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Sunday, September 18th, 2011
The Oxford Open Doors weekend usually takes place in September, it’s an opportunity to visit places and buildings that are usually closed to visitors. Two years ago I visited the Corpus Christi college barge which is moored on the river Isis near Donnington Bridge. It wasn’t open last year so when I saw it listed as being open to visitors last weekend I was excited to photograph it on some medium format film. The light inside the barge is fantastic and even though the weather was overcast with the threat of rain the light inside was perfect for black & white photography. Many thanks to the current resident, Claire, who allowed me to make some lovely images inside her home.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 loaded with Ilford Delta 100 film (expired May 2011), processed in Ilford DD-X developer, 12mins, 20C.
I love these oval wooden windows that line both sides of the barge.
Bedroom.
Lots of wood everywhere.
A cozy corner.
Fireplace.
Posted in Oxford | 5 Responses »
Monday, September 12th, 2011
These images were all made with a new lens that I recently picked up. This is the first test roll, needless to say I love this lens!
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 110/2.8 lens, Kodak Portra 160 film. Hand developed and scanned by me.
I really like the John Lennon glasses and the whole retro vibe of this guy.
It was the white glasses that led me to stop this guy.
Ice-cream seller, Radcliffe Square, Oxford.
Dean.
Harry Potter fans.
The long hooded robes that these girls are wearing caught my eye. It was a very hot day and I couldn't work out why they would be dressed this way. After asking them to stop for a photograph they pulled out a note book to write down this blog address and then out came the quill pen. At that point it struck me, they're Harry Potter fans! The Hogwarts crest is embroidered on their cloaks and they had just come from visiting the Divinity Schools behind them which was used for the hospital scenes in the first movie.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 4 Responses »
Sunday, September 11th, 2011
A few months ago I came across a podcast dedicated to the use of film photography. It turned out that the podcast had been running for well over a year so I started to make my way through their archive of previous shows. For anyone interested in real photography using film (as opposed to digital imaging) I can’t recommend this podcast and their website highly enough. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic bunch of people and as a result they’ve built up quite a following and community worldwide.
From listening to the FPP podcast I learnt about Polaroid Automatic Land Cameras. Their website is a great resource for information including videos of how the cameras work, what to look out for when buying/using them and how to get the best out of these amazing cameras. The more I learnt about them the more I got hooked. A quick search on ebay turned up a bargain and from the first time using it I was instantly hooked. I’ve since acquired a few more of these cameras of different models and this week I took one out on the streets for a quick test. Below is a shot of my most recent purchase, a Polaroid 350 (photographed with my Polaroid 100 and portrait kit) and the two images below that were made with it. Polaroid no longer make the instant pack film but fortunately Fuji still does. There is something magical about producing a print directly from a camera and to think that these cameras date back to the 1960’s. The fact that they still work perfectly today is testament to how well made they are and to say that using one of these is fun and exciting would be an understatement. How many of todays digital cameras will be in use 50 years from now?
Polaroid 350 Automatic Land Camera
Degree robes
Elegant dresses in shop window, Little Clarendon Street, Oxford.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Sometimes I have a good run of coming across photogenic looking people on the street. These images were made on two consecutive days on the same roll of film a couple of weeks ago.
I’ve got a stack of film still yet to scan so if I told you that your portrait will be on here in a couple of weeks I apologise for the delay. Don’t worry, I will get to it so please keep checking back. If you see yourself in any of the portraits on this blog, please leave me a comment to let me know what you think. Thanks.
[Tech info]: Mamiya RZ67, 110mm lens and Portra 160 film. Processed and scanned by me.
This is local Oxford photographer, Paddy Summerfield. Back in the early 90's I worked at a photo lab processing E6 slide film and Paddy was a customer. I periodically bump into him around town from time to time. It's nice to chat about photography with someone that's been doing it for so many years. On this occasion Paddy was delivering this card to someone. He informed me that he had used the envelope that came with it for something else!
Cornmarket street, Oxford.
I'm sure you can guess why I stopped this gentleman. The midday sun was particularly harsh on this occasion so I used some nearby shade on the High street.
I liked this guy's look, it's kind of retro. The summer evening light brought out the colour of the tree in the background nicely. Brasenose lane, Oxford.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
This set of images were made earlier in the summer. I had scanned them a while back but only just came across them in my archives and realised that I hadn’t posted them. They are all from the same roll where I was testing out a new lens that had arrived. The lens is a 165mm for Pentax 67 and it’s nicknamed the ‘bokeh factory’, now I can see why 🙂
[Tech info]: Pentax 67, 165mm lens, Fuji Acros 100 processed in HC110 (1:64).
Natural History Museum, Oxford.
Natural History Museum, Oxford.
Natural History Museum, Oxford.
Natural History Museum, Oxford.
Anyone for tennis?
This man was unusually chatty and had grand ideas about what we see around us is all an illusion. Maybe he's watched The Matrix too many times?
This man stopped to say hello so I decided to make his portrait. He didn't say anything else.
End of exams celebrations.
I stopped this gentleman and mistook his digital camera for a film camera. He was very pleasant and we chatted briefly about my film camera I was using because he too used to use the same one. I decided to make his portrait even though he wasn't using a film camera.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Monday, August 29th, 2011
Here we have a bit of a mixture of shots from the same roll of film. I was trying out a new type of film, Kodak Portra 160 rated at 100 and then processed normally. The first two images are of my daughter, the colour difference is down to me testing different scanning software. I prefer the one on the left made with Silverfast SE. Over the past few years I’ve made so many images of Nya with digital but recently I’ve mainly been using film. There’s something wonderful about having images of Nya on physical media compared to bits and bytes on hard drives.
All shots made with a Mamiya 645 1000S and 80mm/2.8 lens.
Nya loves swings
A student from Taiwan with his mum's old Nikon FM and 50/1.4 lens. This is the first SLR camera that a dear friend of mine (thank you Susie Barker) handed me in 1986 to use. How many DSLR's will be in use 25 years from now?
I never tire of photographing this worn out bicycle.
I've got a thing for photographing beaten up bikes
These buildings have been marked for redevelopment in the next month. More student accommodation, more people for me to photograph. I like the red and black in this scene..
I don't usually stop anyone that isn't an adult because of how controversial photographing children can be. On this occasion I thought this guy looked so cool waiting with his dog so I decided to ask him. I like how his trousers match the colour of the stone and the blue signs echo his top.
Window display in vintage furniture store Liscious, Walton street, Oxford.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 5 Responses »
Tags: 645, people, Portra, portraits, summer
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Regular visitors to this blog will have noticed a huge difference in the design and layout. This is because I received so many comments about how difficult the old design was to navigate.
Here are the first images from a new lens (110mm/2.8) I got for my Mamiya RZ67.
Celebrating the end of exams
I'm always attracted to cool looking sunglasses. You can see me on the left.
Fellow photographer and work colleague, Martin. He used to be the lead singer and guitarist in one of Oxford's biggest bands in the 80's, TARGA. Not a lot of people know that.
Ice-cream seller, Radcliffe square.
Artist
Street style, Broad street, Oxford.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 3 Responses »
Tags: black&white, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, students
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
I love Oxford in the summer, especially the warm evening light when the sun starts to drop and there are nice long shadows everywhere. It’s been quite a while since I had the time to do street photography in the evenings so I’m pleased I have some free time at the moment to make the most of the summer evenings and light.
These images are from one of the first rolls of colour negative film that I developed myself. I’ve been putting it off until now because I thought it would be more difficult than it was.
[Tech info:] All of these images are from the same roll of Kodak Portra 400 film inside a Mamiya RZ67 camera with a 110/2.8 lens.
Two Russian students on the steps of the Clarendon Building, Broad Street, Oxford.
- I really like this young lady’s vintage look, especially the fur coat. There’s a movie star quality about her. I had seen her during some of my lunch hour sessions but she always seemed to be on the other side of the road or in a hurry. Hopefully I can photograph her again.
Another fellow film photographer whom I met during a Flickr meet up in University Parks.
This was part of a test shoot with Mayumi who I've photographed before. I wanted to test out a new lens and film.
On my way home one evening I passed this gentleman on Cornmarket street, I really liked how smartly dressed he was. I never go along Cornmarket street during my street photography sessions because of the shops the line both sides of the street and the sheer volume of people you find along there that makes it impossible to photograph anyone. At this time of the evening it was much emptier. I'm pleased with how the background doesn't show the shops very clearly.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: Portra, RZ67, summer
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Here are some images from the colour films that I shot during Summer VIII’s 2011. The delay in posting these was because of the expense of posting one or two rolls away for developing. It’s much more economical to send off a batch of film but as I mostly use b&w film it’s taken me a while to use up enough rolls of colour for a batch.
In the coming weeks I intend to start developing my own colour film so look forward to seeing some of my results. I have the chemicals ready, I just need some spare time. More colour images from Summer VIII’s coming soon.
[Tech info:] Camera: Pentax 67, film: Kodak Ektar 100.
Cheer leader practice. Between two of the college boathouses I noticed this group of cheer leaders practicing. It looked quite bizarre with all of the rowing going on behind me.
Curiouser and curiouser
Spectators
Another film photographer. I had an enjoyable chat about film photography with this photographer. The camera was in mint condition and had belonged to his mother. I still own and use the previous model that I bought in 1992.
Cup cakes for sale.
Posted in Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: oxford, pentax, people, rowing, students, summer 8's
Monday, August 8th, 2011
I’m back after almost a month of no posts. I must apologise to regular viewers of this blog and I hope you didn’t think I’d abandoned you. Truth be told I’ve been busier than ever with my photography but I haven’t had much time to develop and scan the films that I’ve been amassing in my fridge.
The good news is there will be a good supply of images appearing on this blog in the coming weeks as I feverishly work away at clearing the backlog. Yesterday 5 rolls of colour neg (C41) films arrived back from the lab and amongst those are shots from Eights Week that I’ve been looking forward to seeing. Over the next few weeks I am going to try my hand at developing my own colour neg films which will be a first for me. I have the chemicals ready but once I mix them they are only good for a week so I’ve been steadily building up a stock pile of films to develop.
Below are images from early July from a new camera format for me. The 645 format is 6cm wide by 4.5cm tall and is approximately 2.5 times larger than 35mm. The nice thing is the camera is smaller and more compact than my 6×7 cameras and I get 15 shots on a roll compared to 10. The downside is it takes me longer to finish the roll before I can develop it.
[Tech info]: Shot on Fuji Acros 100 film with a Mamiya M645 1000S. Developed in Kodak HC110 developer.
Pasties and coke
Divinity Schools quad, Oxford. This was shot in harsh midday sun with this gentleman being lit from behind. This is a perfect example of the amazing dynamic range of film.
St. Giles, Oxford.
Little Clarendon Street, Oxford. This gentleman said 'don't put my picture on Facebook!'. Lucky for him I don't put any of my images on Facebook.
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Sometimes you’ll find a lot of contrast between people on the streets of Oxford. These three images illustrate that quite well. During my lunch hours when I’m in town looking for visually interesting people to photograph there tends to be three category’s that the majority of people fall into; students, people that work in the city and tourists. It’s the summer holidays for Oxford university students at the moment and the city centre is overflowing with tourists. Hopefully there will be lots more street style to be found during the rest of this summer.
A well dressed tourist
A cool looking student
Very street
Posted in Oxford, Street style | 2 Responses »
Tags: D700, oxford, people, street style
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
Here in Oxford it’s the time of year where University students sit their end of year exams. For many that’s something to celebrate and let me tell you they sure know how to celebrate it here in style – with a trip to Tesco for some grocery shopping and then dumping the entire contents of said groceries onto a friend who has just finished their exams! It makes for a good photographic subject but it’s frowned upon at the higher levels of the university and students caught doing it can get fined £80. Some students that I came across pleaded with me not to photograph them for fear of being fined, so I didn’t. Others were braver and those are the ones you see here. I’ve delayed posting these images as a way of protecting them from a fine because exams are all over now and most of the students have gone back home for the summer.
[Tech info]: Mamiya C330f camera, Fuji Acros 100 film.
These outfits are called subfusc but I have no idea why.
Celebrating the end of exams
Celebrating the end of exams
Another film photographer
Another film photographer
Posted in Oxford, Street portraits | 1 Response »
