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Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Here are two Fujiroids I made this afternoon while out for a family walk. I recently got a roll film back for my Mamiya Universal camera so that I can use film and Polaroid in so that’s the camera I took with me to test out the film holder. My first stop was the Meadow Land skatepark where I photographed Imogen on her BMX. We had a nice chat about film photography and she told me she uses a Holga which is a camera that has often intrigued me to try out but I’ve yet to get one. After leaving the skatepark I headed over to the Iffley Road sports centre with my wife and daughter to investigate the announcements we kept hearing from the tannoy over there. It turned out to be a running meet/competition for the British One Milers and as we sat down to watch some of the runners I noticed some activity on the other side of the race track which turned out to be a strong man competition. I also shot some expired slide film that I’m going to cross-process and I’ll post those shots at a later time if they work out.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal camera, 100/3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Imogen
Strong man competitors
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: film, fujiroid, iffley road, mamiya universal, owp, oxford, people, portraits, sport, summer, weightlifting
Thursday, July 18th, 2013
There is a long standing tradition for Oxford university students to celebrate the end of exams (aka trashing) by spraying champagne and throwing various food stuff on whichever friend has just finished their exams. I first came across this in the early 1990’s and in my archives I have a great series of pictures of an unsuspecting student as he is followed down Queen’s Lane by his friends with Tesco carrier bags full of food and little by little he is covered with all manner of things as he made his way to the Kings Arms pub for a celebratory drink. Back then the Kings Arms seemed to be the place for students to go after exiting the Examination Schools so it was fairly easy to make some great pictures but now things seem to be different and it’s not so easy to know where the trashing might take place.
I spent a few weeks hoping I would come across some trashing in my lunch hour photo walks into town but unfortunately I didn’t have much luck until this particular day when I came across this group of students waiting around the corner of Brasenose Lane for their friend to come along. It was perfect timing and I happened to have the perfect camera and lens for it. Everything happened so quickly that I only managed to make these five frames but I’m very pleased with how they turned out and that I managed to avoid getting covered in the food that was being thrown around.
[Tech info:] Pentax 67 with 55mm lens, loaded with Ilford Delta 400, processed in Ilford DD-X 1+4.
Getting trashed after exams
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, delta 400, exams, film, oxford, pentax, people, students, summer, trashing
Monday, July 15th, 2013
These images were all made with Kodak inernegative film that expired in May 1991. It was originally designed to make a colour negative from slide film and is tungsten balanced because you are meant to project the slide film through an enlarger onto this film. I bought a batch of this film to experiment with but because it’s effective film speed is very slow it needs a lot of light which limits when I can use it. Fortunately we’re going through a spell of sunny weather here in Oxford at the moment so I decided to give this film a try with Tamsin last week. I only took six sheets of film with me and here are all six frames.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Aero Ektar lens (apart from middle right which was with a Schneider 180/4.5), Kodak internegative film (expired May 1991).
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 4 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, c41, film, interneg, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer, tamsin
Thursday, July 11th, 2013
This set of images are from my first test roll of some very special 35mm film. It’s Kodak 500T motion picture film that’s designed to be used in movie cameras (the kind that Hollywood studios use) and it’s a favourite film of such movie directors as Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino to name just a few that have used it for their recent movies. I was able to use it in my 35mm SLR because the very clever Brothers Wright in Los Angeles have come up with a technique of removing the remjet layer of the film and then spooling it into 35mm film canisters ready for use in a regular stills camera. It’s native ISO is 500 and it’s balanced for tungsten light. Without the remjet layer the film can be developed in regular C41 chemistry just like other colour negative film. For my first test roll I decided to photograph the Giffords Circus performance last weekend and as an additional test I sent the roll off to ASDA with a few other rolls to test out their developing and scanning service. So far I am very pleased with the results.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens, Kodak 500T (CineStill) film, developed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 500t, cinestill, circus, film, giffords, oxford
Wednesday, July 10th, 2013
These are Fujiroid portraits (similar to Polaroid) that I made of some of the performers at Giffords Circus when they came to University Parks here in Oxford. The diptych ones were made on the last day during the last performance backstage as the circus was getting packed up and moved out. I really wished I had had more time to make some more. Hopefully next time. Some of these scans are from the prints, others from the bleached negatives. There is a lot more shadow detail in the negatives and they have a completely different look and feel to the prints.
[Tech info]: Graflex Super D 5×4, 190mm lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film. The diptych’s were made with a Mamiya RB67 and 90mm lens.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, backstage, diptych, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, oxford, people, portraits, rb67, super d
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
A few Fujiroids (just like Polaroids) from a photo shoot I had with Tamsin. I also shot some 5×4 large format colour film that expired in 1991 so I’m looking forward to processing those. The bottom two shots are a little under-exposed because I metered for the highlights instead of splitting the difference between highlights and shadows. That’s something that can happen when you’re rushing. The sun was moving quite fast and between the time of composing the shot, focussing, cranking the shutter and putting the film into the back of the camera the light had changed and Tamsin was in complete shadow so I had to work fast.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens (top & bottom left) Schneider 180/4.5 (bottom right) on Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 1 Response »
Tags: 5x4, aero, film, fujiroid, graflex, oxford, portraits, students, summer, tamsin
Monday, July 8th, 2013
Giffords Circus left Oxford earlier this evening after being here for almost a week in University Parks and I can’t say enough great things about the amazing people that work there. The weather was non-stop sunshine for the whole time they were here and although the temperature was pretty hot I think it was perfect summer weather to see the Circus. I made a few trips over there to see if I could make some nice portraits on film, each time I took a different camera with me for variety. The performers were all incredibly nice and friendly which made for a great experience. I went to the Sunday afternoon performance which was a full house and I enjoyed every second of it. I can’t recommend it highly enough if you get a chance to see it, these people are the real deal. Everything in this Circus is hand made with care and attention to detail from the sets to the costumes and I couldn’t help thinking that on some level it made perfect sense that I was photographing them because I hand process, scan and print my film with just as much attention to detail for the best possible end result. I’m keeping my finger’s crossed that Giffords Circus will come back to Oxford next year.
Lots more photography from Giffords Circus to come. If you’re one of the Circus performers and you see these pictures, please tell the others in the group and if you wish to, please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 5×4, 190mm lens @ f8, Ilford HP5 film processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, backstage, black&white, circus, film, giffords, graflex, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, portraits, summer
Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013
I recently bought a batch of expired film which I have no idea about how they’ve been previously stored so I decided to test some out to see how well they worked. In this test I was using Kodak Tri-X 400 which expired in 2002 and 2004. Fortunately Tamsin was happy to help out for the testing but it started to rain just as I was loading the first roll of film so I rattled through the film at quite a pace. Also in this test I was using a lens that I haven’t used an awful lot – a 165mm/2.8 Pentax 6×7 which I found out is very difficult to hand hold steady at f2.8 and 1/125th shutter speed which resulted in quite a few out of focus shots (not shown here). I also shot a roll of Agfa colour film that expired in 1996 which I’m very curious to see the results from.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, 105mm/2.4 and 165mm/2.8 lenses, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, processed in Kodak XTOL 1:1.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students, tamsin, xtol
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013
At this time of year it’s not uncommon to see oxford university students around town celebrating the end of their exams and it’s something I enjoy photographing whenever I can. There’s something very photogenic and timeless about their black & white outfits especially when photographed with black & white film. These images are all from the same lunch hour photo walk. At the bottom are Richard and Hugo, the Oxford Tailors that I pass on my way back to my office. I’ve been trying out a film that I never really liked when I first used it many years ago (Kodak TMAX) but I really like the results I’ve been getting recently.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 50mm/f1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer, tailors, tmax
Sunday, June 30th, 2013
Here are some of my images from the Balliol 750th Commemoration Ball that I made on medium format film. Once the sun had gone down I decided to switch to using only black & white film because I like how classic it looks – with lots of different coloured lights in the evening it can be quite distracting. The live acts in the second grid were King Charles (who were amazing) and Mark Ronson DJing. It was the first time I had photographed a live band with a twin lens reflex camera and although a bit of a challenge it was really good fun. With only 12 frames on a roll you really have to pick your moments carefully.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at ISO1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, ball, balliol, black&white, c330, film, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X
Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
Last week Balliol College held their 750th Commemoration Ball here in Oxford and I was there to photograph the event. The weather was a perfect summers evening with gorgeous light and as a photographer I couldn’t have asked for more. I believe there were somewhere around 1,200 guests in attendance so I kept busy the whole night. While there was still daylight I used colour film and after it got dark I switched to black & white. The colour images will be a while as I try to decide on whether to develop them myself or to send them out to a lab. I have a pile of colour films I need to develop which has been steadily growing over the past 5 months. I’m waiting to order the chemicals necessary to develop them because the 5L kit is good for 100 – 120 rolls and once you start to mix the chemistry it has a shortish shelf life.
So, here we have a little preview of some of my black & white shots from the evening. The 2012 Balliol Ball last year was the very first Oxford University ball I’ve ever attended and some of the images I made on film that night are my favourites from all of the ball’s I’ve attended so far. It was nice to see some familiar faces at this ball from last year and also to meet some visitors of this blog. Lots more film images still to come but I’ll be drip feeding them because I have so many to post.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at ISO1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, ball, balliol, black&white, c330, film, hc110, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X
Monday, June 24th, 2013
These two portraits were made yesterday at the same skatepark session as the two in the previous post except these were made on 5×4 black & film. The maximum amount of 5×4 sheet film I can develop at the same time is 6 sheets so that’s usually how many I load into film holders at the same time. I had already used 4 sheets from this batch at a shoot I had with Imogen so I only had 2 sheets with me when I decided to go to the skatepark. It’s a shame because the light was nice (when the sun wasn’t behind a cloud) and there was a good crowd there.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 5×4, Pentac f2.9 @ f4, Ilford Delta 100 processed in Ilford DDX 1+4.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, bmx, ddx, delta 100, film, graflex, meadow lane, owp, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, skatepark, summer, super d
