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Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
The Endeavour film crew are back in town to film episode 2 of series 2 and I was fortunate enough to do some behind-the-scenes photography on what turned out to be an incredibly wet Sunday. There was a break in the rain when I arrived at the first location and I was optimistic that it might last but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I had had just enough time to photograph some of the extras before heading for shelter in the Covered Market. A pleasant surprise was when Shaun Evans arrived on set, he greeted a bunch of the crew and then came over to me to tell me that he liked the pictures that I had posted from the scene they shot in Brasenose Lane a few weeks back. What a nice guy! If only all actors were as down to earth. You can see those pictures here.
The pictures below are all from my 35mm camera, I did shoot some black & white in my Rolleiflex TLR but I haven’t had a chance to develop those yet so they’ll follow at a later time. On this occasion I didn’t get a chance to photograph any of my main actors but I don’t mind because there are so many people involved in the making of this tv show and I’d like my behind-the-scenes pictures to document them as well. It rained so much that I got a chance to speak with some of the crew while we sheltered from the rain. They all seem like a nice bunch and have worked on a huge range of different tv shows. It was a long day but incredibly interesting and I hope to get a chance to do some more photography as filming continues.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 lens, Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film, dev and scanned at ASDA in Swindon. My thanks go to Simon at ASDA for his excellent service and speedy turnaround on these.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | 7 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, asda, c41, endeavour, film, filming, fm2, hawkeye, nikon, oxford, portraits
Monday, October 21st, 2013
Here’s the third instalment of pictures that I made at SS20’s 25th anniversary skate jam which was held at the Meadow Lane skate park in September. I took 3 different cameras with me that day, a 35mm (Nikon FM2), a Pentax 6×7 medium format and a Bronica ETRSi 645 which is what I used for these shots. I love how the colours have come out in the overcast light, they’re just as I remember. The crowd was a mix of some familiar faces from my previous trips to the skate park and lots of people that I’ve never seen there. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon with a group of people that share the same passion and I even had some nice comments from people that have visited this blog which was a pleasant surprise.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi 645, 75mm/2.8 lens, Fuji 400H (expired) film, dev & scan by Ag Photo lab.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport | 6 Responses »
Tags: 400H, 645, bronica, film, owp, oxford, people, portraits, skateboarders, skatepark, ss20
Saturday, October 19th, 2013
I had to scan one of my Oxford shots for someone that wanted to produce some posters of it and while I was looking through my archives I decided to scan some other shots to make a ‘blast from the past’ post. These are all shot on transparency/slide film which was hand processed in the lab I used to work at from the late 80’s to early 90’s. Top right (both matriculation shots) and bottom right are from 1989 and shot on Kodak Ektachrome 64 film, I don’t have any other dates recorded but I think the rest are from the early 1990’s with the Encaenia procession being the latest, probably 1998 and possibly on Fuji Velvia.
The choir singing at the top of Magdalen Tower was on May morning during a perfect sunrise and the shot of the crowd below is from the same day circa 1992. The bottom right shot of the student covered in food and shaving foam was the end of a series that I shot of him after he had finished his finals exams and headed towards the Kings Arms pub along Queens Lane. It’s a great series of shots showing all of the various foods that were poured over him by his friends that had Tesco carrier bags full of stuff. Not much has changed in 24 years except now students can get fined if they’re caught, not so back in 1989. Something that is amazing to me is when I look back at most of these pictures the memories come flooding back of when I made them but when looking through much more recent digital photography my mind goes blank.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 and N90 cameras.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, e6, film, nikon, oxford, people, students
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Here’s another set of test shots from a roll of Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film. They were all shot during my lunch hour apart from the last two shots of Lauren. I deliberately underexposed the lower left shot and overexposed the lower right shot and you can quite clearly see a colour shift. These were shot within seconds of each other in very flat overcast light but it stayed consistent. I like the mood in the lower left shot even though it’s a tad on the underexposed side. There’s good shadow detail as you can see in the two shots above Lauren. The more I test this film the more I am beginning to see that it’s very versatile for all sorts of conditions.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film, processed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon (thanks to Charlotte B for getting my films there and back).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, film, fm2, hawkeye, oxford, people, portraits, students
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
These are shots from a new type of film that I’ve been testing recently, Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film and so far I really love the results. All of these are from the same roll shot mostly during my lunch hour with a few frames shot after work. You can see leaves on the ground which signifies the end of summer and a change in the light and weather. I’ve seen lots of great results with this film shot in sunny conditions but I intend to test it further in all sorts of light which is why I tried to keep things varied on this roll.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film (expired 2011), dev & scan by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: film, fm2, hawkeye, oxford, people, portraits
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Here are a set of shots made on 5×4 large format film with Lauren. The middle two are from my first shoot with Lauren in some of the dullest and flat overcast light I have ever dared to photograph someone in, the others are from my second shoot (see the Fujiroids I posted a few days ago). I hope there will be more collaborations to come.
The maximum amount of 5×4 sheets I can process at once is six so that’s why I like to shoot them in batches of six. I love how all of these have turned out which is why I can’t choose between them so I decided to post them all. One of my favourite film/developer combo’s for quite a while has been Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC110 but recently I’ve been testing out Kodak Xtol and I have to say it’s hard to go wrong with it. I found the secret to mixing Xtol successfully is to use hot water which helps the fine powder dissolve.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Schneider 180/4.5 (top & bottom), Pentac 8inch/2.9 (middle), Ilford HP5 processed in Kodak Xtol stock for 8.5mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 4 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, HP5, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, students, xtol
Saturday, October 12th, 2013
Last Saturday was some sort of worldwide photo walk day where groups of photographers around the world met up in groups to walk around and do photography together. I wasn’t part of this but I stumbled across a group in Oxford city centre – the two organisers are the guys in the horse costumes. I don’t often go into town on the weekend so it was nice for me to see a totally different vibe on the streets compared to my lunch hour photo walks during the week – more shoppers and less working people out and about. I ended up bumping into some friends which was nice so we had a good chin-wag and catch up.
[Tech info:] 1950’s Rolleiflex Automat, 75mm/f3.5 Tessar lens, loaded with expired Kodak Tri-X, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins. I used a yellow filter on some of these shots because the sky was cloudy/overcast so I wanted to add a little contrast.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, automat, black&white, film, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, tlr, Tri-X, xtol
Friday, October 11th, 2013
These are the only 35mm shots I managed to make at the BMX Jam that was held at the Meadow Lane skatepark back in July because halfway through the first roll of film the mirror inside my camera got stuck. I didn’t want to risk taking the lens off to look inside because of the risk of ruining the shots I had already made so I put the camera in my bag and switched to medium format for the rest of the event. This resulted in fewer shots and more portraits but less action (see my previous posts, part 1, part 2). After I got home and investigated a little more it turned out to be a piece of foam inside the camera that had gotten a little sticky with age, an easy fix. My beloved Nikon FM2 is back in service again, still going strong after 25 years.
I really enjoyed this BMX Jam and as it was my first one I didn’t quite know what to expect but now I know what it’s all about I can’t wait for the next one. It poured down with rain on the original date that had been set for this but on this day we had fantastic summery weather and a really good turn out. The portrait at top left is local BMX legend Alex Leech who I started my first day of school with many moons ago. I’d say he’s almost as passionate about BMX as I am about film photography and I always enjoy bumping into him at the skatepark.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 and Nikon 105/2.5 lenses, loaded with Fuji Superia 200, developed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: bmx, film, fm2, fuji, nikon, owp, oxford, people, portraits, skatepark, summer
Friday, October 11th, 2013
Here are two fujiroids from a photo shoot I had with Lauren, these are the bleached negs which have an extra 2 stops of shadow detail compared to the prints. There will be other images from this shoot to follow at a later time but they are almost all black & white. I really like how these turned out, very simple lighting in an incredible room.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, 180mm/f4.5 Schneider lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 1 Response »
Tags: 180mm, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, lauren, oxford, people, portraits, students
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013
Some test shots I made of Lauren last week. I wanted to test out my Rolleiflex Automat to see how it preforms as a portrait camera because I’ve read various comments about the 75mm lens not being anywhere near as good as an 80mm lens. Unfortunately I didn’t have another Rolleiflex with an 80mm lens with me to do a direct comparison, that will have to wait for another day. I also took t his opportunity to test out my Rolleinar 1 close-up lens to get in a little closer (I think the top left shot is with that). The sky was heavily overcast and the light level was so dark and flat that I’m honestly amazed that these look as good as they do especially as the film expired almost 10 years ago. Lauren was very easy to work with and I hope this is the first of more collaborations. I also shot a couple of sheets of large format 5×4 film but those will have to follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 (circa 1950’s), 75mm Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens, loaded with expired Kodak Tri-X, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, automat, black&white, film, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, students, Tri-X, xtol
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Some shots from a photo shoot I had with Georgina a few months ago. Georgina had been rushing around organising things for the Balliol Commemoration Ball so I was glad when she managed to make some time to fit in this shoot a few days before the ball. This room was a tricky space to shoot in because of the height of the window and the amount of furniture in the room but I’m pleased with what I managed to achieve. I quite enjoy having to work to find images in less than ideal situations because it’s a great way to learn.
[Tech info:] Pentax 67 with 55mm and 105mm lenses, Kodak Portra 400VC and Tri-X films.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 400vc, 6x7, balliol, film, georgina, oxford, Portra, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013
Sometimes I don’t get around to processing some of my film until weeks or months after shooting it and sometimes I don’t label what’s on my film so I have no idea what’s on it until I hang it up to dry after processing it. That’s what happened with these shots that are from a lunch time photo shoot I had with Imogen just over 3 months ago! It’s the little surprises like this that make using film so fun. I really like the contrast in these shots which I think is from a film/developer combo that I haven’t explored much before (TMAX and Xtol). I’ll do some more testing with this.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50mm/1.4D loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 (expired), processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 9:15.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, students | 3 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, fm2, imogen, oxford, portraits, students, tmax, xtol
