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Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 7

Tuesday, January 5th, 2016

This set of behind the scenes pictures are from the final day of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 3. It was a beautifully lit outdoor concert that took place on a summers evening in Exeter College gardens. The lighting crew did a fantastic job with all of the lights and the string quartet played for real which was a joy to listen to during every take. As it was the end of July the sky didn’t become dark until quite late so filming didn’t start until around 9pm and wrapped at almost exactly midnight.

My sincere thanks go to Olly Blackburn, the director of this episode, for allowing me on set to photograph. More pictures to come.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Ilford HP5, ISO 1600, developed in Kodak Xtol stock solution. Pakon scans.

Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 6

Thursday, December 24th, 2015

Mark your calendar, Endeavour series 3 starts on ITV on 3rd January 2016. I can’t wait! Here’s some behind the scenes photography I did while filming was taking place in Oxford at the end of July. Looking back through these images it doesn’t feel like 5 months ago. I’m particularly looking forward to this episode because the scenes I saw being filmed looked very exciting and it was the first time that I’d seen so many of the cast members together.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak D76 1+1. Pakon scans.

Oxford: finals exam celebrations, 2015 – part 1

Sunday, December 6th, 2015

One of my favourite things to photograph at the beginning of summer is when Oxford University students celebrate the end of their exams which is also known as trashing. I love the riot of colour and carnival atmosphere of pure celebration and relief all mixed together. I’ve got quite a backlog of pictures to post going back to last year. Here are some pictures from this year with lots more to come.

[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 85/1.8D, Fuji Press 400 film (expired), Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.

Oxford: Remembrance Day, 2015

Sunday, November 15th, 2015

Last year I photographed the Remembrance Day ceremony is Oxford with only 35mm film so this year I decided to change things up and only use large format. There’s no sense in repeating things, right? After much deliberation I opted to use my Speed Graphic 5×4 and 7 inch Aero Ektar lens (aka The Burnett combo). Using a lens from WWII seemed somewhat appropriate and I need all of the speed I could get because the sky was very overcast and the light level very low. Once I had packed my camera bag I only had space for 6 film holders (12 sheets of 5×4 inch film) so that’s all I took. Some of my shots ended up with very strange looking focus shift so I think in my rush to set up I must have moved the lens from being parallel with the film plane. Overall I think this camera and lens combo is well suited to this subject and hopefully I’ll get a chance to photograph some more military parades when I’m not rushing so much.

[Tech info]: Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens, Ilford HP5 developed in HC110 1+31 for 5 mins.

Oxford: Skateboarding tour

Friday, November 6th, 2015

Back in the summer some professional skateboarders from North America visited the OWP skatepark on meadow lane for a skate around as part of a European tour. I must confess I’m not a skateboarder so I didn’t know anything about the guys that were coming but a lot of people did and I’ve never seen the skatepark so busy. Here are some frames from the roll of film I had in my M2. The beginning of the roll had Lewis shots on it (see previous post). I think I have some other shots from a different camera which I’ll post at a later date.

[Tech info]: Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Fuji Reala 100 (expired), developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.

Oxford: Lewis IX, episode 2 filming

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

Some of my behind the scenes photography during filming of Lewis season 9, episode 2 in Oxford back in the summer. The was some very clever set dressing on this one when they converted the front of the Oxfam bookshop on Turl Street into a tattoo parlour. I came across it when the conversion was almost complete and it looked so authentic I was struggling to remember which shop used to be there. The university offices building was once again made to look like oxford police station and the crew spent the best part of a day filming different coming and going shots.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Fuji Reala 100 (expired), developed in a Rollei digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.

Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 5

Monday, October 26th, 2015

This set of pictures are all from the same roll of film from the previous post. Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 3, film 4 on Merton Street in Oxford. The last handful of frames are from the following day on the steps of the Clarendon building. This is a busy part of town at the best of times and it just so happened that filming took place at the height of rush hour with a minimal crew which didn’t include the usual crowd control staff. I lost count of the amount of times they had to reset and re-shoot.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Eastman Double X film, developed in Kodak D76 1+1, Pakon scans.

 

Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 4

Thursday, October 22nd, 2015

I think I shot more film during the filming of this episode of Endeavour than any other. The action here took place on Merton Street which is very well preserved with period buildings and cobblestones so it’s fairly easy to dress it for scenes that take place in the 1960’s. This was the first time I had seen firearms used on Endeavour which made it quite exciting. There are more shots to follow from this roll and as before I’ve decided to split the shots across two different blog posts.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Eastman Double X film, developed in Kodak D76 1+1, Pakon scans.

Oxford: Lewis IX, episode 1 filming

Friday, October 9th, 2015

Behind the scenes during filming of Lewis IX on Catte Street in Oxford earlier this summer. This is a very busy location to be filming in and quite difficult for the crew to lock down during each take so it was quite time consuming to film a relatively short scene. Usually I don’t tend to focus my attention on the main cast when doing my behind the scenes photography like most people do because it’s the crew that I feel are the ones that don’t get seen and they’re the ones that are usually doing the most interesting things. Unfortunately some of the Lewis crew were not happy about anyone with a camera being near the set which made it difficult to document things. What a shame and a missed opportunity. Things got even more difficult on subsequent episodes because someone had filmed a key scene of Lewis and Hathaway making an arrest and then uploaded it to YouTube. I’m very careful about photographing anything that might be a spoiler and often only post my pictures here after an episode has been broadcast on tv, as is the case with these pictures.

[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 85/1.8D, Fuji Superia 400 film developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.

 

Camera test: Contax G1

Wednesday, October 7th, 2015

These shots were made during my lunch break yesterday, all from the same roll of film that I used to test a Contax G1 camera I recently bought. The weather has been very wet the past two days but fortunately there was a break in the rain just long enough for me to shoot this roll. In a few of the shots I was also testing an external flash (TLA 200) that I got with the camera body. It’s very simple to use as it only has two modes, manual and TTL. I left it on TTL. The light from it seems nice and balanced and it’s small enough to keep in the camera case without noticing it. One thing I did notice is the AF doesn’t seem to lock on very well if you try to focus on something that is low contrast or backlit. Some of the shots on the roll were slightly out of focus. So far I’ve been enjoying using the G1 as a point and shoot camera.

[Tech info:] Contax G1, 45/2 Carl Zeiss lens, Ilford FP4 film (expired) developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9mins. Pakon scans.

 

Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 3

Monday, October 5th, 2015

Continuing on from the previous post, here’s the second set of my selections from the same roll of film that I shot during Endeavour filming on Merton Street back in July. This was quite a big sequence and the road needed to be kept clear which meant I ended up being quite far back from a lot of the action. I prefer to stick with using only a 50mm lens for my documentary style photography hence the wide shots in this set. Whenever possible I zoom with my feet and it saves me fumbling around with changing lenses instead of photographing. Yes, I could be carrying around a 70-200mm zoom but I much prefer the perspective I get with a fast 50mm along with the size and weight benefit. Not looking like a paparazzi is a bonus!

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak D76 1+1.

Oxford: Endeavour 3, episode 4 – part 2

Tuesday, September 29th, 2015

This was going to be a bumper post but I’ve decided to split the selections from this roll across two different posts because of the number of images. Please be aware there may be the odd spoiler in these shots, I can’t say because I don’t know anything about the storyline and I just photographed some of what I saw on the street. What I can tell you is this episode looks like it’s going to be exciting! Lots more images to come from this episode which was a lot of fun to photograph.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak D76 1+1.