I left it late to shoot my December roll of Kentmere 400 with Baldy the Baldax, I would have shot it earlier in the month, but circumstances meant I was going down to the wire. I set off at 1 pm on December 31st on a dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy day that was dotted with showers and just did the best I could in the conditions. Self inflicted I know, but if I couldn't get something from this walk with 3 hours of daylight left in 2023, I was going to have to suck it up and call it a bust!
I headed to the local farm roads and tried a few frames in the woodland before I reached the open farmland. I wasn't at all confident that I would have anything to share from the first few frames as I dialled my settings in.
I took a couple of readings with my Gossen Trisix light meter and it wasn't giving me anything that remotely matched what shutter speeds I have available on Baldy the Baldax, so I winged it and resorted to guessing. I set my aperture at between f/8 and f/11 and guessed 1/100th second would be there or there about for my shutter speed. I would find out if I was right when I got home and developed my film.
I wasn't shooting anything I hadn't shot before, my compositions were nothing special, but time was short and I just went with what I knew. By the time I reached the fields I had a handful of shots already done and continued with familiar compositions. I can't pass by the power lines without taking a photo, it's the law!
Crossing the fields wasn't an option as they were soaked from the almost constant rain that had fallen during December and it was just too muddy for me to even think about walking along those footpaths. I did notice the Farmer had been making more improvements by adding fencing in a couple of places. Ramblers now have to use the stiles and gates on the footpaths rather than using gaps in the hedges or openings where gates used to be.
By the time I had got to my last couple of shots I was soaked and in need of a hot drink so I headed home, shooting the last couple of frames along the way. I enjoyed my walk, despite the horrid weather and wanted to see the results of my guess work.
After a hot drink and drying off back at my home, I developed my Kentmere 400 in Zone Imaging 510 Pyro diluted at 1+100 for 11 minutes at 20 celcius. Development was stopped with plain old tap water and I fixed my film with Fotospeed FX30. After a good rinse I hung it to dry in my bathroom.
I digitised my film with my Nikon D700 and Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens. My film was held nice and flat with my Valoi medium format film holder on my Pixl-Latr and illuminated with my A5 size led light pad. The RAW files were process with Affinity Photo 2
I could see from my negatives that I had not got any usable images from the woodland, I had underexposed them by quite a margin. I was closer to the mark with the shots I took of the power lines and trees along the field boundaries. I wasn't too upset as I did leave it until the last day and there was an hour of daylight left when I finished my roll of film. I got ten useable images and counted my blessings that I had managed to complete the project.
I am going to be using Baldy the Baldax, my 4.5x6 medium format folding camera again for the Frugal Film Project 2024. I'm rather taken with it and it's not done too bad at 90 years young. I hope I can get all the way through 2024 with Baldy the Baldax and I am also going to use my Olympus OM101 35mm camera that my dear friend "Wellies" gave to me a while back. I have been meaning to use it more and the Frugal Film Project is the perfect opportunity.
If anyone fancies joining The Frugal Film Project I will leave a link below to the Facebook group where we all hang out. Folks who don't use facebook can still join in and use the hashtag #frugalfilmproject on your social media accounts. All we ask is your camera equipment costs no more than 75 pounds, dollars, euros etc. and you source your film locally if possible and as cheap as you can. Here's a few of my favourite photos from my December roll of Kentmere 400 shot with Baldy the Baldax. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2023 - December
Frugal Film Project on Facebook
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