Having had a good walk my compact camera I needed to rest for a day or three which gave me a chance to recover some energy and maybe find my mojo again. As it turned out it was the final day of May 2026 when I went for a walk along the nature trails and farm tracks to shoot my May roll of Kentmere 400 for the SLR section of my Frugal Film Project 2026 contribution.
To be honest, I'm glad I waited as it has been oppressively hot here in not so darkest Wigan. The UK and Europe got hit by a heatwave in the second half of May and, besides one thunderstorm, it has been drier than a dry thing in a tumble dryer. It's also grass pollen season....
I wasn't looking for anything special on my walk on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, just seeing what I could find just to get this month over and done with. The Hawthorne blossom has fallen and berries are now growing, ready to feed the local wildlife come autumn.
The Horses at the farm are enjoying being outdoors with plenty of grass to munch on and one of my favourite trees is providing some respite for them from the sun on the odd occasions it actually peeked from behind the clouds. All the living trees are in full foliage and gathering as much energy by day and releasing oxygen once they store the carbon they need to grow.
This year is definitely fallow year at the arable farm. The silage harvest I spotted early in the month made room for fresh grass to grow and it wouldn't surprise me if the farm gets one or two more crops of Silage before the year is over. It is used to feed livestock. What seems like a field of grass that wont make money is actually quite a useful crop.
I only did a short loop of the farm roads and footpaths this time around as I am still not feeling too clever after the events of the month. The sight of berries staring to show and another crop of grass growing for silage reminds me that the cycle of life continues, the sun will rise tomorrow and my grandchildren will always make me smile. With my roll of Kentmere 400 finished, I headed home for a cuppa.
I developed my film later that evening in
Bellini Euro HC, 1+31 dilution B, for 6 minutes at 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 holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 size led light pad. I
processed the RAW files with Affinity Studio.
I'm happy with my May roll of Kentmere 400 as I was able to get through it on the last day of the month without melting or getting soaked. May was a strange one, personal grief accompanied by either rain or a heatwave mirrored my state of mind. I was a little bit all over the place and I'm just glad I got through the month. Onwards to the next one!
Here's a few favourites from my May roll of Kentmere 400 shot with Donkey, my Minolta Dynax 4 with AF 28-80mm lens and a yellow filter. I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2026 - SLR album that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Frugal Film Project 2026 - SLR
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