52 Rolls - Week 2: Holga, the mustard one… / April 5, 2016 by Jacqui Booth

Ah, week two. Well, let’s just say I’m better prepared for week 3, but this was a bit of a landmark week for me as, after taking loads of advice, I developed my own film whilst the male things watched Star Wars. Of course, the kids stormed the kitchen for snacks the moment the tricky develop/30 second stop/fix needed doing, but hey. I have pictures.

For the purposes of 52 rolls, to make things extra difficult, I have a cunning plan. For years I’ve worked for a website that started with the maxim of starting at your doorstep and working outwards (that’s you, Cathy C). Of course, the philosophy has now changed but I’m darn well going to reclaim this idea, so that hopefully there will be some sort of aim to my 52 rolls plan, rather than wazzing away a lot of film and chemicals. I will of course digress often, as the website did, to meet needs as they happened – but hopefully there will always be a few pictures that follow this path.

So, last week featured my inner sanctum – physically in the form of my front room. I’m going to get all the way out to the back garden this week. Get me. This ties in with some very grumpy posts I’ve been adding to Instagram called Leicestershire: A difficult place to love. Probably the least I say on this subject the better, but perhaps I’ll grow to like it a bit more over the next few weeks? Hmm.

I’m not going to list all the developing times (though I’ve had to give in and note them down on the film backing paper) but I am going to vaguely wonder what made my film mottled, as has happened before with a different film/developer. It could be the mustard Holga I borrowed…but it’s most likely my general lack of care and attention that means that the cameras are kept in my office conservatory – not a room known for it’s temperate climate. It is ICY right now.

I’m also going to give a little bit more thought to perhaps not getting the negatives covered in dust. But then life is short and I probably don’t care that much. Better to get on and get things done!

And a few leftovers from week 1, still hanging around, like festive stilton in the fridge.

This blog was first published in January 2016 on 52rolls.net

52 Rolls - Week 1: Fuji Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic / April 5, 2016 by Jacqui Booth

This is absolutely the last thing I should be doing. I’m already behind. And despite there not being many rules, I’m probably going to break them straight away. Yep, there’s no exif data so I could fib. But I won’t.

Besides, week one involves a film finished on the 1st January. Okay, when it’s a ‘polaroid’ then yes, it’s a bit of a cheat, but for starters that’s just how I’m going to have to handle it! Next week I will be good. Or good-er. I have cameras with film left in them that will need to be cleared so you might see this cheatery – film finished that week – come into play again. Bear with me. One of them is my grandad’s camera that I’ve reserved for photos of the family so there’s no rushing that…

Anyway, I want to share this first off. It’s not what I normally do, and it’s not going to get artistic types stroking their chins and going “ahhh” or technical folk admiring my techniques. Far from it. I am even a bit ashamed.

What I want to try to express here is the sheer pleasure we all got from this basically unnessary, too expensive medium. The whole family loved the process, and I loved seeing them take part in the pictures – posing, waiting for them to develop, stashing them away whilst I got on with other stuff, looking at the results. I watched a friend smile as he looked through them. Yes, he could have been being polite (or it could have been the wine) but I hope he felt a little bit of the joy I feel as I sift through them, taking pleasure in being able to hold the little rectangles of film, the unusual tangibleness of them being THERE in their handily designed holdable ‘pouches’, rather than being beamed from a screen.

So, here we are, clowning around having festive fun, hanging out in Matlock for the Boxing Day raft race and taking New Year pics. Any further introduction can wait for now…

Okay, there’s some technical stuff. The camera is a Fuji Instax Mini 90 Neo Classic. The black one. Most shots were taken indoors with the red eye reduction turned on. And the cheapest film can be found on eBay. Buy in bulk!

Two shots were taken by my son. The ones with me in them. That’s quite enough information, I think!