This month I headed across the Pennines to visit my daughter in "that yorkshire" to shoot my September roll of Kentmere 400 for the Frugal Film Project 2023. We had a nice walk around a location I have visited before, the Brickyard Ponds at Bolton Upon Dearne. It's often said you dont need to go far to enjoy a little bit of countryside or a little bit of parkland and Bolton Brickies, as the locals call it, is an oasis in what was once the heart of the Yorkshire Coal Fields.
Bolton Upon Dearne is a former mining community that has had a hard time since the closure of the local mines. The old brickworks where the ponds are was landscaped by the local council many years ago. The clay pits were filled with water and fish and it has been a popular place for anglers and dog walkers in the town ever since.
I had pre-loaded my Balda Baldax 6x4.5 medium format folding camera before setting off so I was ready to go when my daughter and I arrived. My daughter was suitably impresssed that a 90 year old camera could still be used to take photos and I set about finding compositions to see what changes had occurred since my last visit to the Brickies.
The changes were small, but overall nothing much had changed. One pond is in the process of being fenced off as a fishing club has acquired exclusive use of it. My grandson is a member and he really enjoys fishing there.
The main pond and land around both ponds is still accessible to the public for fishing, walking the dog and folks like me who enjoy taking photos. It's nice to have a green space where people can enjoy an hour or two of fresh air and a bit of peace and quiet.
My daughter and I really appreciated our walk and it seemed like all too soon we had to go home ready for the kids coming home from school. Sadly I had to come home later that day, but it wont be long until I am paying her another visit. It's a four hour journey home by train and I left my developing until the following afternoon.
I used Zone Imaging 510 Pyro to develop my film for 11 minutes in a dilution of 1+100 at 20 celcius. I stopped the developing with filtered water before fixing my film with Fotospeed FX30 for 6 minutes. When I hung my film to dry in my bathroom I could see I had some decently exposed photos and I left it to dry for a few hours.
I scanned my film with my Nokia phone and Pixl-latr to hold it and my led light pad to illuminate my film. Once digitised and on my PC I processed the images with Affinity Photo 2 to bring them to life and remove dust spots and scratches. To be honest I just needed to adjust the levels a bit and only a few had scratches on them, which didn't take me long.
Scanning my film is something I have wanted to improve upon and I ordered a Valoi 120 medium format film mask for my Pix-Llatr. Kentmere 400 dries reasonably flat, but other films do have a little curl to them that has caused me problems in the past. It's time to sort it and hopefully next month I shall have the Valoi mask.
Here's a few of my favourite images from my September roll of Kentmere 400 medium format film for the Frugal Film Project 2023. The more I use Baldy the Baldax, the more I like it. For a camera built in the 1930's with an unknown service history, it aint doin' too bad. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2023 album on Flickr that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2023
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