Frugal Film Project 2026 - SLR - April

 After finishing my roll of Kentmere 400 with my Hanimex, I decided to take a walk around my local woodland with my Minolta Dynax 4, again loaded with Kentmere 400. I had to make the most of a sunny Monday afternoon and to mitigate the harshest light and heat of the day, a walk in the woods was definitely welcome. I grabbed my bag, hung my Dynax 4 around my neck and headed to the woods. 

I enjoy a good wander along the nature trails through my local woodland. It's literally across the road and the difference between being on a housing estate to being in the woods so quickly is quite profound. It's like turning a page and starting a fresh chapter in a book. It was also a couple of degrees cooler and soft lad here had his leather jacket on. Fonzi would approve as leather jackets are cool. As are baseball caps with flames up the side. Yep, my Summer Hat came out to play too.

I love to see the changes of light and shade during a wander around the woods, the sun light through the trees makes for interesting shadows. There was also a lot of late Hawthorne blossoming and a lone Lilac too. One place I like is the glade where the Bluebells are. I was using Black and White, but it didn't stop me photographing the clumps of Whitebells next to the farm road as I made my way through the woods. Dapples of light were isolating a few flowers from the rest and I thought it made for a good composition. 

This is why I enjoy using a zoom lens. I can get closer to my subject without having to struggle with bending down or getting to my knees to take the photo. I have to say that Minolta made exceedingly good kit lenses for their Dynax/Maxxum series of cameras. Do I have better lenses? Yep, but I am sticking with the kit lens for the year as it came with the camera when I bought it from my friend. It's the best £10 I have spent in a long time. I soon finished my April roll of Kentmere 400 and headed for home for a well earned cuppa.

I developed my April roll of Kentmere 400 shot with my Minolta Dynax 4 using Belini Euro HC, 1+31 dilution B, for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised my film 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 Studio.

Once again, Donkey has not let me down. My Minolta Dynax 4 with 28-80mm kit lens has given me a lot of joy since I bought it for £10. My compositions may not be the best, but I know they are well exposed. I even got most of them in focus. There are plenty of changes that have happened since my last wander there in Autumn 2025. 

More trees have fallen, the campfire site has been altered by some enterprising youth with a saw and the sapling growing from the base of the dead tree is still alive and a fair bit bigger. This makes me happy as the dead tree is slowly, but surely collapsing. It will probably rot away before the decade is out and I hope it doesn't fall onto the sapling that is taking nourishment from it's host.

Here's a few favourites from my April roll of Kentmere 400 shot with Donkey for the Frugal Film Project 2026. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project - SLR album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2026 - Donkey - April