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Oxford: Lunch hour session

Friday, October 26th, 2012

These images are from the first test roll through a medium format camera I came across recently. It’s a Bronica ETRSi (6×4.5 format) and so far I have really enjoyed using it thanks to its small compact size and light weight. The weather this week in Oxford has been incredibly grim and gloomy but I was so keen to try this camera out that I decided to shoot some test shots regardless and after seeing these shots I’m glad I did. More to come.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75mm/f2.8 EII lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in Kodak HC110 (1:119) for 1 hour (20sec agitation after 30mins).

Richard the tailor, first frame on the Bronica.

Bike, Walton Street

Autumn leaves on car, Wellington square

Walton street

Construction worker, Little Clarendon Street

Construction worker, Little Clarendon street

Alex

Construction worker

Construction worker currently working on the big Walton Street project

 

Experiments: Semi-stand film developing

Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Recently I’ve been doing a little research into semi-stand film developing and I finally felt ready to give it a try. First I needed a roll of film to process so I shot one during a lunch hour and headed over to the darkroom after work. The film expired in 2003 so I was half expecting a bit of a fail with this experiment but despite quite a heavy base fog on the film it seemed to scan quite nicely considering the age of the film.

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000s, 80mm/f1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X (expired 2003), processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution 1:119) for 1 hour with a few gentle agitations at the 30min stage. I used 6ml of HC110 syrup to make 720ml of working developer, this is what my research suggested.

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Sunday, October 21st, 2012

Some photography from earlier in the summer, made during my lunch hour photo walk around Oxford city centre. I planned to post these soon after processing them but they got a bit lost in the shuffle of my mountain of films to scan so I apologise for the delay. We had a bit of a wet summer as I recall and one of my favourite places to go when it’s raining is the University museum of natural history on Parks Road (the bottom four images). Not only does the building have an incredible interior but it’s packed with amazing things too. Well worth a visit.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80mm Zeiss planar lens with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Rodinal 1:50.

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Saturday, October 20th, 2012

These shots were made earlier in the summer during one of my lunch time photo walks. Somehow they got lost in the shuffle and were scanned but I didn’t get around to posting them (that seems to happen a fair bit with me because I do so much photography). Apologies if you were waiting for these to show up.

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).

Drama: Killing Hitler

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Back in May I was invited to do some photography during the dress rehearsal of a theatre production called Killing Hitler by the director of the production. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it so instead I went along to the opening night to try to squeeze in a little photography during curtain up. You’d think I would have learnt my lesson from trying that during a production of Cabaret with not a huge amount of success but I felt it was worth a try. Needless to say the cast and crew had more important things on their minds than to make time for my photography so all I managed to get was these three shots. It’s a shame because the set for the opening scene looked really good with the lighting. My thanks go to the director, Lucie Dawkins and the cast and crew for putting up with me.

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).

 

Oxford: St Giles’ Fair part 2

Sunday, October 14th, 2012

More images that I made during St Giles’ Fair at the beginning of September. This is the contents of an entire roll of medium format film, 12 frames, none deleted.  [Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Rodinal 1:50.

Oxford: casting call

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Next month (November) there are a number of events going on for Oxford Fashion Week, some of which I’m hoping to do some photography at. Last year I did a lot of photography backstage at the various fashion shows but it was all digital. This year I’m planning to stick with film. Earlier today there was a casting call that I attended in an ‘unofficial’ capacity simply to do a little portrait photography to blog, just for fun. Thanks goes to Nick Seagrave, the OFW team and everyone that agreed to be photographed. All of these portraits were made on Fuji instant pack film which is just like Polaroid. I have a special back on my camera that slides to allow me to make two exposures on one print.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, sliding Polaroid back loaded with Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

It feels so good to be back on the streets of Oxford for my regular lunch hour photo walk. After spending last week in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) it was nice to feel the familiar positive vibe on the streets in town. The University students are back and it’s impossible not to notice – they’re everywhere. I decided to shoot some Fuji pack film today at lunch time in what was a really good session. The images below are all in the order they were shot in the space of around 20 minutes. The construction workers are working on the new Bodleian library building that’s being renovated on Broad Street. I enjoyed chatting with them, a nice group of guys that seemed to appreciate my passion for using old film cameras.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.

Fab' Mo' Blues, Cornmarket Street.

Rob - Brookes University student. Market street.

Construction workers, Broad Street. I didn't notice the blood until I peeled the print back at my office.

Construction workers

Construction workers working on the Bodleian Library renovation.

Construction worker from the Bodleian Library renovation.

 

Oxford: Street portraits

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

A friend emailed me in the morning to say he’d seen some filming going on in Broad Street that looked interesting – an alien, burlesque dancers and a guy carrying a coffin. How could I resist going into town to check it out. By the time I got there the filming was over and the crew had moved into Trinity College, it was the Lewis tv crew. I decided to have a wander to do some street photography, there were so many people around you could’ve mistaken it for the middle of summer. There was a graduation ceremony at the Sheldonian Theatre along with four weddings going on and tons of tourist groups on walking tours. It was a real circus especially when a horse drawn carriage rolled along Broad Street to transport the bride to her wedding. My camera of choice turned heads – I’ve never been photographed by so many different people on the same day! You can see one of the shots of me on the street at the bottom of this post (thanks Brian).

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens with a custom sliding Polaroid back loaded with Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.

This man is part of the Lewis film crew, a really nice guy that I photographed earlier in the summer when they were set up outside the covered market.

Another person I've photographed a few times. He always looks cool.

Brian is the photographer that made the portrait of me below. We had a nice chat about photography. In the shot I'm holding the print you see above.

Light leak! It's such a shame this got ruined, those gloves were so cute.

This man is not the artist of the picture, it was being drawn by his camera shy friend to camera left. I was surprised to hear that he knew about my photo blog.

Me on the street.

 

Photo shoot: Helen – from white to black

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

Some photo shoots can start off with with trying to plan every last detail, others have the room to breath and experiment to see what happens. This photo shoot falls in the latter. Helen sent me an image for inspiration and from there I decided I would only use black & white film and I took along four different cameras to experiment with (3 medium format and a 35mm). On the day Helen brought various outfits but I think it was a coincidence that we only ended up using black and white clothing. The images have a feeling of going from light to dark which was perfect as we raced against the fading sun. This is a story of a girl who’s man ‘did her wrong’. It was a fun shoot and I hope to do more of these.

[Tech info:] I used the following cameras, Pentax 67 with 105/f2.4 lens, Mamiya C330f with 80/f2.8 lens and a Mamiya M645 1000S with 80/f1.9 lens.  Film used was Kodak Tri-X and Fuji Acros 100. All of these shots were processed in Rodinal 1:50 (Acros for 10:00, the Tri-X for 13:30).

Oxford: St Giles’ Fair part 1

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

Anyone that has grown up in Oxford will probably have some sort of memory of visiting St Giles’ Fair which is held once a year at the beginning of September. For me, the arrival of the fair signified autumn, the end of summer and the start of a new school year. When I was younger I used to love going on the rides but nowadays I prefer to do photography there instead. I really enjoy the huge diversity of people that the fair attracts and the underlying creepiness that seems to hang in the air from the shifty characters you see among the crowds.

This year I really enjoyed photographing at St Giles’ Fair. The weather was warm, there were loads of people there and the light was very interesting. Previously I have always tried to concentrate on making images of the rides but this year I decided to concentrate on the people instead and capturing something of the atmosphere.

[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80mm and 55mm lenses, loaded with Kodak Tri-X, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b.

Oxford: Around and about

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

This set of images are all from the same roll in early August. Some were made during my lunch hour photo walk and others were made at the weekend.

[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 105mm lens loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).