My Journey Into Photography: Frugal Film Project 2023

With the new year comes the first instalment of the Frugal Film Project 2023 and I had to bide my time to get started this year. January began with rain and strong winds and I swear it didn't let up for a fortnight! Last weeks blog was evidence of that, but we finally got a day of sunshine which I tried to make the most of. I loaded my very first roll of Kentmere 400 120 medium format black and white film into my Agfa Isolette I and headed off around the local farms and nature trails to see what I could find.

It felt good to be out in the sunshine as I wandered up the lane to the farms. Staying indoors over the festive period and the first days of the new year was getting to me and this walk was a welcome change from the biblical rainstorm I endured the previous week. I took my customary shot of the gate with my Vivitar 45 light meter helping me get the settings dialled in and headed up the lane to my next shot.

The intersection between the lane and the route of the railway that serviced the mines in the area is always worth a look, I set up a composition and then had to wait several minutes as a cloud blocked the sunlight that had attracted me as it shone through the leafless trees. It soon returned and I bagged the shot and carried on my way.

My third composition was going to be of the intersection where the tarmac runs out and the lanes become tracks. However there was a slight problem that I discovered after I had taken shot 3. I hadn't wound the film on from shot 2 and ended up with a double exposure. It turned out to be a happy accident as I got both lanes lined up by sheer luck and decided to keep it as a lesson to try and remember.

The rest of my walk was pretty uneventful as I studiously kept track of my compositions from that point onwards. I hadn't used the camera for a while and got a little too confident I could remember how to use it properly. I visited some reccurrent locations and did some recon for future reference but the challenge for me on the spoil heap was navigating my way through the muddy clay without falling on my arse.

I almost managed to get back down onto the farm track when I slipped and dropped my Nikon F801s that I had been using for recon shots. This is possibly the only time I was glad my camera landed on soft ground as the worst that happened was it got muddy. I only just managed to keep my arse off the ground thanks to my walking stick giving me something to dig into the clag and keep me off the floor. Thankfully I carry a few paper towels in my pocket and soon had the worst of the mud removed from my camera.

I had just about had enough of the mud and headed home, grabbing a few shots along the way and finishing my film near the pond where the Moorhens live. I was glad to be home too as a few minutes after I walked through my front door the heavens opened and the rain hammered down.

As this was my very first roll of Kentmere 400 in medium format I decided to be gentle with development and used Kodak HC-110 dilution E, 1+47 from concentrate, for 9 minutes at 20 celcius. On hanging my film to dry I was happy with what I saw and left it to dry overnight. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Panagor macro converter, Meyer-Optik 30mm f/3.5 Lydith and a Pixl-Latr to hold the film. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

I enjoyed getting out, but not the dropping my camera bit. Thankfully I only needed to clean the mud off and everything works fine, but it dented my pride. Here are a few of my images from the walk and as always I have put them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2023 album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2023