Frugal Film Project 2025 - October

 October came around quick and I managed to get out on a sunny afternoon between rain storms. I didn't go far, just around Mesnes Park and Wigan town centre to enjoy some photography. I had loaded my October roll of Type 517 Cine Film into my Kodak Retina 1a a few days previously and then had to wait until the skies cleared and the sun shone.

October has been pretty wet with a couple of North Atlantic storms dropping a couple of months worth of rain on the UK. First we had Storm Amy at the beginning of October, followed a week or so later by another storm, not named, but still dropping a lot of rain. I was glad to get out on the first sunny day I had seen for a week or three.

Mesnes Park is beautiful in Autumn and I have a lot of colour photos of this years display as the trees shed their foliage. As I made my way through the park I saw a wedding party taking advantage of the sunshine to have their wedding photos with one of the bride and groom rubbing Sir Francis' foot for luck. I hope they enjoy a long and happy life together. 

I didn't want to intrude on their special day and made my way into town, taking photos as I walked and just generally enjoying my day. I visited my usual haunts, but tried to find different compositions rather than my tried and trusted views. I also visited a couple of locations I haven't visited for a while too. It's good to mix things up and it wasn't long before I finished my film and made my way home.

I developed my film later in the week with Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B for 12 minutes and 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film older, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light pad. I processed my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

Oh how this film worships sunlight! Way back a year ago when I used this film for the first time, It was a dull day in Liverpool with little in the way of bright light. 12 months on and I have learned so much more about it's strength and weakness that I can almost use my Mk 1 eyeballs to meter the light for it. Almost... 

Yes, it's based on Ilford's finest FP4 125 and yes it loves bright light, but it also loves a yellow filter. It just evens out the exposure, when I get it right, and leaves me with little to do in post production. I still have much to learn and to explore what it can do. Once this years Frugal Film Project is done I will still be using it for as long as stocks last.

Here's a few favourites from my October roll of Type 517 Cine Film shot with my Kodak Retina 1a and yellow filter. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2025 album on Flickr that you can visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2025 - October