Street portraits
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Sunday, July 29th, 2012
The long awaited summer weather has finally arrived here in Oxford and after months of rain we’ve been enjoying scorching hot sun. When the sun comes out people are generally in a good mood and that makes for better conditions to make street portraits. I’ve got quite a backlog of films to process and scan but I’m working through them slowly. Here are some images made on a brand of colour film that I haven’t tried before but I keep hearing and seeing great things about it so I decided to give it a go. So far I love the results. These images are all consecutive frames on the same roll of film. I like how they’re sequenced. As you can see the tv show Lewis is currently being filmed in Oxford and Kevin Whately was nice enough to stop for a quick street portrait in Turl Street.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, loaded with Fuji Pro 400H film, processed and scanned by me.
Top frame: focus puller with the Lewis crew
Top frame: Party shop in Market Street, middle: Kevin Whately, bottom: sound crew working on Lewis.
Top: Michael, middle: Jamie, bottom: conservators working on restoring St Mary's Church.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tags: 400H, 6x6, film, fuji, oxford, people, portraits, SL66, summer
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
Here’s a little something different, triptych’s. Each set of three frames are consecutive shots on the same roll of film. As I was scanning them I liked how they fitted together and it also shows you the order in which the images were made. While I was waiting to make the image of the walking tour on the steps of the Clarendon Building a man walked past me and I could see by the way his head turned as he walked past that the camera I was holding caught his attention. After he passed me he turned around and came back. We chatted briefly about the Rolleiflex camera that I was holding and he began to tell me about his parents and how they both met while working at the Rolleiflex factory in Germany many years ago. They couldn’t afford to buy the classic twin lens Rollei so instead they bought the cheapest one they could afford (which I think was 35mm). I wish I had made a portrait of the man.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, Zeiss 80/2.8 lens, loaded with expired Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:32).
Top: a bench where I work, middle: Walton Street Post Office, bottom: Richard the tailor.
First two: Little Clarendon Street, third: Broad Street.
Top: Broad Street, middle: Divinity Schools quadrangle, bottom: Nya giving me two thumbs up on Broad Street.
Top: a rare grab shot for me, middle: a barber on Walton Street, bottom: Mick the security guard.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, SL66, summer, Tri-X
Saturday, July 7th, 2012
During my second test shoot with Helen I was able to test out a number of different rolls of film. The shots below are all from the same roll (with this particular camera I only get 10 shots on a roll). This was towards the end of the shoot and we decided to change things up a bit by making use of a nearby tree. Helen showed her excellent climbing skills, barefoot! It was tricky to find a comfortable spot in such a cramped space but I think Helen did a great job. The film I used here is Kodak BW CN which is sadly no longer made. I bought some expired rolls from a photographer who was having a clear out. The advantage was that you could have the film processed at any regular photo lab because it requires colour film chemistry even though it’s a black & white film. This is only the second roll I’ve used of my batch and I really like it so far.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, Kodak BW CN (expired 2009). Processed and scanned by me.
Branching out.
Backlit.
Lean back.
Perched on the edge.
Eye contact.
Looking at the horizon.
Last frame.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, helen, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students, summer
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Here come the girls! I was asked to photograph some students in their ball gowns before they attended the Oriel 2012 commemoration ball and I have to say it turned out to be a really fun photo shoot. These shots are all on film, I previously posted some Polaroid shots from the same shoot. You can see there’s a huge difference in the colour and clarity of film compared to scanning a print.
While we were photographing in the middle of Oxford’s High Street at Queen’s lane the girls literally stopped the traffic (I later found out from someone who happened to be walking past that the traffic was tailed back to Carfax!). I found it hard to choose between these shots so I decided to post more than usual because you get a sense of how fun this photo shoot was. It’s a shame that Oriel didn’t reply to any of my requests to photograph at the actual ball itself.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, loaded with Fuji NPH 400 rated at ISO 100 and processed as normal. Processing and scanning by me.
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Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | No Responses »
Tags: ball, film, oxford, portraits, rb67, students, summer
Monday, June 25th, 2012
These images are from the first test shoot I had with Helen during my lunch break. At this time of year the light between 12 noon and 2pm is not particularly flattering so it can be a bit of a challenge to find nice natural light to use during my lunch break which falls between those times. My mantra is there’s always good light to be found, you just have to find it so it’s something I’m constantly looking for on my photo walks around town. A slight difficulty for photography at this time of year in Oxford is the volume of tourists around so it can sometimes take a while to wait for them to clear from the background of a shot and because I only usually have around 30 mins for photography during my lunch break after I’ve travelled to and from the centre of town from my office my test shoots are usually fairly rushed. There isn’t much time for my subject to ease into the shoot but fortunately Helen was ready from the first frame and a complete natural in front of my camera. It was difficult to reduce the amount of shots to post here.
I’m very pleased with the tones in a lot of these images and I put that down to the possibility of using a slightly different agitation method when I processed the film. There seems to be slightly more contrast. I also scanned these images slightly different from my normal method so that’s probably a factor too.
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
Railings.
Passageway.
Against the wall.
Around the corner.
Railings.
Steps.
Bottom step.
I really like this kind of light where you're in the shade but there is bright sunlight being bounced up from bright stone.
Last frame.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 645, acros, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
I managed to shoot a whole roll of film through my Rolleiflex SL66 camera during one of my lunch time walks a few weeks ago. Here are the first 5 frames. I’ve got so many images still to post from the college ball’s that I photographed recently and then on top of that I have a backlog of other images that I can’t wait to share from my lunch hour sessions and test shoots. Some people have asked if I sell prints of my photography and the answer is yes. Although I don’t make it obvious on this blog I assume that anyone wishing to purchase a print would contact me so please get in touch. All prints are hand done by me.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 camera, 80/2.8 lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film processed in Kodak HC110 dilution B. Processed and scanned by me.
Cool glasses, Broad Street.
Gone to the beach.
Matt Sage - musician and promoter, outside The Randolph Hotel.
Taylorian Institute steps.
Unicorn window display, Ship Street.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, SL66
Saturday, May 26th, 2012
There’s a Shakespeare festival here in Oxford at the moment and a few weeks ago I was contacted by the director of a one-off performance to see if I’d like to do some photography at one of their dress rehearsals. The actual performance is on 29th May 2012 at Blackwells Bookshop on Broad Street but these images were made at Lady Margaret Hall a few days ago. Only one of the cast is in elizabethan costume and I felt she’d make for better images than the others. For the colour shots I was experimenting with some film that expired in 2005 and I quite like the results. The black & white shots were made with fresh stock. If you do go and see it please leave a comment.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 and 80mm/2.8 Zeiss lens, loaded with Kodak 160NC (rated at ISO100) and Fuji Acros 100. Processed with a Rollei digibase C41 kit and Kodak HC110 dilution H (8.5 mins).
LMH has nice gardens.
Window light.
Bounced light from the floor.
Dramatic.
LMH gardens.
Cast group shot.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, backstage, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students
Friday, May 25th, 2012
These shots are from my last test shoot with Hai Lin it’s just taken me a while to process the roll of film because it was colour. With black & white film you can mix up the quantity of chemistry you need to process a single roll. With colour the chemistry is different because you can reuse it so I save up some colour rolls so that I can do them in batches. These shots were made on Kodak Ektar 100 film which I haven’t used very much. I like it so far.
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 with 80/1.9 lens. Kodak Ektar 100 film. Processed and scanned by me.
Late afternoon sunshine.
Broad Street. I like the shadow in this shot.
Fading light. In the shade the colours look a little funky.
The light level was really low after the sun had gone down behind buildings.
I like the bokeh in this shot.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait | 3 Responses »
Tags: 645, film, people, portraits
Monday, May 21st, 2012
These images are from a quick lunch time test shoot I had with Jessica last week. Test shoots are great for testing out different cameras, lenses and films which is very difficult to do with my usual street photography because I only tend to make one shot of each person and I don’t want to risk losing any shots or having them not turn out well. There were so many great shots on the roll so this is just a quick preview. More testing to come…
[Tech info:] Nikon F90 (35mm) camera with Nikon Series E 100mm/2.8 lens, loaded with expired Ilford XP2 film. Processed and scanned by me.
Next to the Bridge of Sighs
We had a natural wind machine.
Between the columns.
I don't usually give my images any kind of colour treatment but I thought I'd try it with this one.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, oxford, portraits, students
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
I’m a huge fan of large format photography and I bought my first large format camera (a 5×4 inch Wista) back in 1990. At the time I was an assistant in a commercial photography studio where a lot of the work we did was car advertising photography for Rover which was shot on a 10×8 inch camera. The photographer I worked for has since retired from commercial photography and he’s been kind enough to let me borrow the same 10×8 inch camera that he used for all of the advertising work. It’a a big camera (four times the size of my 5×4 camera) and it’s also quite heavy. Only recently have I been able to find a rucksack big enough to hold it and last weekend I was finally able to take it out on the streets of Oxford which was lots of fun. I was only able to take 4 sheets of film with me on my outing because the combined weight of the camera, rucksack, lens and tripod all added up to quite a hefty load to be walking for 45mins into town with. I made it there and back in one piece and I can’t wait to do it again.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8 camera with 300mm/f5.6 lens. Adox 100 film processed in Rodinal (1:50 dilution).
Here's the camera with a smaller lens than the one I ended up taking with me.
The view that I see from underneath the dark cloth. Image by Paolo Polzella.
Negatives drying in the darkroom.
First shot, Turl Street, Oxford.
Street portrait, Turl Street. I made this shot in a hurry because this guy had to get back to work at the coffee shop down the road .
Morris dancers, Broad Street, Oxford. Unfortunately this one has a processing problem where I didn't add enough film developer to cover the sheet of film.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 10x8, adox, black&white, people, rodinal, wista
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
The weather forecast turned out to be wrong so instead of a week of endless rain we were fortunate enough to have some nice sunny weather during the past couple of days and when the sun is out so am I. These shots are from the first roll of film through my Rolleiflex SL66 camera. It’s similar to a Hasselblad in that it uses the same Zeiss 80mm lens design and the image format is 6x6cm square but that’s where the similarities end. In my opinion the SL66 is a lot more versatile and has features the Hasselblad can only dream about. I breezed through a roll of film in my lunch break and because this camera is lighter than most of my other cameras I was able to cover a lot more ground than I usually do when carrying heavier cameras.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 with 80mm and 150mm lenses. Ilford HP5+ film (expired in 2005) processed in Ilford DD-X.
Rolleiflex SL66. The previous owner was a food photographer who recently retired, he used this camera for 30 years.
Going nowhere. Shop doorway, Little Clarendon Street.
James (aka Cowboy Mod). Wellington Square. You can see me reflected in his sunglasses.
I love the way the background here looks like a painted theatrical backdrop. That's the Ashmolean Museum in the background.
Waiting for the bus outside the Randolph Hotel. The man was very pleasant and told me he used to work in the photo trade many years ago. We chatted about photography.
Ship Street.
A quick grab shot to see how well the camera coped with moving subjects. Turl Street.
Lunchtime at the coffee shop.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, HP5, oxford, people, SL66
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
I recently bought an old Kodak barrel lens (Kodak No.33 Anastigmat 4.5 7 1/2 inch) for an insanely low price and these are some of the first test shots made with it. From what I can tell the lens is from the 1920’s or 1930’s because there’s no serial number on it so it’s certainly pre-1940’s which was when Kodak started to add them on their lenses. There’s no shutter which is where my Speed Graphic 5×4 camera comes in handy because it’s got a focal plane shutter built into the back.
So far I’ve been quite rushed when doing my tests with this lens because I’ve only had time during my lunch breaks to do any testing and so far I haven’t quite found its sweet spot yet for achieving nice bokeh. These images were all made on Fuji FP100-C instant pack film (just like Polaroid) and for a change I’ve scanned the negative after removing the black backing with household bleach. The prints look very different to these.
This double exposure was an accident and I was a bit gutted when I peeled the print but it's grown on me.
This is Richard who works at Clements & Church on Little Clarendon Street. It's a new men's tailor that recently opened. This shot was at least 1.5 stops underexposed but the negative seems to hold a lot more detail than the print.
My first shot with this lens. I decided to pick a subject that wouldn't move.
These are stone masons working on St. Mary's tower. They were very patient and we chatted about photography as I set up the shot. In my rush to get the shot I miss-framed it.
Bird feeder. Another very underexposed shot that was rescued from the recovered neg. The light level was low and I chose a fast shutter speed to freeze the moving branches.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tags: fujiroid, oxford, people, polaroid, portraits, speed graphic
