Sunrise in Bagley Wood, September 2020. I hadn’t used my Pentacon Six for quite a long time up until this point so I decided to take it out for some exercise.
[Tech info:] Pentacon Six, Fuji 400H (expired), Noritsu scans.
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Sunrise in the woods
Monday, April 12th, 2021
Oxford: flooded meadow
Thursday, January 14th, 2021During December 2020 the UK saw a lot of rainfall and some parts of the country were flooded. I don’t remember Oxford receiving enough rain to cause flooding but as the massive volume of water from other parts comes rushing through Oxford the rivers swell which in turn causes some areas to flood, especially a local meadow. I made the most of the flooding and did some photography with a large format camera I’ve been wanting to try out for a while. It’s custom made with a 75mm Schneider lens which is fitted to a helicoid for focussing and the back rotates – something I found out by accident which was a nice bonus. There is no branding on it but it’s extremely well designed and made.
I wanted to fill the frame with sky and the reflection in the water so I had to stand in the water because a 75mm on 5×4 film gives an extremely wide angle of view. The Benbo Mk 2 tripod is perfect for this because the legs extend upwards from inside the bottom part of the legs and is designed to stand in water. What a didn’t realise was how easily one of the feet would end up coming off in the mud because it had a split in it, something I only noticed once I got back home. Fortunately Paterson in the UK still sell spares and supply them in a pack of 3. I’ve included some behind the scenes pictures below.
[Tech info:] Custom red dot 5×4 camera, 75mm Schneider lens, FP4 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (-1 minute to prevent the highlights blowing out).
Oxford: Foggy New Year’s Eve
Monday, January 4th, 2021During the evening of New Year’s Eve 2020 a thick fog descended on Oxford and it was the most atmospheric I’ve seen especially with the empty streets and shops and restaurants closed. Here are some pictures from that evening which I made on b&w film. I shot two rolls of colour but they haven’t been developed yet. I should’ve packed more film.
The roll expired in 2019 so I didn’t expect there to be any problems. Unfortunately there is a mottling on these images which has been caused by the film being in contact with the backing paper, something which I haven’t experienced with Ilford film before. Apparently this is a common problem.
[Tech info:] Pentax 645NII, 45-85mm, Ilford HP5 (expired), developed in Ilford Ilfosol 3 1+9 for 6min 30sec in a Jobo.
Oxford: Moonlit meadow
Sunday, January 3rd, 2021On 29th December 2020 there was an unusually bright moon so I ventured out to do some moonlighting. The moon was possibly a day away from being full and the sky was completely clear. Here’s a shot of a flooded meadow I had been photographing at the end of December (more of those pictures to come). The exposure time for this was 2 minutes. I bracketed exposures and made a 3 minute exposure which has a brighter sky but the reflection in the water is not as clear.
[Tech info]: Mamiya Universal, 50/6.3 lens, Fuji Across 100, 6×9 back, developed in Ilford Ilfosol 3, 1+9 for 6m 30s in a Jobo.
A walk in the woods
Thursday, November 12th, 2020I’ve borrowed a Contax T2 point and shoot camera from a kind friend of mine and have been taking it with me on a few walks recently to see if it lives up to its reputation. So far I can’t say it has. Below are some examples from a recent walk and you can see in three of them only the centre of the frame is in focus and the outer edge of the frame looks so distorted I wonder if there’s an alignment problem with the lens. Surely it can’t be down to a shallow depth of field. The strange thing is in the shot of the moss covered branch (second image) the blurry edges aren’t there so maybe it’s more to do with focussing at infinity? Maybe this is normal for this camera but no one has mentioned it in any reviews? Not sure.
[Tech info:] Contax T2, Eastman Double X film, developed in FPP D96 for 7mins 30secs. Pakon scans.
Oxford: Sunny 16 photowalk – part 1
Sunday, November 8th, 2020The Sunny 16 photography podcast arranged a photowalk in Oxford back in February and I agreed to show the group of film photographers around my home town. After 9 months I’ve finally managed to develop my films from the day and here’s a selection from the first roll. Part of the delay was because I wanted to wait until I had enough rolls to develop at once before ordering special developer to bring the best out of this motion picture film – Eastman Double-X.
There are different developer options on the market but on this occasion I decided to give FPP D96 a try partly because one packet of powder mixes into 3.8 litres of stock solution which is great value. I’ve been using 1 litre of stock to develop my rolls with 70ml of replenishment from fresh stock per roll. After 8 rolls developed the results still look great.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double-X, developed in FPP D96 stock for 7min 30secs, Pakon scans.
Oxford: 10×8 x-ray film
Wednesday, November 4th, 2020Here are some shots I made on 10×8 x-ray film recently. The shot from Catte Street with the Radcliffe Camera was actually made last summer but I only came across the film holder recently. That’s over 12 months that the latent image was sitting quietly on the film before it got developed. Speaking of developing, I used a bottle of developer that expired in 2014, it was sealed and the colour looked good so I thought I’d give it a try. If anything it seems to have tamed the contrast that is often found in x-ray films so I’m happy with that.
[Tech info:] Intrepid 10×8 camera, 300mm/f4.2 Plaubel Anticomar lens, Fuji Super HR-T x-ray film, developed in HC110 1+100 for 7 mins.
Radcliffe Camera image: 10×8 Tachihara, 210mm/f5.6 Nikon lens which just about covers 10×8. I applied some front rise on this shot.
Endeavour 7: FILM 3 – part 7
Wednesday, June 17th, 2020Behind the scenes photography from a day spent in Merton College, Oxford with the Endeavour crew during filming of FILM 3 from series 7 in October 2019. This was a busy day as I recall with both exterior and interior scenes including a stunt involving a big book and a ladder.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Fuji Superia 200 film, Noritsu scans.
Oxford: Endeavour 7, FILM 1 – part 9
Monday, June 15th, 2020Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 7 | FILM 1 in the Goodman Library at the Oxford Union, August 2019. This location is a favourite of mine and one I am very familiar with having photographed quite a few speaking events there over the past few years. Once the artificial sunlight came streaming in through the windows and the library was filled with haze the space was completely transformed.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in XTOL stock, Pakon scans.
Oxford: Endeavour 7, FILM 2 – part 2
Friday, June 12th, 2020When I heard there was going to be a wrestling match being filmed for Endeavour series 7 I jumped at the chance to do some behind the scenes photography – even if it did mean driving to London at the crack of dawn. The location was a working mens club and as well as the wrestling match there was also the interior of the Jolly Raja Indian restaurant which was a two for one bonus. As a kid I used to watch wrestling on World of Sport on Saturday afternoons so it was quite a treat to be transported back.
Usually I would only post pictures from the same roll of film but this time I’ve combined two rolls – a two for one bonus.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 35/1.2 Nokton, Kodak Portra 400, Noritsu scans.
Endeavour 7: FILM 3 – part 6
Sunday, June 7th, 2020These pictures are from the interior studio set of Castle Gate police station on the final day of filming Endeavour 7 | FILM 3. The second half of the day was spent filming in Bright’s office but as the crew were preparing that part of the set I took the opportunity to document some of the other areas as they had been left from a previous day of filming. The evidence room used to be Thursday’s office in series 6. There isn’t any natural daylight on this set, all of the lighting is courtesy of Vince and his lighting crew.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 50mm, Kodak Portra 400, Noritsu scans.
Oxford: Giffords Circus 2019 – part 2
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020A year ago this week Giffords Circus came to University Parks here in Oxford and I went along to photograph some of the performers behind the scenes as I have done the past few years. On the first day of their performance I take along photographs from the previous year to give to the returning performers. Sadly due to the COVID-19 global pandemic Giffords aren’t performing this year which is a real shame. Hopefully they’ll be back in 2021.
[Tech info:] Fuji GW690, Fuji 400H (expired), Noritsu scans.
