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Friday, May 10th, 2013
Last year (2012) I photographed at the Keble ball and the ball committee were so pleased with my photography that they asked me back to photograph at this years’ and of course I said yes. It was nice to see some familiar faces that I had photographed there last year and I in turn got recognised too. Just as I did previously I shot with both film and digital – the digital ones I’ve uploaded to Facebook, the film ones I will post here.
So far I’ve developed one roll from the night and below are the first four frames as a bit of a teaser.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8, Tri-X 400 processed in Kodak HC110 for 7:30.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, hc110, keble college, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
Regular visitors to this blog will know how much I love Fuji instant pack film and last week I decided to try some out on my lunch hour photo walks around Oxford with a camera that I don’t tend to use very much, my Mamiya Universal. Clockwise from top left: Builders working on the new Bodleian Library on their lunch break, security outside the Sheldonian Theatre (graduation ceremony), the red crane at the new Bodleian Library, graduation ceremony photographers (this one was actually shot on my way home after work), the all female a cappella band In The Pink, a guy taking a break in Radcliffe Square.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: film, fujiroid, oxford, people, portraits, summer
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
One of my favourite times of the year in Oxford is late afternoon/early evening sunlight during spring and summer. The warm coloured light on the colleges and the long shadows are perfect for photography. Here are a few shots from a quick photo shoot I had with Chloe where I wanted to test out one of my cameras that hasn’t had much use recently, my Mamiya Universal. It’s a medium format rangefinder camera that is a bit of a beast but it delivers in the image quality department. I’m not a big fan of rangefinder cameras but the reason I got this one was because it enables me to shoot Fuji instant pack film and Polaroid full-frame, without any blank areas on the print. It’s also completely mechanical which I’m a huge fan of.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/3.5 lens, loaded with Fuji FP100-C instant pack film (expired 2005).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: chloe, fujiroid, mamiya universal, oxford, portraits, students
Sunday, May 5th, 2013
Holi is the Hindu festival of colours and 1,000+ Oxford university students got together today to celebrate by throwing coloured paint powder and squirting water at each other. I had to keep a safe distance to avoid trashing my camera so I didn’t manage to get any shots of the masses, instead I concentrated on some portraits. Helen originally tipped me off about this get together and we planned to do a photo shoot there but our plans ground to a halt when the paint powder that was for sale ran out before we got there. Our models were Jess and Charlie (last image) and Luke (not shown here) but with only half a cup of blue powder that Helen managed to find we were a bit limited with what we could achieve. After some brainstorming with Megan we set up some shots which I shot digitally, I’m only showing my Fuji pack film shots below. It was a fun session despite the difficulty of fighting against bright sunlight and struggling to find decent shade (this is where a white sheet and two helpful assistants can come in handy).
Tech info: Mamiya RB67, 180/4.5 lens on Fuji FP100C instant pack film loaded into a sliding Polaroid back.
Posted in film, Oxford, students | 1 Response »
Tags: diptych, film, fujiroid, oxford, portraits, rb67, students
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
Here’s the first set of images that I made last weekend of some of the guests on their way to St Peter’s College ball. It was a bit of a chilly evening and rather overcast so photography became tricky as the light level started to drop quite quickly. A lot of the students decided to wear coats (obviously to keep warm) but it’s not so great for photographs which is why I didn’t stop all that many people. I chose to process this roll in Rodinal for more of an old school look compared to HC110. It does increase the grain a little but I don’t mind that.
I’ll be photographing at Keble College ball on 4th May but as it’s the biggest night of the year for college balls (at least four on the same night) I’ll try to do some more group shots on the street of guests making their way to the ball so keep an eye out for me.
[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80/1.9 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in Rodinal 1+50.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, ball, black&white, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students, summer, Tri-X
Sunday, April 28th, 2013
The warm summery weather we had last weekend was a little short lived and didn’t last very long so I didn’t manage to visit the skatepark on Meadow Lane this weekend. Here are a set of portraits I made last Saturday on medium format film. These guys are the early birds who were there right around when the park opened in the morning, more than likely making the most of it before the hoards arrived.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 150mm lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X, processed in HC110 (1+31).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, bmx, film, hc110, owp, oxford, people, portraits, SL66, Tri-X
Saturday, April 27th, 2013
Here’s a set of images from my first shoot I had with Charlie. This was a very quick shoot using only natural daylight coming in through a large window in the late afternoon. I decided to take the opportunity to test out a lens that I’ve had sitting around for quite a while but have never used, a 110mm f2.8. One of my favourite lenses for my Mamiya 645 is the 80/f1.9 and I use it so often that you’d think it was welded on but the depth of field at f1.9 is so shallow that I tend to use that lens mostly at f2.8. When I decided to test out my 110/f2.8 lens I used it wide open at f2.8 for these shots. I really like how these shots turned out but I need to do further testing outside with more distance to the background so that I can see what the bokeh is like with this lens.
[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 110/f2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (dilution b).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 3 Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, charlie, film, hc110, oxford, portraits, protl, students, Tri-X
Thursday, April 25th, 2013
These images are all from the same roll that I shot with Chloe a couple of months ago in her room at college. The nice thing about this room is that instead of having a standard window, there are two walls of glass that meet in a corner. This was more of a quick test shoot to see what we could come up with in this location and after seeing these I can’t wait to shoot some more there.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired 2007), processed in Rodinal 1+50.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, chloe, film, oxford, portraits, rb67, room, students, Tri-X
Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
I was hoping to do some photography at the Exeter College ball last weekend but I didn’t send in my request until I was sure of what the weather was going to be like but by that time they had already signed up someone else to do the photography – the day before. That’s a shame because the weather was a perfect summers evening. I didn’t want it to be a total waste so I decided to go along to do some photography of the guests arriving. I really like how these have turned out and despite the falling light levels in Turl Street, film seems to have a way of soaking it all up. There’s a timeless quality to these that I really like especially the guys dressed in black & white.
[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80/1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X processed in HC110 (1+31). One roll was pushed 1 stop for 10mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, exeter, film, hc110, oxford, people, students, summer, Tri-X
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
Here are some shots from the second salon day at Keble College held by dress hire company Wish Want Wear. This was a lunch break shoot so I only had half an hour shooting time. Katherine did an amazing job at changing outfits in record time. I’ll be photographing at the Keble Ball on 4th May and I’m really looking forward to it.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens on Fuji FP100C instant pack film.
Posted in Fashion, film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: ball, diptych, fashion, film, fujiroid, keble college, oxford, rb67, students
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
Here are some portraits I made on large format 10×8 film yesterday as part of my ongoing personal project to document the users of the Oxford Wheels Project skatepark on Meadow Lane. We had a sunny morning with next to no breeze which is ideal conditions for dragging out a 10×8 camera. Fortunately it wasn’t too busy so I had space to set up and I managed to make 8 different portraits, my most successful session so far. I absolutely love shooting 10×8 and I can’t wait to shoot some transparency film at the skatepark. Below are the first batch from yesterday, I haven’t processed the others yet. These web sized images don’t do the originals any justice. The negatives are a sight to behold and the original high-resolution scans have so much detail in them it’s mind boggling.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, 300mm Sinaron lens, green sensitive x-ray film, ISO50, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6mins.
The 10x8 Wista camera I used.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: 10x8, black&white, bmx, film, owp, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, skatepark, wista, x-ray film
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
This morning I went over to the OWP skatepark on meadow lane right after it opened at 10am to do a little photography. I had a lot of things to do the rest of the day and I knew the weather was going to be really nice so I made the most of it with an early start. The nice thing about getting to the skatepark early is that it’s not too busy so there’s time to set shots up and space to move around without getting in peoples way. Another benefit is the sun is low enough in the sky to cast lots of shadows everywhere which is something I like because it helps to give contrast to an image. There were a lot of skills on show this morning and the BMX riders certainly knew how to make their riding skills look easy as they whipped around the bowl. I set up some shots with Lima, who I think is able to get the most height out of the bowl but unfortunately I accidentally double exposed the last two shots. Sorry! I’ve included it for reference below. I also shot some frames of b&w film, those will follow later.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 180mm lens on Fuji FP100C instant pack film (aka Fujiroids).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: bmx, diptych, film, fujiroid, owp, oxford, portraits, rb67
