Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 6 | FILM 4 in Oxford, October 2018. Teddy Hall was the location for this scene on a very chilly and overcast morning. Usually I wouldn’t push my film to ISO 1600 under daylight conditions but I wanted to see how HP5 would handle the contrast as well as having the flexibility to have a deeper depth of field than I would usually.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 pushed to ISO 1600 by Ag Photo lab, Pakon scans.
US comedians Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and I went along to photograph. The lighting conditions were quite challenging with so much back light but I increased the exposure to lift the shadows and trusted HP5 to handle the contrast – which it did very well. I thoroughly enjoyed the event but as the usual video crew were not there I don’t think the video will show up on the Oxford Union YouTube channel.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed by Ag Photo lab, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during a day of filming in the grounds of Brasenose College, Oxford for Endeavour series 5, episode 5. Stepping in for Directorial duties for the day was Rob Quinn who directed the previous episode.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film, developed in Kodak D76. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 4 in Oxford, August 2017. This set of pictures shows a scene outside the Free School on Holywell Street (which is actually the Holywell Music Room) where Endeavour and Joan Thursday have a conversation in the Black Jag but this scene didn’t make the final edit. After that there was a location move to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic scene which was meant to take place on a sunny summers day but it was now approaching the evening and the sky clouded over -this is where a huge light was brought in to act as the sun.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak HC110. Pakon scans.
When the 4th FILM of Endeavour series 5 was being filmed I was fortunate enough to visit the interior sets for Cowley CID. Here are some detail shots from around the Police station that I made before filming began in the morning. The attention to detail from the Art department and the props team is nothing short of incredible. It really did feel like travelling back in time.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 film @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak XTOL. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes photography from a busy day of filming Endeavour 5 FILM 6 on Turl Street in Oxford. This was a fun day of filming with lots going on. As I look back through these pictures I notice at least one shot that was filmed which didn’t make it to the final edit – where Fred Thursday crosses the street and the Jamaican gangsters drive past in their car. The Art department did an excellent job of transforming the Oxfam Bookshop into a pet shop but you don’t really get to see much of the detail on screen in the final edit.
[Tech info:] Konica Hexar AF, Ilford HP5 film, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5.30. Pakon scans.
This set of pictures are from a recent lunch break photo walk where I managed to finish a whole roll during the hour. I’ve been using quite a bit of Eastman Double X motion picture film recently because I bought a bottle of D96 developer and I didn’t want it to go off without much use. So far I have been very pleased with the results especially in controlling contrast.
[Tech info:] Yashica Electro 35, Eastman Double X film, developed in D96, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour 5 | FILM 6 in Oxford, October 2017. The first few shots are from the scene outside the pet shop towards the end of the day when the light level was rapidly dropping. Although there was a stunt team on hand the actors did their own stunts in this scene. The following morning it was a bright and sunny start on Christ Church meadow where the harsh sunlight made it tricky to move around without casting a shadow into shot.
It’s hard to believe this was almost 7 months ago. Lots more pictures still to come from Endeavour 5.
[Tech info:] Konica Hexar AF, Ilford HP5 film developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5.30. Pakon scans.
For a while now I’ve been meaning to use my Bronica SQA but either the weather or other things kept conspiring against me. Last week I finally managed to do it and here’s a set of pictures from the roll I shot during my lunch break photo walk. The shots of the drainpipe and the painted house number sign were made using a +1 close-up filter that I wanted to test and the last three shots were made with a red filter – the Radcliffe Camera shot had a polarising filter as well.
[Tech info:] Bronica SQA, 80/2.8, Ilford Delta 100 developed in Tetenal Ultrafin T-Plus.
Behind the scenes photography during the filming of Endeavour series 5, FILM 6 in Oxford. This was a busy day of filming for the crew with the bulk of the time spent on the drive-by shooting outside the pet shop on Turl Street (the Oxfam bookshop on any other day). The first set up was outside Joan’s flat – you can see leaves on the ground as this was the end of October and Autumn was on the turn. More shots to come from this day of filming.
[Tech info:] Hexar AF, Ilford FP4 film developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Pakon scans.
Glenn Close visited the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and here are some of the pictures I made to document what was a fascinating, funny and quite moving talk. The video from the event isn’t on the Oxford Union YouTube page yet but hopefully soon. I highly recommend it. My go to film for Oxford Union events is usually Ilford HP5 but on this occasion I decided to give Delta 400 a try and I do like the results. It feels like there is slightly less grain and a tad more shadow detail than HP5 but I need to do a more controlled comparison to really tell. In any case I’m very pleased with these results.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford Delta 400 @ ISO 1600, developed in Ilford DDX 1+4. Pakon scans.
For the past few years I’ve have had a lens sitting around that I wanted to make use of but never quite got around to it, until now. The lens originally came off of the Polaroid 110B Land Camera that I had modified to a 5×4 large format camera and I didn’t see much point in mounting it to a lens board to use on a different 5×4 camera so it’s been sitting around doing nothing. I wanted to adapt it to work on my Rolleiflex SL66 but the only place I knew of that made an adapter was asking around $80 which is more than I wanted to pay but fortunately a friend mentioned RAF Camera where an adapter cost just under half the price.
After modifying the adapter slightly (two small holes need to be drilled so that small screws on the back of the lens can stop it from twisting) it was ready for testing. Below are some test shots from the first roll. A few things to mention are firstly the focal length is a surprise if you’re mostly used to using the 80mm standard lens as I am and I frequently found myself taking a few steps back from where I thought I would need to stand to a given composition. Secondly, the depth of focus is extremely shallow even at f8 and because the image through the viewfinder gets darker as you stop down it’s difficult to get precise focus without a bright focussing screen in your camera – something that affected my hit rate of sharp shots on this roll. I’ll use a tripod for the next roll I use with this setup to see the difference. All shots made during my lunch break.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, Enna Werk München 127mm f4.7 lens, Ilford Delta 100 (expired), developed in Tetenal Ultrafin T-Plus.
