This month's roll of Kentmere 400 was a bit Britney. "Oops, I did it again!" I left it late and almost never got the darn thing shot. I'm not making any excuses, this stuff happens and I try not to get all hung up about it. It wasn't a bad day though as I was able to get out and about with my Grandsons who wanted to spend time with Grandad and take some photos.
It's been a while since Ethan has shot any film and he remembered how to load the Minolta Dynax 500si with a roll of Ilford HP5. It was his little brother Joseph's first experience of using a camera, so I had to think for a minute what to let him loose with. To keep him interested and engaged I gave him my Fuji Instax Mini 90 to use, which was a wise choice as it's magic! He's 5 and things like that still amaze him. With our cameras loaded, we set off around the local footpaths.
It didn't take long to find our first photo of the day as a few yards down the road to the farms we found a small patch of Bluebells and I explained to Joseph how to use the Instax camera. Once the boys were happy with their photos we carried on our way. The Bluebells photo was Josephs best shot of the day and I will put it with mine below.
We soon arrived at the fields that I was beginning to think would be fallow this year. The lines of polythene covering a freshly sown crop stretching across the fields proved otherwise and we couldn't resist the lure of the lines for a shot or two as we wandered along the road. Then Joseph spotted the Horses.
Joseph wanted to feed and stroke the horses, but a swift lesson on the Country Code soon set him straight. I told him "Please don't touch or try to feed the animals. The grass is growing now so the horses have plenty to eat and their humans will be giving them carrots later." Joseph is a pretty straightforward young chap and accepted that lesson off me, so he stood and chatted to them instead. Well, he is nearly 6...
Our walk took us past the farm and around the top end of the field with the horses in where we saw two more horses that I didn't recognise. We introduced ourselves and though these new horses were curious, they soon got back to their business of eating as much grass as possible whilst it was daylight.
The path across the field where the corn was growing last summer has been ploughed away and lines of polythene covering the newly sown crop stretched as far as we could see. The line of the path is no longer defined so we decided to follow another path around the edge of the next field to avoid walking across the newly sown crops. It also gave us a chance to see if we could use those lines in some more photos. This path took us to a place where the two fields are joined by an access for tractors where we were able to cross it. We headed for the gate where the previous path met the gravel road and we made our way back towards home.
I finished my roll of Kentmere 400 at my usual Power Lines location and the lines of polythene ran more or less parallel to the power lines which helped my composition. It also marked a change from the last photo I took not long after the field was ploughed. The inexorable change of the seasons continues and it wont be long before this years crop starts to appear and turn the stripes green. The boys and I had a good wander with our cameras, but we were glad to get home and tell my wife what a good time we had. I was done for the day and we decided to develop our film the next day.
Having two Paterson tanks comes in handy when one film is 35mm and one is medium format. Last time we shot B&W film together we had used the same film and both went into the same tank, but this time Ethan was able to develop his own. I mixed up some HC110 dilution B 1+31 and loaded Ethan's film onto a reel for him, but he did everything else. I just supervised whilst he poured the chemicals in the right order and twiddled the twiddling stick at the appropriate time.
5 minutes at 20 celcius is what the Massive Dev Chart told us to develop Ilford HP5 shot at box speed and it wasn't long before he had developed, stopped and fixed his film. The smile on his face when he was able to pull the first few inches of film from the reel after a good rinse and see his work was wider than a Cheshire Cat.
I developed my roll of Kentmere 400 medium format film in HC110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and I hung both our films up to dry overnight in the bathroom. I scanned my film using my trusty Nikon D700 and Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens then processed the raw files with Affinity Photo 2.
Ethan wasn't able to scan his film as he had to go home shortly after developing it, but that's ok. We can do that next time the boys come to stay for the weekend. I did it for him this time with my trusty Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and to be fair his didn't need much editing. The aperture priority setting on Ethan's Minolta Dynax 500si is pretty accurate. I just removed dust spots and scratches where needed.
Here are a few of my favourites I shot for the Frugal Film Project during a very enjoyable walk with my Grandsons. They had a lot of fun taking photos and spending time with Grandad whilst I enjoyed documenting the day and teaching them some skills that I hope they enjoy for many years to come. I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project album on Flickr for you to enjoy in full resolution using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
What's that? You want to see Ethan's photos too? Oh go on then. I put his photos in an album on my Flickr account, click the link below to see the photos he chose to show you and Ethan hopes you enjoy them as much as he did taking them. Joseph hopes you like his photo too.
Frugal Film Project 2023
Ethan's Photos
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| Joseph's Photo |
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