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Oxford: Balliol 750th Commemoration Ball 2013 part 2

Thursday, August 22nd, 2013

At long last I have the shots I made on colour film at the Balliol 750th Commemoration Ball and I couldn’t be more pleased that I decided to send these out to a lab to have developed and scanned. This set of images is every frame from two rolls of film. I find it very exciting to send off rolls of film in the post and then patiently wait for them to return which is something that you only get with film. Despite these films being past their expiry date the colours have turned out beautifully – thank you Ag photo lab in Birmingham for doing such a great job. I bought a good sized batch of this film from a fashion photographer that used to use a lot of it but as his clients request digital photography now he had no need for it.

[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra VC, developed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.

Photo shoot: where there’s smoke

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

Here are some Fujiroids from a recent photo shoot I had with Helen. We lucked out with some gorgeous sunlight and a great location to shoot in. The great thing about the room we used for these shots is it had three windows in it, two facing south and one facing west. The great thing about this in terms of photography is if you’re in the right place in the room as the sun is starting to go down in the early evening you end up getting lit from two different directions. I’m very pleased with how these turned out considering the film expired in 2007. Film shots will follow at a later time once I’ve had a chance to develop them.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.

Oxford: 10×8 x-ray film

Tuesday, August 20th, 2013

Here is a set of large format images that I made on 10×8 (green) x-ray film a couple of weeks ago on a stroll into town. I was glad to see the workmen on the steps of the Clarendon Building because I often see them there on my lunch photo walk and think to myself how nice it would be to make a group shot of them on 10×8 film. I took 8 sheets of film with me but only used 7.

[Tech info:] 10×8 Wista Field, 300mm Sinaron lens, CXS green latitude x-ray film (ISO50), processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6mins.

Setting up

Setting up (photo by Clive Jones)

Photo shoot: Oxford Tailor’s

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

These shots are from January this year that I’ve only just managed to get around to posting. I found out yesterday that Richard is being moved from the Oxford store to the Leamington branch in a couple of days so these shots are a little bit of history. This grid is an entire roll of film that I shot during my lunch break with Richard and Jason. Some of the shots were to experiment with freelensing, others are with a lens attached to the camera.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66. I don’t have any other info to hand at the moment but I assume the film was Kodak Tri-X.

Richard and Jason, The Oxford Tailor's

Oxford: BMX Jam, Meadow Lane, part 2

Sunday, August 11th, 2013

This is the second instalment of my pictures from the BMX Jam that was held at the Meadow Lane skatepark last month. It was a really fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon – even my wife and daughter stayed for the whole thing so it must have been good! I tried to photograph some of the action but with a maximum shutter speed of 1/400 it proved to be quite challenging to capture the peak of the action but I gave it my best shot.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 150mm lenses, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 and Kodak Tri-X 400. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Oxford: experiments with blue x-ray film

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

So far all of the x-ray film that I have been using has been of the green variety which I think means it’s sensitive to a certain colour of light when used for medical x-rays. Recently I acquired some blue x-ray film from the FPP online store and here are some of my first test shots with it. These shots were all rated at ISO25 and I experimented with two different developers, Kodak HC110 and Rodinal. This film seems very sensitive to over agitation and I think the Rodinal seems to be better because of the higher dilution of 1+100 and longer development time of 10mins.

[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, 300mm Sinaron lens, Fuji Blue x-ray film, ISO25.

The view on the ground glass screen of the Wista. It’s upside down on the camera when I’m using it.

Oxford: large format film experiments

Sunday, August 4th, 2013

Now that I’ve got a batch of  C41 colour film chemistry mixed up I decided to use some large format colour film this week which I don’t usually get to use. My go to 5×4 camera tends to be a Speed Graphic because of its built in shutter and the choice of old lenses this allows me to use but the film I wanted to use has an ISO rating of 12 which means it needs a ton of light and the Speed Graphic doesn’t have a shutter speed slower than 1/30 so I ended up using my Wista Field camera which is a lot lighter and a joy to use. I bought my Wista brand new in 1990 and it’s still going strong. Back then it was a magnet every time I used it on the streets and it’s still the same now although the questions people ask me now are different, for example a common one is ‘can you still get film for that?’ The answer is yes.

These images were all made on film that isn’t designed to be used outdoors, it’s meant for duplicating existing film with the use of an enlarger and a tungsten light source but I’ve found that it works nicely outdoors. The Top image of the Ashmolean Museum and the left hand shot of the Triumph motorbike were made with Fuji slide duplicating film that expired in 2011 and the other four shots were all made with Kodak internegative film that expired in 1991. I’ve posted the two motorbike shots side by side for a comparison between both film types. The Fuji film is designed to be processed in E6 chemistry to give a positive transparency but here I’ve cross-processed it in C41 chemistry to see what would happen. I’m pleased with the results. Next I want to try using it for a portrait. Any volunteers?

[Tech info:] Wista field 5×4 camera and Schneider 180mm and 90mm lenses. Kodak inernegative and Fuji CDII slide duplicating film, both exposed at ISO12.

 

5x4 large format

Wista Field 5×4 large format

Oxford: two Fujiroids

Saturday, August 3rd, 2013

Today I had a little spare time just before midday so I went over to the Meadow lane skatepark to see if I could make some portraits before it started to rain. There weren’t many people there but I did manage to make these two portraits before heading back home.

[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.

Nick

Skateboarder

BMX rider

 

Photo shoot: Alice

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

These shots are from a photo shoot I had with Alice last month on the last day of term, right before she was leaving Oxford for the summer. We had been trying to find the time to shoot but for one reason or another we never managed it but I’m so glad we got to arrange this at the last minute. The first time I photographed Alice was for a 1920’s themed promo shoot which I thought she was the perfect choice for and I’m hoping we can shoot some more when term starts again in October especially as Alice is a really good stylist with a wonderful collection of fabrics and clothes that will be fun to photograph . These shots were all made with a medium format camera, the 35mm shots will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 ProTL, 80/1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak XTOL 1+1.

Photo shoot: elephanting around

Monday, July 29th, 2013

Now that I’ve got some C41 colour chemicals mixed up and we have some hot weather I’ve been slowly chipping away at the pile of colour film I’ve had sitting in my fridge for the past I don’t know how many months. Some rolls have labels on, others don’t so it’s exciting when I develop a couple of rolls and don’t know what’s on them until I hang them up to dry. These shots are from my photo shoot with Tamsin and Josh back in June when Josh made this amazing elephant costume for a party he was attending later that evening. I previously posted some black & white shots here.

[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80/1.9 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 400VC (expired), home developed in a Rollei digibase C41 kit.

Oxford: BMX Jam, Meadow lane, part 1

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

Last Sunday I went along to a BMX Jam at the Meadow lane skate park  that had been organised by local BMX legend Alex Leech. As I’ve never been to one of these events before I didn’t quite know what to expect but after enjoying this one so much I can’t wait for the next one. It was great to see some familiar local faces that I’ve photographed there before and plenty of new ones too. I took along two cameras with me but sadly one of them (a 35mm SLR) developed a fault shortly after I got there so I was down to just my medium format camera which has a maximum shutter speed of 1/400 so action shots were proving a bit tricky but I gave it a go at anticipating the peak of the action. The shots below are all from the same roll of film – I only get 10 frames with this camera. More images to come.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film (expired 2004), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

BMX jam portraits

BMX jam

Oxford: Giffords Circus (35mm)

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

While Giffords Circus was in Oxford I went to University Parks on a few different occasions for photography, each time with a different camera and mostly with black & white film. On this occasion I took along a 35mm camera loaded with colour film to mix things up a little and for speed. These shots are all from the same roll while a performance was going on so I didn’t have much time. I really love the colours in these shots.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4 lens loaded with Fuji Superia 200 film. Developed and scanned by Asda in Swindon.

Giffords Circus performers backstage, University Parks, Oxford.

Giffords Circus performers backstage, University Parks, Oxford.