Despite the harsh lunch time sun today I managed to find somewhere with some nice light to make these portraits of Hugo and Jason, Oxford Tailor’s from Clements & Church. These guys are always dressed up looking smart and ready for a portrait.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Some test shots from a roll of Ilford FP4+ that expired 20 years ago (1994). I picked up a box of this film as part of a mixed lot of expired rolls and I’ve been waiting for some sunny weather to test it out. Spring seems to have finally sprung so this is the first test roll that I used on my lunch break photo walk around town in very sunny and contrasty light. The contrast of this film seems to have gone way down which is perfect for using on a very sunny day. I bumped up the contrast in post by an unusually high amount to achieve the results below. Overall I’m very surprised and pleased with the results.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired 1994), rated at ISO 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 12mins.
A few shots here of Richard from Clements & Church Tailor’s on Little Clarendon Street that I made to test out some film last summer. This roll of film has been in my fridge with a batch of others waiting to be processed. I had originally planned to build up a stash before mixing some fresh chemistry but I probably won’t get a chance for that until later this summer so I decided to send them off for processing. Since these shots were made quite a few things have changed – Richard has moved to the Leamington Spa branch of Clements & Church, the tree in the background of the first shot has been heavily chopped back so there won’t be any leaves on it for a long time to come and the Barclays Bank on the right hand side of the picture along with the cashpoints has now closed. That’s why I’m so passionate about photography, making photographic memories to have something to look back on.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 160 VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
This is how some students celebrate the end of their exams, Oxford style (aka trashing). After weeks of not coming across anyone in my lunch hour I finally managed to bump into quite a few students on the same day. These shots are from last summer but I didn’t want to post them too soon because I didn’t want anyone to get into trouble for it. I think almost a year after the fact is probably fairly safe.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Kodak Portra 160VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
These portraits were all made during the swimming and water polo events at the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014. I was struggling to find enough space to set these shots up and it was also difficult to find competitors that had spare time to stop but in the end I’m pleased with how these turned out.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Ilford FP4 (expired). Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Last weekend was packed with sporting events for the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 competition and on Saturday morning I attended the Fencing which was held at the Examination Schools on the High Street. It was a grand venue for a sporting event and I really enjoyed seeing some of the action. Although I went prepared with a small lighting kit I decided to make use of the daylight coming in through the windows. These portraits were all made during the competition which is why there aren’t very many. This is the contents of an entire roll of film, all 10 frames. I did also photograph some of the action but those shots will follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
It’s been a while since I’ve done any photography of the Oxford tailor’s at Clements & Church because of all the wet weather we’ve had but at the moment we seem to be having a dry spell so I decided to do a couple of test shots with using a flash connected to one of my Polaroid Land camera’s which I’ve never done before. Despite it being an overcast day it was difficult to overpower the ambient light because the flash sync speed on this camera is only 1/60 but overall I like the look. My first test shot with Hugo looked a little over-exposed so I stopped the lens down 1 stop for Ian’s shot – you can see a slight difference in the depth of field of the background.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 190 Land camera, Nikon SB800 speedlight, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
The last time I photographed the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity Powerlifting was in 2012 and two years later I was photographing it again. Interestingly there were some of the same students lifting for both teams, some of whom I photographed at the previous event. There will be more film shots to follow, these are the only colour portraits I managed to make during the event due to lack of time, they are all from the Oxford team.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90/3.8 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired), sliding Polaroid back.
These portraits of Filippa were made last June (2013) but they got a little lost in my mountain of negatives so I’ve only just scanned them. All from the same roll of 10 frames with not a duff shot between them. Less is more. Zero retouching on these. Filippa was extremely easy to work with and it was a very relaxed shoot as I recall in tricky lighting which was rather flat. I think it worked out well in the end and I really like how these turned out. I hope I get to shoot with Filippa again, perhaps with large format next time.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 180mm lenses. Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) film. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
A couple of weeks ago I met with The Oxford Revue to make some portraits for them to use for publicity. It was at the end of one of their rehearsal sessions at the Burton Taylor theatre and there was not a great deal of time but it was a fun session with a really nice group of people who I hope to work more with in the future. We shot a variety of different expressions but I prefer the more serious ones especially as that’s not what you’d expect for a comedy group. The list of previous members of The Oxford Revue is quite impressive so keep an eye out for these guys (and girl), they’ll be touring soon. My thanks go to George (the director) for contacting me.
[Tech info]: Nikon D700, 50/1.4D. Fake Ilford HP5 filter applied to look less like digital and more like film. Not a chance!
These shots were all made during the filming of the fourth and final episode of series 2 of Endeavour. This episode has the least amount of scenes that were shot in Oxford but I’m still excited to see it. Most of the scenes on this particular day were inside a house in North Oxford and even though I didn’t manage to do much photography I enjoyed chatting with the neighbours who came out to see what was going on.
[Tech info]: Rolleiflex 2.8F, 80mm Zeiss Planar lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak XTOL 1+1.
Last Saturday I did some backstage photography during TEDx Oxford 2014 which was held at the New Theatre on George Street. I have fond memories of going to the New Theatre as a child and once even saw a double bill screening of The Spy Loved Me and Revenge of the Pink Panther there. A large white safety screen was hung over the stage and the movies were projected onto that. So, I was excited to be backstage and get a glimpse behind the curtain.
I did do some photography of the speakers from the wings but for me I most important thing was to photograph the worker bees that were making the event happen because without them there wouldn’t be much of a conference. These shots are all from the same roll of medium format film, made in available light.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80mm Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), rated at ISO 800, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9 mins.
