abated to finish my film off before heading home. I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 shot at 800 iso in Kodak HC-110 for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and hung it to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it with my trusty Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and cleaned up the spots and scratches with Affinity Photo.

Here are a few of my favourite shots from this months Frugal Film Project roll of HP5. The weather was crap, but I was glad to be getting out again after a short break. I have placed these and more in my Frugal Film Project 2022 album on Flickr that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2022

Kodak Ektachrome - Goodman Zone Z1

My photography has shown a lot of improvement in 2022 and I put that down to my Goodman Zone Z1 slowing me right down. Yes Mr Bartosek, it truly has. I have said previously, and no doubt will say again in future, that my Goodman Zone Z1 has made me think a lot more about my photography. t's not the lack of automation that is slowing me down, it's the hybrid aspect of this wonderful camera that is doing it for me.

It's a medium format camera and uses 120 medium format film, but I have to treat it like a large format system right down to having a dark cloth and focus screen. I have had a lot of fun learning to use the camera over the course of the year. With my progress in mind I recently took a leap of faith and shot my very first roll of Ektachrome 100 with my Goodman Zone Z1.

As my skills have improved I needed a challenge to help drive that progress further and I felt that it was time to try something new. First I shot Infrared, which I shared with you all here on my blog. The success of that experiment gave me confidence I was heading in the right direction. However, I had only shot B&W film with my Z1 and felt a move to colour film would be fun to try whilst the sun shone brightly here in the UK.

Analogue Wonderland, an excellent film retailer here in the UK, announced a summer contest based around Kodak Ektachrome. The premise being to shoot Ektachrome and show what Summer means to you. I thought about it for a while, well at least 3 minutes, and bought one roll of Ektachrome to pop my Slide/Colour Reversal Film cherry.

The summer of 2022 has been a long and dry one which gave plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy some colour film photography. My love of black and white photography and the lack of Kodak ColorPlus has seen my interest in colour film very much reduced, but the contest sparked my interest and I shot my roll of Ektachrome during one of my leisurely walks around the local nature trails and farm roads.

I chose a few compositions I was comfortable with and also a couple that I wasn't really sure would be suited to Ektachrome. There's not a lot of colour out in the sticks during summer, the wheat crop had been harvested early and the wheat field had begun to turn green again. I also found a large patch of brambles that was festooned with Blackberries. I really wasn't sure I had succeeded with this challenge, but my fears where allayed when I received my film back from Analogue Wonderlab a couple of weeks later.

The colour saturation of Ektachrome is as life-like as it gets for me. The juxtaposition of the greenery and the blue skies of summer complimented each other perfectly in my humble opinion and I could see why people enjoy using it. This film was brought back by Kodak after a public outcry amongst the film community concerned about the lack of colour reversal film when Kodak pulled the previous iteration from the market. 

Have I nailed every shot? Nope. I ever so slightly missed focus on a few frames and there's a couple of risks I took that turned out not to be the best idea I had on the day. I did learn a lot though. I learned that metering is crucial when using Ektachrome, or any other colour reversal film for that matter, especially in medium format. Taking the time to meter each scene paid off with decently exposed images.

I almost nailed the focus, there are a few soft focus shots on this set, but that's ok. My eyesight isn't great anyway and I do need to improve my focusing with my Goodman Zone. Should I choose to shoot more colour film with it, which is probably going to happen, I will continue to work on it and take as much time as I need. 

Overall I am pretty happy with my first roll of Kodak Ektachrome. Slowing myself right down and taking the time to try to get it right paid off I think. Here's a few of my shots and, as always, I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. The only thing stopping me from using it again at this time is the price. It's not a cheap film to buy, nor is it cheap to have developed, but it does look absolutely stunnin' and I probably will use it again in the future. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Ektachrome