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Monday, January 12th, 2015
Here are some of the first test shots made with my Industar 210mm Russian large format lens. I bought this lens back in July last year but it took me a while to get it mounted on a lens panel to use with my Speed Graphic. Finally the wait is over. The light was fading when I made these exposures and they were made at the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic which is 1/30th with the lens fully open at f4.5. I pushed the film a little in the developer to try to lift the shadows but there doesn’t seem to be anything there to bring out. I’m pleased with these results and can’t wait to do some more at a closer focussing distance. I made a few other shots which will follow another time – I left them drying in the darkroom.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/f4.5 lens, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | 3 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aerographic, film, hc110, magdalen college, oxford, plus-x, speed graphic
Saturday, January 10th, 2015
This afternoon I visited Magdalen College to test out a new (old) lens I recently fitted to a lens board for my Speed Graphic and here is the first test shot made on Fuji FP-100C instant pack film. I also took some b&w sheet film with me and those shots will follow at a later time. The beauty of FP-100C is being able to bleach the black carbon backing from the back and ending up with an almost large format sized negative. This shot was made late in the afternoon as the light was fading and I used the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic (1/30th) knowing that the print would be a little on the under-exposed side but also knowing that the negative gives you an extra 2 stops of exposure. It’s nice to get two shots for the price of one – the only instant film that does.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/4.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Neg
Print
Posted in Architecture, Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, industar, magdalen college, oxford, speed graphic
Wednesday, January 7th, 2015
My very first visit to Cambridge was in August last year. Up until then I’d always been put off going there because I’m not a huge fan of driving and there isn’t a fast/easy route there from Oxford but when a fellow film photographer friend of mine offered to drive, I was happy to tag along for the trip. My first impression was that Cambridge had better shopping compared to Oxford but from a visual point of view I think Oxford easily wins without a doubt. It seems like the only way to see much of the colleges is by travelling along the river but if that’s not what you’re interested in doing you still have to put up with being hassled every minute by people selling boat trips and punts for hire. I’ve never seen anything like it. Apart from that I had a great time walking the streets of somewhere new, observing life and the comings and goings.
[Tech info:] Yashica Electro 35, Fuji Superia 200, developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.
Posted in Cambridge, film, People, Travel | No Responses »
Tags: cambridge, electro 35, film, fuji, jobo, pakon, superia 200, yashica
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
At the end of November I went into town on a Saturday morning to do some photography and here are some images that I made. This was a couple of days after Black Friday and shoppers were out looking for bargains in the run up to Christmas. It was great to come across a breakdance crew busting some moves. When I was younger I remember seeing breakdance crews in town, laying out their square of lino to dance on, boom box blasting out tunes to attract the attention of passers by. It’s nice to see the current generation keeping the tradition alive.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 35mm and 50mm lenses, Fuji Superia 200 (expired), Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Stag do
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: film, fuji, leica, m2, oxford, pakon, people, superia 200, voigtlander
Saturday, January 3rd, 2015
Happy New Year! Despite my best efforts I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to post very much last month (December 2014) and although I’m not into new year resolutions I do plan to try to post more this year if only to share some of the mountain of images I made in 2014. It’s not going to be easy because I haven’t slowed down in making new images and don’t plan to any time soon so let’s see what this new year brings…
During a recent end of year tidy up I came across a box of Fomapan 100 5×4 sheets that I had forgotten I had. I thought it would be wise to test some of them before using them on any important shots so I decided to do some still life photography of one of my wife’s orchids which I’ve been meaning to photograph for a while. The light was very flat and less than ideal but I went ahead because Fomapan can tend to be on the contrasty side and you can’t get much contrasty than white petals on a black background. The film seems to be okay and for my next shots I’ll try to do some with a wider contrast range.
[Tech info:] Wista field 5×4, Schneider 150mm and 180mm lenses. Fomapan 100 processed in Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Still life | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, fomapan, orchids, oxford, wista, xtol
Sunday, December 7th, 2014
Kodak 500T film is designed to be used in tungsten light but as I do most of my photography during my lunch break I wanted to test how it looked when used in daylight with an 85B colour correction filter. These shots were all made on the same day during my lunch break (apart from the last shot which was made without a filter after work).
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Kodak 500T film, processed with a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scan.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 500t, film, leica, m2, nokton, oxford, pakon, voigtlander
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
It’s been a long time since the last time I can remember pushing Kodak Tri-X film to ISO 1600 and processing it in Rodinal developer so that’s what I decided to do a few weeks ago. There are a mix of images on this roll ranging from some night portraits that I made during a photography class I was teaching to Ruskin art students on the High Street during their drawing sale to raise funds for their end of year degree show. I’d like to do some more work with Art students but they seem to be an illusive bunch so it’s currently a work in progress.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), rated at ISO 1600, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 18 mins.
Posted in Art, film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, fm2, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students, Tri-X
Saturday, November 29th, 2014
These are the first shots from my Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5 lens which I tested during my lunch break yesterday. Technically this is the second roll of shots with this lens – the first roll was unusable because I forgot to close the back door of my M2 properly so the film wasn’t flat and the whole roll was out of focus. That’s what can happen when you’re excited to use a lens you’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. Lesson learnt. The weather was heavily overcast sky with a really gloomy feel everywhere. It’s the kind of light I would never usually waste a roll of film with but I really wanted to see how this lens performed so I decided to go out regardless and I must admit I do like the results, especially the bokeh, this lens is definitely a keeper. My thanks go to Jason Howe for all of his help and advice about this lens which I prefer for b&w over my Summicron 50/2. I’ll be keeping the Summicron because I shot some slide film with it and the results look fantastic so I can see it being useful for colour (as suggested by my friend Anthony).
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voitlander Nokton 50/1.5, Ilford Delta 400 (expired), processed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 14 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, d76, delta 400, film, leica, m2, oxford, pakon, people, portraits
Friday, November 21st, 2014
In between lots of wet weather over the past couple of weeks we’ve had some nice dry spells and I managed to finish off a roll of film in my M2 during my lunch time photo walks. A bit of a mixed bag here including a shot of me from the generous photographer with the Polaroid camera. I spotted him crossing beaumont street while loading in a fresh pack of Impossible b&w film so I stopped him to ask if I could make a quick portrait of him and he was happy to oblige (picture at the bottom of this post). I don’t know what caused the bright white patch in the middle of the picture but it does make it a bit more mysterious.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Summicron 50/2 (rigid), Ilford FP4 (expired 12/99), processed in D76 stock for 8.30.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: ashmolean, black&white, d76, film, fp4, impossible, leica, m2, oxford, people, portraits
Monday, November 17th, 2014
These shots were made to test out a camera/lens combination I put together. The body is a Pentax 645N and the lens is a 105/2.4 designed for a Pentax 6×7 body but I’m using a lens adapter that allows this lens to be mounted on a smaller format body. I recruited the help of a friend for some of the testing (thanks Jean Pierre) and I experimented with different apertures to see how the depth of field looked, I also added in a portable LED light for some fill which worked out particularly well. The portrait in the top right hand corner is of Paul from Covered Arts, we went to school together many moons ago and it was nice to bump into him during his coffee break.
[Tech info:] Pentax 645N, 105/2.4 lens (attached with a 6×7 to 645 adapter), expired Ilford HP5 film, processed in Kodak D76 1+1 for 13mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait | 1 Response »
Tags: 645, black&white, d76, film, HP5, oxford, pentax, people, portraits
Sunday, November 16th, 2014
When I went to London last month for a day of photography with my friend Benedict Campbell, one of the cameras I took with me was a Canon Sureshot Ace point and shoot compact which has a wasit level finder on the top. I had only just got it so I decided to take it with me to see how useful it might be for some candid street photography. It took a little getting used to because the finder window is so small but I began to enjoy the low viewpoint and the ability to get quite close to people. Here are some of the results during lunch time in the city.
[Tech info:] Canon Sureshot Ace, Fuji Reala 100 film (expired), processed in Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Posted in film, London, People | 2 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, c41, canon sureshot, film, fuji, london, pakon, people, reala
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
Now that winter is here and the weather is getting colder and wetter I think it’s the perfect time to start posting my coverage of the trashing that happened here in Oxford during the summer when it was a lot warmer and sunnier. This was such a lot of fun to photograph but also quite difficult, not only because I had to avoid getting in the firing line of the various liquids that were flying around but also because I kept getting accused of being from the Daily Mail after they published an article about binge drinking and used pictures of Oxford students getting trashed to illustrate it – the two things couldn’t be further apart. It’s hardly surprising really because if the Daily Mail are good at one thing it’s publishing lies – just ask George Clooney.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, Agfa Vista 200 (Poundland) film, processed and scanned by ASDA Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: agfa vista, asda, exams, f100, film, nikon, oxford, students, summer, trashing