Frugal Film Project November 2025 - First Snowfall of the Season
As the 2025 Frugal Film Project winds down in the final months, I’ve really found myself struggling to get out there and shoot. I’ve figured out that its definitely a combination of burn-out from shooting so much paying work this year with my digital gear, and resenting the 36 shots on a roll that one gets with 35mm film. It’s just all too much. I’m definitely going to do the FFP again for 2026, but I’m going to shoot with medium format film instead. More on that for next month’s FFP post.
So I had my roll of Fuji 400 loaded in my trusty Canonet QL19 just waiting to get out to shoot something, when the first snowfall of the season hit in November. I had about an hour before I had to go to work, so I threw on some clothes, grabbed the Canonet, and headed out.
The light was very low even after the appointed sunrise time, and that was because the sun was hidden behind clouds and it was still snowing. Most of the shots were at f/5.6 and 1/60th of a second, which is about the slowest I want to go with the Canonet. I’ve read where people can get away with 1/30th, but that’s just way to slow for me. I’m not that steady.
I shot the entire roll in about 45 minutes and then headed home. The next weekend I had some time do develop and scan, and I was happy with several shots on the roll. Could the light have been better? Yep! But here in the midwest sometimes we have to make the best of what we are given.
Below are some of my favorites from the roll. Click on the first image to open in a pop-up window and scroll through.
I think my favorite is the last image. I love the snow on the trees, the color on the prairie grass, and the way the background falls off due to the falling snow in the air.
I’ve enjoyed shooting with the Canonet this year, even if I’ve grown to dislike 35mm film. It’s an easy camera to use, and the meter works great. It’s all about “set it and forget it” to be in the moment instead of over-thinking things. For these shots I changed the film speed to 100 instead of 400 to trick the meter into over-exposing by two stops, which is my usual go-to formula when shooting snow scenes. Shooting at box speed in snow with no compensation causes grey, flat, under-exposed images.
The forecast for Ohio this winter is calling for above-average snowfalls. I’m really looking forward to it. If its going to be winter, we may as well have snow. Right?
As always, thanks for reading.
Jeremy