My first attempt at the Frugal Film Project made it through four months before it crashed and burned and died a painful death. May through August 2025, all success. September 2025… epic fail.
My second attempt at the Frugal Film Project has now officially survived through the first five months. We’re alive and kicking, kids! May through September 2026, all wins. Kick ass.
Take a cheap film camera like my Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal and a cheapish film like say Kentmere 100 or Kodak Gold 200 and shoot one roll each month for a year. Or you can be a friggin’ idiot like me and shoot two rolls a month in an attempt to punish yourself for screwing up your first attempt at this silly thing last year.
We start with a roll of black and white Kentmere 100 shot on Weir Hill in North Andover, MA at Lake Cochichewick on September 24, 2026 after a dentist appointment.
And there we have it. One roll of film down and one to go. The second roll started at Salisbury Beach at sunrise and then moved over to the Parker River Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. They were taken on September 7, 2026.
And that’s a wrap on the Kodak Gold 200 roll. Success. 12 shots on both rolls and everything came out. Amazing. 120 film. Medium format. Just dig that crazy resolution.
Now that its October I have to figure out what I want to do for month six. I want to do some fall foliage but the lens on this camera is slow and the two films I picked are also slow and I don’t think I will have much luck in the woods. Unless I bring a tripod. I could do that. Maybe. If I don’t I’ll just go back to Boston or something. We’ll see.
What a wonderful project—and even better, what a wonderful example of giving yourself another chance! 📷😊
I love that the first attempt made it through four months before September brought an “epic fail,” yet you didn’t abandon the idea. You simply came back in 2026 and started again. Five months in, you’re not only alive and kicking—you’ve already turned failure into part of the story.
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