Frugal Film Project 2025 - September

 I left it late to get out and shoot my September roll of Type 517 Cine Film with my Kodak Retina 1a for the Frugal Film Project 2025. August was mad busy, the beginning of September saw me do a lot of editing and writing and frankly, I was burned out. It happens, especially when you aren't supposed to be putting yourself through a stressful time. I gave myself plenty of time to unwind and managed to get out on the last day of September for a couple of hours to shoot my film. 

My compositions were nothing special, just documenting stuff I saw on my walk around town and the local farm roads. I took the time to measure the light with my trusty Gossen Trisix at various times to keep my exposures consistent. I didn't get constant light, it was cloudy with sunny intervals and I was able to switch between 1/100th and 1/250th of second at f/8 shooting my film at a nominal 100 iso. 

This kind of photography used to scare me, but using a basic camera is actually the easiest way to shoot film. Do it regularly, as I do for the Frugal Film Project each year, and it becomes second nature. Do I still make mistakes? Absolutely. I am human, it's what we do and I try to learn from them. However, with film you only find out if you made a mistake when you develop your film. Having finished my roll of Type 517 Cine Film at the local farm I headed for home to see how I got on.

I was still feeling a little burnout from the mad dash to get my holiday snaps sorted and it was 10 days later when I finally got to develop my film in Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B for 12 minutes at 20 celcius. I mixed fresh chemicals for this session as my last developing session a few weeks previously didn't go well. I thought it best to start afresh and soon had my film developed, fixed, washed and 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. 

When I hung my film to dry I could see I have got it right for September. However, the proof is always in the final image. Whilst processing my RAW files I didn't have to worry too much about editing them because they were just about there and I soon worked my way through my shots. Mixing fresh chemicals always helps and I am happy with my results this month.

Here's a few of my favourite photos from my September roll of Type 517 Cine Film shot with my Kodak Retina 1a for the Frugal Film Project 2025. I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2025 album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2025 - September