Street portraits

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Photo shoot: Oxford Tailor’s

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

These shots are from January this year that I’ve only just managed to get around to posting. I found out yesterday that Richard is being moved from the Oxford store to the Leamington branch in a couple of days so these shots are a little bit of history. This grid is an entire roll of film that I shot during my lunch break with Richard and Jason. Some of the shots were to experiment with freelensing, others are with a lens attached to the camera.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66. I don’t have any other info to hand at the moment but I assume the film was Kodak Tri-X.

Richard and Jason, The Oxford Tailor's

Oxford: experiments with blue x-ray film

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

So far all of the x-ray film that I have been using has been of the green variety which I think means it’s sensitive to a certain colour of light when used for medical x-rays. Recently I acquired some blue x-ray film from the FPP online store and here are some of my first test shots with it. These shots were all rated at ISO25 and I experimented with two different developers, Kodak HC110 and Rodinal. This film seems very sensitive to over agitation and I think the Rodinal seems to be better because of the higher dilution of 1+100 and longer development time of 10mins.

[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, 300mm Sinaron lens, Fuji Blue x-ray film, ISO25.

The view on the ground glass screen of the Wista. It’s upside down on the camera when I’m using it.

Photo shoot: Alice

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

These shots are from a photo shoot I had with Alice last month on the last day of term, right before she was leaving Oxford for the summer. We had been trying to find the time to shoot but for one reason or another we never managed it but I’m so glad we got to arrange this at the last minute. The first time I photographed Alice was for a 1920’s themed promo shoot which I thought she was the perfect choice for and I’m hoping we can shoot some more when term starts again in October especially as Alice is a really good stylist with a wonderful collection of fabrics and clothes that will be fun to photograph . These shots were all made with a medium format camera, the 35mm shots will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 ProTL, 80/1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak XTOL 1+1.

Photo shoot: elephanting around

Monday, July 29th, 2013

Now that I’ve got some C41 colour chemicals mixed up and we have some hot weather I’ve been slowly chipping away at the pile of colour film I’ve had sitting in my fridge for the past I don’t know how many months. Some rolls have labels on, others don’t so it’s exciting when I develop a couple of rolls and don’t know what’s on them until I hang them up to dry. These shots are from my photo shoot with Tamsin and Josh back in June when Josh made this amazing elephant costume for a party he was attending later that evening. I previously posted some black & white shots here.

[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80/1.9 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 400VC (expired), home developed in a Rollei digibase C41 kit.

Oxford: Testing expired interneg film with Tamsin

Monday, July 15th, 2013

These images were all made with Kodak inernegative film that expired in May 1991. It was originally designed to make a colour negative from slide film and is tungsten balanced because you are meant to project the slide film through an enlarger onto this film. I bought a batch of this film to experiment with but because it’s effective film speed is very slow it needs a lot of light which limits when I can use it. Fortunately we’re going through a spell of sunny weather here in Oxford at the moment so I decided to give this film a try with Tamsin last week. I only took six sheets of film with me and here are all six frames.

[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Aero Ektar lens (apart from middle right which was with a Schneider 180/4.5), Kodak internegative film (expired May 1991).

 

Photo shoot: Tamsin – Fujiroids

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

A few Fujiroids (just like Polaroids) from a photo shoot I had with Tamsin. I also shot some 5×4 large format colour film that expired in 1991 so I’m looking forward to processing those. The bottom two shots are a little under-exposed because I metered for the highlights instead of splitting the difference between highlights and shadows. That’s something that can happen when you’re rushing. The sun was moving quite fast and between the time of composing the shot, focussing, cranking the shutter and putting the film into the back of the camera the light had changed and Tamsin was in complete shadow so I had to work fast.

[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens (top & bottom left) Schneider 180/4.5 (bottom right) on Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.

Photo shoot: testing with Tamsin

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

I recently bought a batch of expired film which I have no idea about how they’ve been previously stored so I decided to test some out to see how well they worked. In this test I was using Kodak Tri-X 400 which expired in 2002 and 2004. Fortunately Tamsin was happy to help out for the testing but it started to rain just as I was loading the first roll of film so I rattled through the film at quite a pace. Also in this test I was using a lens that I haven’t used an awful lot – a 165mm/2.8 Pentax 6×7 which I found out is very difficult to hand hold steady at f2.8 and 1/125th shutter speed which resulted in quite a few out of focus shots (not shown here). I also shot a roll of Agfa colour film that expired in 1996 which I’m very curious to see the results from.

[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, 105mm/2.4 and 165mm/2.8 lenses, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, processed in Kodak XTOL 1:1.

 

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

At this time of year it’s not uncommon to see oxford university students around town celebrating the end of their exams and it’s something I enjoy photographing whenever I can. There’s something very photogenic and timeless about their black & white outfits especially when photographed with black & white film. These images are all from the same lunch hour photo walk. At the bottom are Richard and Hugo, the Oxford Tailors that I pass on my way back to my office. I’ve been trying out a film that I never really liked when I first used it many years ago (Kodak TMAX) but I really like the results I’ve been getting recently.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 50mm/f1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Photo shoot: Leonore & Cosima

Saturday, June 29th, 2013

These images are from a photo shoot I had a few weeks ago with Leonore and Cosima. I’ve photographed Leonore a few times for Industry magazine and the Oxford Tab but I’ve wanted to photograph her on film for quite a while. I had originally arranged the shoot with just Cosima but fortunately Leonore was able to come along too and as they’re friends everything worked out. I really enjoyed this photo shoot but as I’m not used to working with two people at once it was a little challenging – in a good way. I’ve recently been trying out a new film developer and I decided to put this roll through as a test. So far I really like the results I’m getting. More shots from this shoot will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 with 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film (rated at ISO800), processed in Kodak XTOL 1:1 for 8mins.

Oxford: Party elephant

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

Some film shots of Josh with the amazing elephant costume that he made for a party. Tamsin was called in to keep the elephant under control. Some Fujiroids from this shoot can be found here. These shots were from the very end of the photo shoot, I used some colour film earlier on but they’re still in my pile of colour rolls to develop so they will follow in the future. I’m trying out a new film developer (Kodak XTOL) and this was one of the first rolls of film that I put through it. So far I am really liking the results.

[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 ProTL, 80/f1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 film developed in Kodak XTOL 1:1 dilution.

Photo shoot: Grey Elephant

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

This was a really fun photo shoot that came together yesterday. Josh contacted me to see if I would be interested in photographing this Elephant costume he had made for a party. I was instantly intrigued to see it so of course I said yes. This took him a week to make and it’s mostly made of foam, I was very impressed! Tamsin came to the photo shoot and we all had a lot of fun making pictures. At least I think Josh had fun because this was the hottest and most humid day of the year so far and I was concerned he might keel over from dehydration. (The last shot got a little ruined from the humidity). These are Fujiroids, I did also shoot some film so those shots will follow once I’ve developed them. I’ve built up quite a batch of colour rolls of film to develop from this year so it will be exciting to start developing them soon.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm/3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).

Recent Fujiroids

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

Whenever possible I take a camera along with me to my photo shoots that is able to shoot some Fuji instant pack film (similar to Polaroid). Here are some from recent photo shoots. I haven’t developed any of the film from these shoots yet so they’ll follow on later. The camera I used for these is a bit of a bulky beast with rangefinder focusing (not my favourite) but when I get it right this camera does deliver.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm/f3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).