Simply Oxford photo blog

Oxford: Matriculation 2022 – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on October 18th, 2022

Some pictures from Oxford Matriculation this year, the first time this event has taken place in-person since 2019. Fortunately it didn’t rain. Students from Jesus college were a particularly lively bunch this year, I enjoyed photographing them. This is always a tricky event to photograph due to all the black and white fabric – you’d be hard pressed to find a higher contrast situation. Add backlighting to the mix and all bets are off for a nice tonal range. This year I took a variety of cameras with me, more to follow.

[Tech info:] KIEV 60, Arsat 30mm f3.5 fish-eye lens, mix of films (FP4 and Delta 100 pushed 1 stop).

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Tags: 30mm, 6x6, black&white, film, fish-eye, kiev 60, matriculation, oxford, people, students

Oxford: Beard Festival 2022 – part 3

Written by Nasir Hamid on September 17th, 2022

The last few portraits I made at the Oxford Beard Festival 2022. Thank you to everyone that stood very still for me. I’m pleased with how the portraits turned out.

[Tech info:] Sinar P 10×8, Dallmeyer 3A lens, f8 3D printed Waterhouse stop. Fomapan 100 (expired 2017) ISO 50, Kodak HC110 1+63 10mins.

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Tags: 10x8, beard, black&white, dallmeyer, film, fomapan, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, sinar

Oxford: Beard Festival 2022 – part 2

Written by Nasir Hamid on September 12th, 2022

More portraits from the Oxford Beard Festival 2022. Part 1 is here. I’ve noticed that the depth of field differs in some of my beard festival portraits and thinking about it now I’ve got a feeling it’s because I tilted the camera forward or back depending on the height of the person I was photographing. In hindsight I should have kept the back of the camera vertical and raised the lens or the centre column on the tripod. Something to remember next time.

[Tech info:] Sinar P 10×8, Dallmeyer 3A lens, f8 3D printed Waterhouse stop. Fomapan 100 (expired 2017) ISO 50, Kodak HC110 1+63 10mins.

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Tags: 10x8, black&white, dallmeyer, film, fomapan, hc110, oxford, people, portraits

Oxford: Beard Festival 2022 – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on September 11th, 2022

The first and only time I photographed the Oxford Beard Festival was in 2015 – you can see those pictures here. Ever since then I have been thinking about and this year I finally managed to make it there again. This time I wanted to use a 10×8 large format camera but the slight hiccup being the weight of my kit was far too much for me to carry on my back and the venue for the event was a pub on the river without any access by car. I decided the only way to do it was to transport my kit in a borrowed wheelbarrow and it worked like a charm albeit leaving my arms feeling 3 inches longer by the end of it.

[Tech info:] Sinar P 10×8, Dallmeyer 3A lens, f8 3D printed Waterhouse stop. Fomapan 100 (expired 2017) ISO 50, Kodak HC110 1+31 6mins.

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Tags: 10x8, beard, black&white, dallmeyer, film, fomapan, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, sinar

Oxford: Speed Graphic street portraits – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 24th, 2022

After being on a bit of a roll with my large format street portraits I decided to take my Speed Graphic out with a lens I’ve been meaning to use for a while – 165mm f2.7 Zeiss Tessar. I repurposed the lens from a folding camera which was well past its best with a perished shutter. Steve at Chroma Camera kindly designed and 3D printed a custom lens board for me. It’s a lot lighter than my Aero Ektar lens but gives a very different look. Depth of field is very shallow as you’d expect – most of these were shot around f4.5.

[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, 165mm f2.7 Tessar lens, Ilford HP5 (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6mins.

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Tags: 165mm, 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, portraits, speed graphic

Oxford: Intrepid 10×8 street portraits – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 23rd, 2022

The Intrepid 10×8 is the lightest 10×8 camera I own and after you add the weight of a lens, film holders, tripod, light meter, dark cloth, loupe and rucksack it’s on the limit of what I can comfortably cycle with. Here are the street portraits I made on my first trip into town with this kit. On the first shot I used a little front swing to bring both people into focus – the first time I’ve done this.

[Tech info:] Intrepid 10×8, 300mm f6.3 Komura lens, Fomapan 100 (expired), developed in HC110 1+63 for 10mins.

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Tags: 10x8, 300mm, b&w, film, fomapan, hc110, intrepid, komura, oxford, portrait

Oxford: Graflex Super D street portraits – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 22nd, 2022

After the focus issues I was having with my Gowlandflex I decided to take my Graflex Super D into town after work to use it for some more large format portraits. The benefit is I’m able to cycle with the Super D in a rucksack, my Gowlandflex is too large to fit into any rucksack I currently own. The lens I used was designed for aerial photography during WWII and is uncoated which gives a low contrast almost dreamy look which I like.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D, 8 inch Pentac lens, Ilford HP5 (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.

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Tags: 5x4, graflex, hc110, HP5, ilford, oxford, portrait, super d

Oxford: Gowlandflex street portraits – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 21st, 2022

Here are some street portraits from the first trips out with my Gowlandflex large format TLR camera on a Saturday and Sunday morning in Oxford. The camera is a beast and attracted a fair bit of attention. I enjoyed chatting with people and making their portraits – something I haven’t done for a couple of years.

The mirror calibration was completely wrong when I received this camera so I replaced the springs to lower the mirror by 2.5mm. This is the first time I’ve used it properly and it looks like I need to re-check the calibration because most of these shots are front focussed but overall I’m pleased with the results. A couple of the shots have some strange light leaks which might be from the film holder not being seated properly. Further investigation needed.

[Tech info:] Gowlandflex TLR, 180/4.5 Voigtlander Heliar lens, Ilford HP5 & Funi Across 100 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.

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20220814_Gowlandflex_Oxford_Acros_HC110B_01_web 20220814_Gowlandflex_Oxford_HP5_HC110B_01_web 52282473538_b15170863a_c

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Tags: 5x4, b&w, film, gowlandflex, hc110, HP5, ilford, oxford, portraits

Oxford: BMX Jam 2022

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 10th, 2022

It’s been 10 years since I first photographed at my local skatepark. When I mentioned this to a friend of mine he kindly tipped me off about a BMX Jam which was taking place there the following weekend. Despite the heatwave at the time, I ventured along and made some portraits.

[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105/2.4 lens, Fuji Acros 100 (expired), developed in HC110 1+31.

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Tags: 105mm, 6x7, acros, b&w, bmx, film, hc110, jam, owp, Pentax 67, skatepark

Endeavour 9: FILM 2 – part 1

Written by Nasir Hamid on August 6th, 2022

Endeavour series 9 is still in production so I’m afraid you won’t find any spoiler photos here. Most of the crew on this series are new to Endeavour but there are some familiar faces too. Here are some pictures from the first day of filming in Oxford on FILM 2 of series 9. The last photo is from the following day in Magdalen College.

[Tech info:] Leica M6, 28-50mm Tri-Elmar lens, Ilford DELTA 400 developed in Ilfosol 3. Pakon scans. Last photo is on HP5 film, 50mm Summicron lens.

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Tags: 35mm, black&white, delta 400, endeavour, filming, HP5, ilfosol 3, leica, oxford, pakon, people, s9e2

Endeavour 8: FILM 2 – part 4

Written by Nasir Hamid on April 12th, 2022

Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour 8 | FILM 2 in Oxford, April 2021. This was a night shoot in Wellington Square, the location for Joan Thursday’s flat. In reality it’s a couple of doors down from the exterior of Endeavour’s basement flat in series 3. I used Kodak TMAX P3200 film on this occasion because I like how it handles high contrast during night photography but to get the best out of this film I’ve found you need to use Kodak TMAX film developer and agitate every 30 secs as described in the Kodak film data sheet.

[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton, Kodak TMAX P3200, developed in TMAX developer. Pakon scans.

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Tags: 2021, 35mm, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, iso1600, leica, m6, night, oxford, pakon, s8e2, voigtlander

Endeavour 8: FILM 2 – part 3

Written by Nasir Hamid on April 10th, 2022

Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 8 episode 2 in Oxford, April 2021. It was all about the taxi’s for this session. I quite like this dead end road the crew were filming on because the buildings funnel the light in while allowing it to bounce around at the same time which works well for contrasty sunny conditions.

[Tech info:] Leica M6, (can’t remember which lens), Eastman Double X film, developed in D96 for 7.30. Pakon scans.

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