Half Frame Adventures in London – World Wide Half Frame Photography Day – Paula Smith

I’ve always loved a good photowalk, especially when it comes with a theme. On 6th September 2025, photographers around the globe marked the very first World Wide Half Frame Photography Day. I joined the London photowalk, organised by Yant Martin-Keyte (@yantmk on Instagram), armed with a couple of cameras and some slightly risky rolls of film.

Cameras & Film for the Day

For this walk, I packed my Olympus Pen EES half frame camera and, perhaps a little controversially, a Holga 120n with the 645 insert. Technically it produces a negative that’s half the width of a 6×9 frame — so I’m counting it as half frame!

I loaded the Holga with a roll of expired Lomography Redscale film, while the Pen EES got some Kodak Vision 3 250D. The mix gave me a fun balance between experimental unpredictability and reliable colour rendering.

Exploring King’s Cross with Film Cameras

We started at Mornington Crescent tube station and wandered through the backstreets around King’s Cross, London. One of the joys of these walks is stumbling across corners of London I’ve never really explored before.

I didn’t set out with a strict project in mind, but I was hoping to capture some diptychs and triptychs along the way – just letting the day unfold through the lens.

When Expired Film Fights Back

Of course, film photography comes with its surprises. My roll of Lomography Redscale turned out to be a total failure. The film was clearly very expired and produced fogged, mottled frames with barely a usable image. A shame, as I’d pointed the Holga at some interesting subjects. Still, it’s an important reminder: don’t trust mystery rolls for moments you can’t photograph again.

Development Troubles

As if that wasn’t enough, something went wrong during home processing. All four rolls I developed came out with strange, crusty deposits across the negatives. My best guess is a stabiliser issue, though oddly some frames were more affected than others.

Normally I’d spend time spot-cleaning after scanning, but this time I decided life is way too short and so have left the flaws in. After all, film photography is as much about embracing imperfection as it is about chasing perfection. Plus serendipity added some magic with two of the Holga frames, there is something pretty atmospheric about these.

The Results

So, despite the setbacks, here are some of the results from my World Wide Half Frame Photography Day in London. They may not be flawless, but they’re a record of a really enjoyable day celebrating the half frame camera format. Huge thanks to Yant for setting it up.