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Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
The start of a new academic year at Oxford University involves a matriculation ceremony for the new students at the Sheldonian theatre and it’s one of my favourite things to photograph on the streets of Oxford. Thousands of students dressed in their black and white subfusc filling the streets is quite a sight. Here are some pictures from this year. The sky was very heavily overcast so I had to push my film one stop for a speed boost and I decided to use a little fill-flash for some shots because the black fabric soaks up light.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 17-35/2.8, Eastman Double X film @ ISO 500, developed in D76 stock. Pakon scans.
Posted in Oxford, People, students | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, d76, double x, film, matriculation, oxford, pakon, people, students
Sunday, October 22nd, 2017
J. J. Abrams came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and I went along to do some documentary photography. In March last year I photographed Mark Hamill sitting in the same chair while on a break from filming Episode VIII so it was nice to hear J. J. Abrams talk a little – but not much – about Episode IX. Conversation mostly centred around Star Wars but tv shows that he had created and worked on did get mentioned – I highly recommend ALIAS if you’ve never watched it. There were no video cameras at the event so unfortunately this won’t be appearing on the Oxford Union YouTube channel. Without help from the lights that the video crew use the light level in the debating chamber is quite low for photography which is why I had to push my film to ISO 3200 which isn’t a problem for Ilford HP5.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 3200, developed in Kodak HC110 1+15. Pakon scans.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, hc110, HP5, iso3200, jj abrams, leica, m6, oxford, oxford union, pakon, people, voigtlander
Saturday, October 21st, 2017
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 4 in Oxford. At the start of this roll the main action was taking place inside rooms at Exeter College – you can see the big lights used to simulate sunlight through the windows. After that it was a location move around the corner to Radcliffe Square for a very quick shot involving supporting artists only and once again a big light was used to simulate sunlight. It’s amazing how much work goes into what will probably end up being seconds on screen.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton lens, Ilford FP4 developed in Tetanol Ultrafin. Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, fp4, leica, oxford, pakon, people, summer, ultrafin, voigtlander
Friday, October 20th, 2017
This is a short Endeavour post because most of the shots on this roll contain spoilers so they will have to wait until after the episode has been broadcast. This day of filming took place in the grounds of Brasenose College and apart from a rain shower in the morning and at the end of the day we were fortunate with the weather. It was a busy day with quite a few setups to get through and because of the rain at the end of the day and the rapidly dropping light level the last setup was reshot the following day in much better conditions. Rain or shine the crew always soldier on.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 and 75/1.8 lenses, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak D76. Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, brasenose, d76, double x, endeavour, film, filming, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people
Thursday, October 19th, 2017
Music composer Howard Shore came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and I went along to do some documentary photography. He has composed the scores for over 80 films but appears to be most well known for his work on the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. I’ve been a fan of his film scores for many years and was hoping there would be some discussion on his collaborations with David Fincher – one of my favourite directors – but the Lord of the Rings movies was the main topic of conversation on this occasion. The projector screen you can see in some of the pictures was used to play some movie clips to talk about which was a great idea.
This was my first event at the Oxford Union since the summer break and with a new term there is a new President – Chris Zabilowicz. There’s an impressive line up of guest speakers planned for this term and lots to look forward to.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in HC110 1+15 using the time for 3200 to give an extra boost to the negs. Pakon scans.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, hc110, howard shore, HP5, iso1600, leica, oxford, oxford union, pakon
Sunday, October 15th, 2017
For quite a while I have wanted to use some Fuji Acros 100 film for night photography because it supposedly does not suffer from reciprocity failure for exposure times up to 1 minute and now that it has started to get darker earlier I decided it was finally time to give it a go. On this occasion I was joined by Graeme – one of the presenter’s of the Sunny 16 podcast – which made for a fun evening of photography and chat. We got lucky with the weather and the temperature was unusually mild for the end of September which made standing around for long exposures no problem at all. The last shot below of the Radcliffe Camera was exposed for just over 1 minute and I added in a little light painting on the roof for good measure. This film certainly didn’t lose sensitivity for such a long exposure time and I will be using it again for more night photography soon.
[Tech info:] Fuji GW690, Fuji Acros 100 film, developed in Rodinal 1+25.
Posted in Architecture, film, Oxford | 3 Responses »
Tags: 6x9, acros, black&white, film, fuji, night, oxford, rodinal
Thursday, October 12th, 2017
It’s not every day you come across an Endeavour photo shoot on the streets of Oxford so when I did I thought it would be nice to document a little behind the scenes. I didn’t do much because I didn’t want to be too distracting and disrupt the shoot. The Endeavour crew were in town to film some pick-up shots for the first episode and this photo shoot was slotted in before that. After the shoot had finished I got to chat briefly with the photographer who must be one of the nicest and most down to earth photographers I’ve ever come across. I didn’t have long to chat because I wanted to catch the filming that was taking place in Exeter College – more on that in a separate blog post.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 35/2.8 Zeiss Biogon, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak HC110 1+64. Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, biogon, black&white, double x, endeavour, film, hc110, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people, photo shoot
Tuesday, October 10th, 2017
Ricky Gervais came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A session with Michael Li – the president at the time – and I went along to do some photography to document the event. You can see the video here and I recommend it.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC-110 1+31, Pakon scans.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, hc110, HP5, iso1600, leica, m6, oxford, oxford union, pakon, people, ricky gervais, voigtlander
Monday, October 9th, 2017
Behind the scenes during a Giffords Circus performance in University Parks, Oxford, June 2017. For this set of pictures I tried out a longer lens than I would usually use to give me some distance for more candid results. It also allowed me to stay out of the way as the performers were preparing for the opening of the show.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 100/2.8 Series E lens, Kodak Supra 200 film (expired), developed in Fuji Xpress C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, film, Oxford, People | 3 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, circus, film, fm2, giffords, kodak, nikon, oxford, pakon, people, summer, supra200, university parks
Sunday, October 8th, 2017
Behind the scenes photography from filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 5 in University Parks, Oxford, September 2017. The weather in the morning started off very overcast and dull which was a shame because the scenes due to be filmed called for nice sunny weather but in a stroke of luck the sun eventually burnt through the clouds to completely transform the location. These shots are from my first roll of the day before the sunshine arrived. As this was a new episode I decided to try something different in terms of lens choice for a change so instead of using my Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton lens I opted for my 35/2.8 Zeiss Biogon instead. My reasoning for this was that I wouldn’t be needing the speed of the 40/1.4 because there would be plenty of light and I wanted to more accurately compose in the viewfinder – the M6 displays 50mm frame lines when using a 40mm lens. I’m very pleased with the results and have used the images uncropped apart from one frame.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Zeiss 35/2.8 Zeiss Biogon, Eastman Double X motion picture film, developed in Kodak D76 stock, Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, biogon, black&white, double x, endeavour, film, filming, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people, university parks, zeiss
Saturday, October 7th, 2017
Behind the scenes photography from the filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 2 in Oxford, June 2017. This set of pictures were made with 35mm film and you can compare them to the previous post which was medium format film from the same day – different formats and different film stocks give you different looking images of the same thing. The last few shots below are from the following day in the Covered Market.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton, Fuji Superia 200 film developed in Fuji Xpress C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: 35mm, 40mm, endeavour, film, filming, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people, superia 200, voigtlander
Friday, October 6th, 2017
These pictures are from the first day of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 5 episode 2 in June 2017. The day started off nice and sunny as I recall and by mid-morning the streets were full of tourists which made filming quite difficult. There was a returning director on this episode – Andy Wilson – who I remember photographing briefly in 2014 when he was directing the episode titled Sway. The shots here are from half the roll of film, the other half contains episode spoilers so I’ll post those at a later date after the episode has been broadcast.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Fuji 400H film developed in a Fuji Xpress C41 kit.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: 2.8f, 400H, 6x6, endeavour, film, filming, oxford, people, rolleiflex, summer
