Cursed Rolls and Trains - 2026-03-22/28

Notes

For this weekend photo-themed-but-actually-an-excuse-to-go-out walk I had no ideas, I just knew I had to at least finish a roll I began last weekend. I also thought, since I had no real ideas, I could just take one of the rolls that I bulk loaded last sunday, and was guaranteed to have a few light leaks, so it was perfect for a low-effort photo-walk where results didn't matter.

Then inspiration came in the form of a Bluesky thread, where one of the people I follow made a small movie out of a half-frame roll she shot. My brain immediately clicked, and pointed out I have a winder for my XG-2 that I enjoy but very rarely use because it's loud, and when you're a creepy looking chubby guy taking photos with a film camera the last thing you need is more attention. I decided to just walk to a nearby railway overpass and wait for the first train. Then after I snapped a couple, I walked into town and back, for a nice total of 8.2km.

Roll 1 went through 3 cameras, started in my FED-5v as the roll after the FP4+ I shot last week (photos still under embargo), then I put it in my little Konica and took it along when I went to the office on Monday and during the week in general, before putting it in the Minolta for the weekend, and taking a few pictures of my saturday lunch prep/weekend booze fest.

Roll 2 is the aforementioned experiment, the train photos were taken at f/16 and 1/250 shutter time. I then converted the images into a video file. The winder is 2fps, but for consistency I decided to set the frame duration on the video at 0.2s (so 5fps), meaning it's slightly accelerated. I kind of botched part of the development, loading roll 2 and 3 on the same reel, and part of roll 3 ended up touching roll 2. This means I kind of lost a few nice close ups of flowers I took after the train sequence, but also provided me with some damaged "white" frames, and I decided to leave one in the final video to give a visual cue before it loops again. And here you can find more train pictures from past weeks, should you want to.

Roll 3 is quite short, just 6 photos, it was the last piece of film from the APX 100 bulk roll I bought (I finally loaded the rest of it last sunday). I finished it just as I walked in my hometown main square, so I just turned on my back and went home.

Rolls 2 and 3 are the titular "cursed rolls", because of the way they were loaded and because of the problems during development. Also for roll 3 when loading the last piece of film slip inside and I had no leader, so I was forced to use humanity's most hated contraption, the film leader retrieval tool, even though after about a year of owning one I think I'm starting the hang of it.