January, 2014
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Friday, January 31st, 2014
Last Saturday I did some backstage photography during TEDx Oxford 2014 which was held at the New Theatre on George Street. I have fond memories of going to the New Theatre as a child and once even saw a double bill screening of The Spy Loved Me and Revenge of the Pink Panther there. A large white safety screen was hung over the stage and the movies were projected onto that. So, I was excited to be backstage and get a glimpse behind the curtain.
I did do some photography of the speakers from the wings but for me I most important thing was to photograph the worker bees that were making the event happen because without them there wouldn’t be much of a conference. These shots are all from the same roll of medium format film, made in available light.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80mm Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), rated at ISO 800, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 2.8f, 6x6, backstage, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, students, TEDx, Tri-X
Wednesday, January 29th, 2014
The Endeavour crew were here in Oxford last weekend to film parts of series II episode IV which will be the final episode of the second series. They were only here for two days which is a lot less than the previous three episodes. The weather was cold and very wet at times which limited the amount of photography I was able to do. Here are some shots from a night scene that was filmed on Turl Street.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80mm Zeiss planar lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 2.8f, 6x6, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, rolleiflex, Tri-X
Tuesday, January 28th, 2014
These two portraits were made during my lunch break today, I wanted to test out a Polaroid 110B camera that I recently bought. This one has been converted to use instant pack film just like the Fujiroids that I enjoy using so much. This camera has a rangefinder for focussing which I’m not a big fan of but that’s how it is. I wanted to see if the rangefinder and lens were calibrated so I needed some test subjects and fortunately for me Amber and Freddie (who I’ve photographed before) came along. To eliminate camera shake I decided to set the camera on a tripod and I used a cable release to trip the shutter. So far so good, everything seems to be working. The interesting thing about these two shots is the exposure used is exactly the same (1/125th F4.7) with the lens wide open, the only thing that changed is the lens to subject distance. Look at the difference in depth of field when I focussed closer on Amber than I did Freddie.
[Tech info:] Polaroid Pathfinder 110B camera, Enna Werk Munchen Ennit 127mm/f4.7 lens, Fuji FP-100C pack film (expired 2007).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, film, fujiroid, oxford, people, polaroid, portraits, students
Tuesday, January 21st, 2014
Just before Christmas last year I sent my Rolleiflex 2.8F away to be serviced because the aperture and shutter speed dials were beginning to stiffen up and I felt that it lacked the smoothness that Rolleiflex’s are renowned for. I also wanted to replace the focussing screen in it so I sent a Maxwell Hi-Lux screen with it for the service technician to install for me. The camera has returned now so I was keen to take it out on the streets of Oxford to put some film through it. These shots are from the second roll through it (the first got sadly ruined when I processed it but I still don’t know exactly what caused the problem). I must say that the camera is a joy to use now and the Maxwell screen is amazing and a HUGE improvement over the stock screen which is very dark in comparison. I opted for a completely clear screen with no grid lines so there’s nothing to interfere with the image.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, 80/2.8 Planar lens loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired 2004), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 2.8f, 6x6, black&white, film, fp4, hc110, oxford, rolleiflex, tlr
Sunday, January 12th, 2014
These shots are from a couple of shoots that I did towards the end of 2012 (oct/nov) that I don’t think I posted before. I’ve always liked how these turned out so here they are. The shots of Helen were made with window light (I was backed up right against it) that was controlled with curtains to create a strip softbox kind of light. The shoot with Jake was done around town on a bright sunny day but I was able to find some nice bounced light to use.
[Tech info:] Helen: Mamiya 645 1000s, 80/1.9, loaded with Kodak Portra 800Z (expired). Jake: Pentax 67, 105/2.4, loaded with Fuji 400H (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, 6x7, film, mamiya universal, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students
Monday, January 6th, 2014
Here are some behind the scenes shots of an episode of Endeavour that was being filmed on the streets of Oxford last November. From what I saw this is going to be an excellent episode. There were mods and rockers, fake fog, cool cars and tons of atmosphere. I’m not going to give any details away of what I saw being filmed but I will say that the scene with the bus driving through the fog was a real joy to see, it felt like being inside a movie. I really like how the colours have turned out in these shots especially as I was using daylight balanced film in conditions that were mostly lit by yellow street lights. Most of the exposures were made at 1/15th or less and I just guessed a lot of the exposures because of the huge contrast between the shadows and the street lights, it’s amazing how well colour negative film handles it all with ease.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens loaded with Fuji 400 Press film (expired). Processed and scanned at ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: asda, c41, endeavour, film, filming, fm2, fuji, oxford, people, tv
Saturday, January 4th, 2014
Last year I bought a random lot of cameras at auction and among them was a waterproof Nikon compact film camera. Keen to test it out I waited for some very wet weather and in October we got some so I went out during my lunch hour to shoot the first test roll through it and here are some of the results.
[Tech info:] Nikon AW compact camera loaded with Ilford XP2 film, processed and scanned at ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tags: asda, black&white, film, nikon, oxford, rain, waterproof, xp2
Wednesday, January 1st, 2014
Happy New Year to everyone that visits my blog. December was a bit slow in terms of new posts and activity because of various things that were taking up my time but I still have a backlog of shots from 2013 that I haven’t had time to post so there’s no shortage of new images to come. Usually I try to group the shots in my posts together so they make sense but that’s also led to delays so I think what I might do more of is just concentrate on posting whatever images are on a particular roll of film which sometimes is spread over a wide time period when I’ve used a camera for a day or two but then haven’t come back to it until weeks later because I’ve been using other cameras.
Here we have some behind the scenes shots from some filming of Endeavour (episode 2 of the forthcoming season), there was a night scene outside the cinema on Jeune Street (that’s the make-up crew on the bench) and also some shots of the major roadworks that were going on along St Aldates for 5 weeks which was a real pain. There’s also a shot of the new entrance to the Radcliffe Camera being built which I believe was to allow wheelchair access.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens, loaded with Fuji Press 400 film, processed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: asda, c41, endeavour, film, filming, fm2, oxford, roadworks, tv
