Spring has been hot and dry here in darkest Wigan and I wasn't feeling up to going out much after expending a lot of creative energy on Opaque, the new photo book from the Photozine Collective, and making the most of the glorious Cherry Blossom around town. That changed when a good rest made life a little more bearable and I went for a walk in my local countryside on a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid May. As always when I am out and about I was pulling double duty and shooting a brand new film with my Minolta X-700. I shot that roll first and will speak about it in a future blog.
I finished my other roll at the half way point of my walk and got started on my roll of Type 517 Cine Film in my Retina 1a. To be honest I was enjoying being out in the countryside, taking advantage of the dry spring we have had. The farmer had been busy planting this years crop, I think it's corn, and I enjoyed using the rows of crops as leading lines to the house and trees in the distance across the field. I was thinking of my hope for rain to help the crops grow tall and strong. We all love the nice weather, but to feed us all we need rain.
I soon arrived at the Stile which has been my nemesis this last few years. I don't like using it at the best of times, but with the sun being out, it made me be a little more bold and, after a few photos, I managed to navigate my way over it. This stile is a deceptive one as it drops down on the other side and has caught a few people out in the past. I took a couple from the other side and headed across the field where the horses were enjoying the shade at the bottom of the hill.
The pond at the top of this field was quite still on this day so I tried a couple of compositions using reflections with the trees and reeds etc. Then I headed onto the wash to visit my favourite tree on there. It's good to see the Silver Birch trees in full foliage again. I also took a couple of photos of the derelict car with it's new graffiti. It changes every time I see it and the local kids haven't got any better at painting and spelling, bless 'em.
It was almost time to head for home and I took a walk onwards to the next pond and the summerhouse that has been enthralling me with it's reflection on the water. I also took a shot of the Post Box and a lonely traffic cone because we have to, it's the law! I headed for the shops to pick up a couple of things before I turned for home. This Brit need milk for his cuppa tea and cornflakes and I had run out. I had also nearly run out of frames on this roll and had had enough inspiration for one day so I resolved to finish the last few frames later. I put my camera in my bag, got my shopping and went home for a well earned cuppa.
I decided to have a little play and developed my roll of Type 517 Cine Film with Bellini Euro HC 1+31 for 12 minutes at 20 celcius instead of 14 1/2 minutes and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized LED light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
Sunny days is where this film thrives, but I have a habit of getting my Mk1 eyeball metering wrong and it shows in this months roll. I over exposed most of my shots, but the ones I got right were bang on. I lose focus and things just slip my mind, it happens to everyone, but especially me since my stroke. Thankfully this film has a wide dynamic range and I was able to salvage it with Affinity Photo 2.
That dynamic range means that this film has got my attention and it has grown on me over the first half of 2025. I want to experiment with filters and I think it's time to hunt some down on the bay. I also need to give myself a kick up the ass to make a better effort at getting my exposures right rather than hoping I can save them later. One thing I do know for sure is this Kodak Retina 1a is a little gem, the diamond in the bundle I bought last year and I reckon everyone should give one of these cameras a try at some point, even if it is just the once.
It was a joy to get back to my vintage cameras after spending a bit of time with my all singing and dancing electronic auto everything cameras of the last few weeks. It's nice to have the toys with all the bells and whistles, but a simple camera is much more fun. Here's a few favourites from my May roll of Type 517 Cine Film shot my Kodak Retina 1a for the Frugal Film Project 2025. I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project album on Flickr for you to visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2025
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