Oxford
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Monday, April 14th, 2014
Last week a movie crew were in town filming a period drama called Testament of Youth which is based on the memoirs of Vera Brittain. It was wonderful to see a large scale production crew transform parts of Oxford to how it would have looked 100 years ago with the use of various props, old cars, horses, carriages, people dressed in period costumes and lots of grit to cover modern day tarmac and double yellow lines. There was a lot of interest from tourists and locals so there was plenty of security on hand to keep things under control with the use of barriers which made it difficult to move around for photography. While most people concentrated on photographing the main actors, I’m always drawn to photographing the crew, the unsung heroes who are usually the first ones to arrive on set in the morning and the last ones to leave at the end of the day.
Below you’ll find pictures of one of the lighting trucks, a 20K fresnel light waiting to be deployed, the Gaffer (Julian) with his ND filters at the ready, the lighting crew during their lunch break in the sun, Security guards (Neil and Duncan), stills photographer (Laurie) and old bicycles used as props in Radcliffe Square. It was very nice chatting with some of the crew members especially Julian and Laurie who have previously worked on some great projects.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired 1994), rated at ISO 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 12mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, filming, fp4, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, SL66
Thursday, April 10th, 2014
A few shots here of Richard from Clements & Church Tailor’s on Little Clarendon Street that I made to test out some film last summer. This roll of film has been in my fridge with a batch of others waiting to be processed. I had originally planned to build up a stash before mixing some fresh chemistry but I probably won’t get a chance for that until later this summer so I decided to send them off for processing. Since these shots were made quite a few things have changed – Richard has moved to the Leamington Spa branch of Clements & Church, the tree in the background of the first shot has been heavily chopped back so there won’t be any leaves on it for a long time to come and the Barclays Bank on the right hand side of the picture along with the cashpoints has now closed. That’s why I’m so passionate about photography, making photographic memories to have something to look back on.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 160 VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
Posted in Fashion, film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, clements, film, oxford, portraits, richard, rolleiflex, SL66, street style, tailor
Thursday, April 3rd, 2014
This is how some students celebrate the end of their exams, Oxford style (aka trashing). After weeks of not coming across anyone in my lunch hour I finally managed to bump into quite a few students on the same day. These shots are from last summer but I didn’t want to post them too soon because I didn’t want anyone to get into trouble for it. I think almost a year after the fact is probably fairly safe.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Kodak Portra 160VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, c41, exams, film, oxford, people, Portra, portraits, rolleiflex, SL66, students, summer, trashing
Saturday, March 29th, 2014
This was a great night at a packed Oxford Town Hall. I struggled with the lack of space back stage to make many pictures, instead I wanted to record the ambience of the venue. In the end Oxford won which was a fantastic end to the night. I have some other shots on a roll in a different camera that I haven’t finished yet but I’ll post those when I have them.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with expired Ilford Delta 3200, processed in Rodinal 1+25.
Posted in film, Oxford, Sport, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, backstage, black&white, boxing, film, oxford, portraits, rodinal, rolleiflex, sport, students, varsity
Tuesday, March 25th, 2014
I caught the end of one match and the beginning of another in University Parks. Trying to photograph sport with a hulking big medium format camera was quite fun but unfortunately I didn’t have much spare time to stay because I had to get over to Iffley Road for the swimming and water polo.
[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 165mm/2.8, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, Sport, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, hc110, lacrosse, oxford, pentax, sport, students, varsity
Monday, March 24th, 2014
Helen and Pascale were raising money for a good cause outside Hertford College a few weeks ago with a pancake sale. I’ve never seen Catte Street so busy at lunch time. I managed to make a few pictures on my lunch break photo walk. Thanks for the pancake girls, it was very tasty.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with expired Ilford FP4, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (dilution b).
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, film, fp4, hc110, oxford, students
Sunday, March 16th, 2014
These portraits were all made during the swimming and water polo events at the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014. I was struggling to find enough space to set these shots up and it was also difficult to find competitors that had spare time to stop but in the end I’m pleased with how these turned out.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Ilford FP4 (expired). Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, Sport, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, bronica, etrsi, film, fp4, hc110, oxford, portraits, sport, students, varsity
Thursday, March 13th, 2014
Last weekend was packed with sporting events for the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 competition and on Saturday morning I attended the Fencing which was held at the Examination Schools on the High Street. It was a grand venue for a sporting event and I really enjoyed seeing some of the action. Although I went prepared with a small lighting kit I decided to make use of the daylight coming in through the windows. These portraits were all made during the competition which is why there aren’t very many. This is the contents of an entire roll of film, all 10 frames. I did also photograph some of the action but those shots will follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110mm, 6x7, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, students, Tri-X
Tuesday, March 11th, 2014
It’s been a while since I’ve done any photography of the Oxford tailor’s at Clements & Church because of all the wet weather we’ve had but at the moment we seem to be having a dry spell so I decided to do a couple of test shots with using a flash connected to one of my Polaroid Land camera’s which I’ve never done before. Despite it being an overcast day it was difficult to overpower the ambient light because the flash sync speed on this camera is only 1/60 but overall I like the look. My first test shot with Hugo looked a little over-exposed so I stopped the lens down 1 stop for Ian’s shot – you can see a slight difference in the depth of field of the background.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 190 Land camera, Nikon SB800 speedlight, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
Posted in Equipment, Fashion, film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 190, clements, fp100c, oxford, pack film, polaroid, tailors
Monday, March 10th, 2014
The last time I photographed the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Powerlifting was in 2012 and two years later I was photographing it again. Interestingly there were some of the same students lifting for both teams, some of whom I photographed at the previous event. There will be more film shots to follow, these are the only colour portraits I managed to make during the event due to lack of time, they are all from the Oxford team.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90/3.8 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired), sliding Polaroid back.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, Sport, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, diptych, film, fujiroid, oxford, portraits, powerlifting, rb67, sport, students, varsity
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
Here are some more images from backstage at The Benefactor Charity Show I was at last week. With these I decided to use one of my favourite films for low light photography – Ilford HP5. All shot in available light. You can see some of the hive of activity that was going on in the main room by the hair and make-up teams. A bit of a surprise was when some of the OUABC boxers turned up to model some boxer shorts. Boxers in boxers, very clever!
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D, loaded with Ilford HP5 @ ISO1600, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in Fashion, film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: backstage, black&white, fashion, film, fm2, hc110, HP5, oxford, students
Sunday, March 2nd, 2014
More backstage shots from The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show that I attended earlier this week. These are all on different film to the first post and you can see a clear difference in terms of both contrast and grain. I’ve found that Kodak Tri-X pushes to ISO 1600 very nicely if you have enough light. The hard thing about trying to photograph backstage at a fashion show is usually the lack of space and time to work in because of all the other things going on – hair, make-up, styling etc. The other hurdle is usually the quality of light you have to work with which tends to be fluorescent tubes in the ceiling which is the case at the Town Hall. It’s all of these challenges that make it exciting and I quite like having to work for my shots. The downside is that during the show the models usually have a minute between outfit changes which makes it impossible to photograph them which can be frustrating when you see lots of amazing outfits flashing past without being able to photograph any of them. You take the rough with the smooth, do the best you can and enjoy the journey. These shots are all from the same roll of film, I only get 15 frames with this medium format camera so it’s not a bad hit rate.
Credits: Hair by Toni & Guy, Oxford. Make-up by Majenta.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 80mm/2.8, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) @ ISO1600, processed in HC110 1+31 for 16 mins.
Posted in Fashion, film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, backstage, black&white, bronica, fashion, film, hc110, oxford, students, Tri-X
