Frugal Film Project Take Two: June Edition

I am typing this post on a MacBook Pro using a Windows keyboard which means the keyboard shortcut for copy and paste is different than I am used to, which means that I am going to screw things up left and right. Enjoy.

The Frugal Film Project Lives. My second attempt at shooting a roll of (relatively) inexpensive film through a camera I spent less than $50 on each month for a year. I tried it last year and failed after four months. This year I am trying it again. I started in May. This post covers June. July’s edition is 50% shot but nothing has been developed yet. It’s only July 6th, give me a break, okay?

As stated in the May edition of the blog posts, I am trying to do this twice this year. One attempt is shooting Kodak Gold 200 through my Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal. The other is the same camera shooting Kentmere 100.

First, we’ll look at the Kodak Gold images. There should be 12 but because I suck at life there are 11. The camera needs to be manually wound. There is a little red window on the back that lets you see the back of the film as you wind it. You’re supposed to wind it until you see the number 1 in the little window and then stop. That spot will be your first photo. Makes sense, right? Numbnutz over here wound too far and had to start on number 2. Idiot.

So here come the 11 shots. First we have a sunrise at Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH. I took these on June 14, 2026.

000371110008 — I suck at photography, part 1

000371110007 — After a short drive to the North…

000371110006 — I want to say I like the lens flare but… maybe not

Okay, we’re done with Hampton Beach. Now we move on to the Newburyport Harborwalk Rail Trail in Newburyport, MA.

000371110005 — I had a feeling the sun was going to be too much for this really slow camera and sure enough…

000371110003 — I feel like I am learning a lesson here

000371110001 — The bad photography continues

With that, our color experience comes to an end. There should be 12 photos but I am an idiot and there are only 11. Project 2A is complete. Now we move on to project 2B and everything is in black and white. These pics are also from the Harborwalk Rail Trail and they also have problems with too much sun… because I suck.

000370260011 — I mean, at least I wasn’t looking directly at the sun, right?

000370260010 — I suck at photography, part 2

000370260009 — Do I actually like this one? If so, why?

000370260007 — A bridge too far, or something

000370260006 — I suck at photography, part 3

000370260005 — Yup, I suck at photography, part 4

000370260003 — Chairs. I feel like I could have composed this better

There we have it. Frugal Film Project 2B has been shared. Next time I will avoid shooting into the sun when it’s high and overpowering like this. Oh well.

I said the July edition of the project is half done. I shot the roll of Kodak Gold yesterday (July 5th) in Boston. I was planning on shooting the Kentmere roll too but I got pulled away. I will have to go out and shoot one more time this month in order to stay on track. I mean, I can’t have a project go bust faster than last year, right?

Also, in closing… I feel like a putz for missing a shot on the first roll. I’ll share one more pic. This was taken one week later, July 21st, on Harman Phoenix II, which I have officially moved to the “never buy this film again” list. I just don’t like it. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of it in my film stash. Crap. This one is the Concord River in Lowell, MA. It sucks, but at least it brings this masterpiece of a blog post up to 24 photos.

PS: As I was posting these pics I was blowing them up pretty huge on my big gigantic monitor. These are medium format photos and even though they really suck ass, after viewing them… I get it. The medium format thing. I get it. The resolution is just… I don’t know. It’s something though. I get it.

The Frugal Film Project Lives Again

I bet you’ve been seeing this coming for a while now… or not because no one actually reads this, but that’s not the point. I’m trying to connect here folks, gimme a break, m’kay?

The Frugal Film Project, Buy a cheap film camera, buy some relatively cheap film (there is no such thing as cheap film in 2026), shoot one roll each month for a year. I can do that, right? Hell yes, I can. Except of course that I tried it last year and failed. I started in May and made it through four months. In September I did not get a single shot in, never mind a whole roll. Oh well.

Now, one year later, let’s try again. There’s a twist this time though. Last year I decided to use my little Soviet TLR, a Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal that I bought for a little less than $50 on eBay and much to my surprise it actually worked. I also decided to use Kentmere 400 film only to realize as I was packing up to shoot the first roll that I didn’t actually have any of that film so I changed my mind and went with Kodak Gold 200. How’s that for thinking on my feet, eh?

The twist this year is that I am actually going to try and do this twice. I am going to follow last year’s plan of the Lubitel and Gold, but I am also going to try to follow last year’s original plan of the Lubitel and Kentmere, though I don’t have any Kentmere 400 right now (deja-vu all over again) so we’re going with Kentmere 100. Let’s call the Gold roll Frugal Film Project 2A, and the Kentmere roll Frugal Film Project 2B. I have a roll of project 2A from May 1st and project 2B from May 5th. Both rolls have been developed and all 12 shots from each roll came out okay. We’re off to a good start. Two of them, actually!

Here’s the first roll. These were taken at the ocean.

We start at a little spot off the road where you can see some fishing and charter boats. This is not actually the ocean, of course. Is it a bay? A little harbor? I’m not nautical enough to know the proper term. Also, dig that friggin weird line through the photo. My first roll or two that I shot in this camera last year had that on a few shots but then it went away. Now it’s back. Hooray.

Next we go to Hampton Beach and we see my biggest issue with this camera. Not only is it almost impossible to focus on the little focusing screen, but for some reason I cannot keep the friggin’ images level. I don’t think I lean this much when I stand still but who knows. Do I have one leg significantly longer than the other? What is the actual deal?

On the road to Plum Island, stopping to look at planes. Some day I am going to hang out here and shoot some planes actually taking off. Someday.

Check out the amateur’s shadow. Friggin’ hack.

Next we have Plum Island itself. This is the mouth of the Merrimack River, where it dumps into the ocean, and the Plum Island Lighthouse.

And there you have it. The Frugal Film Project take two, roll A. I am such a nerd.

Now we move on to take two, roll B. We leave color film behind and move on to the magical mystery tour that is black and white. We also travel from the ocean to Boston, where I sort of expect to take most of these pics in the future. This was a walk along Newbury Street, a little stretch of Mass Ave near Berklee College of Music, and then on Comm Ave.

So maybe I finished the roll before I made it over to Comm Ave. Sorry about that.

Right then, two rolls of medium format, 120 film shot on a cheap camera by a cheap, talentless red head. Two instances of month one of the Frugal Film Project. I haven’t figured out where I will go for June’s pics. I’d guess that at least one of the rolls will be in Boston again. We will all just have to wait and see together.

Protected: The New Camera Works!

Medium Format

I just got the scans from the four rolls of film I sent out for developing! My new/old ebay purchased medium format camera works! Well… it produced an image. Moron over here didn’t figure out how to actually use it correctly until he’d basically ruined two rolls of film, but those two rolls of film both produced images that look mostly okay!

My Lomo Lubitell 166 Universal works!

That image is from the second roll. Note how there are two images over lapping. That is because I am an idiot who is bad at geometry.

The second roll came out much better than the first, but the first one was exposed when the back of the camera popped open on me. Everything was messed up to various degrees.

The next roll I shoot will be better… I think. We’ll have to find out. Focusing this thing is a bitch, so who knows.

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