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Oxford: Documenting Jericho

Tuesday, July 30th, 2019

This set of pictures is part of an ongoing project to document the historic suburb of Jericho in Oxford which I have been doing on and off since 2013 mainly during my lunch break. It’s possible I have pictures from before 2013 but that’s the oldest date in my archive that I have tagged ‘Jericho’. Whenever I have a camera or film to test I often walk around Jericho and see what catches my eye, often photographing the same things in different light at different times of the year. The streets are usually very quiet which is why I don’t have many pictures of people. Quiet pictures of a quiet place.

A whole range of film formats is represented here from 35mm up to 5×4 large format. Hopefully soon I will be doing some 10×8 photography around Jericho but that won’t be during my lunch break!

These pictures were made with the following cameras: Bronica ETRSi, Rolleiflex 3.5 Automat, Bronica SQA, Pentax 645, Leica M6, Yashica Electro 35, Graflex Crown Graphic, Pentax P30N; and the following films: Ilford FP4, Kodak Plus-X, Eastman Double X, Fuji Acros 100, Kodak Tri-X.

20190716_P30N_Pentax_50_1.4_TMAX100_Ultrafin_14_web 20190716_P30N_Pentax_50_1.4_TMAX100_Ultrafin_19_web 20190716_P30N_Pentax_50_1.4_TMAX100_Ultrafin_23_web

20130819_LHour_FP4_HC_007_web 20130819_LHour_FP4_HC_010_web 20130819_LHour_FP4_HC_013_web 20130926_Roli3.5_TX_Xtol001_web 20160623_SQA_PX_Xtol_006_web 20160623_SQA_PX_Xtol_010_web 20160623_SQA_PX_Xtol_011_web 20160623_SQA_PX_Xtol_012_web 20161111_Cinelux_P645_Acros_HC110B_005_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_008_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_014_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_015_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_017_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_021_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_025_web 20170227_LunchHour_XX_D76_M6_026_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_01_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_02_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_08_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_13_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_15_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_16_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_25_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_27_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_29_web 20170731_Jericho_Lunch_Electro35_XX_HC110_33_web 20180327_Oxford_Electro35_DoubleX_D96_25_web 20180327_Oxford_Electro35_DoubleX_D96_27_web 20180327_Oxford_Electro35_DoubleX_D96_28_web 20190211_CrownG_FP4_HC110B_003_web

 

Oxford: Lunch break photo walk

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018

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.

Drama: Twelfth Night cast portraits

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

Portraits of some of the cast from the Oxford University Dramatic Society production of Twelfth Night which played in the Old Schools Quadrangle, Bodleian Library. These were made five minutes before the audience were allowed in and I’m very grateful to the cast for giving up some of their warm up time. These costumes came from the Royal Shakespeare Company and were amazing when you were up close.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji Pro 400H film, developed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.

Oxford: English Eccentrics shoot

Sunday, August 17th, 2014

Some film shots from a promo shoot I did for the Christ Church Commemoration Ball 2014 who’s theme was English Eccentrics. This was a really fun shoot to do but one of those times where I wished I had more time to shoot film. Thank you to everyone that gave up their time for this shoot and to the amazing Tori for putting it all together.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji 400H (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.

 

Oxford: Giffords Circus, 2014 – part 2

Saturday, August 16th, 2014

Colour portraits of some of the Giffords Circus performers when they were in Oxford last month. They’re such a talented group and very patient with me photographing them back stage during the performances. The light was very different this year to last, it was also quite a bit hotter on most of the days. The sun was beating down for most of the day so I’d take slow film with me but then by early evening heavy clouds would roll in and the light level would drop quite a bit which made things tricky but that’s all part of the fun with film. I find that being challenged keeps things interesting and you pay a lot more attention to the light than you would if you were just changing the ISO in a menu on the back of the camera.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji Reala (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.

Oxford: Lewis filming on Walton Street

Saturday, July 19th, 2014

The Lewis crew were in Oxford in May, here are some shots from a scene they filmed at Freuds on Walton Street. The last shot is someone who works there, I had one frame left on my roll. I’ve got a huge backlog of shots to post from the past couple of months so expect plenty of blog updates.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji 400H (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.

The Gaffer and his crew.

Security

After the getaway

Oxford: May Morning 2014 – part 1

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

I’ve always enjoyed photographing May Morning in Oxford because there’s always so much going on with plenty of interesting characters around and this year was no exception. Despite some drizzle early on it would take more than that to dampen the spirits of the people that had either woken up early or had been partying right through the night. There were some familiar faces among the Morris Men, people that I remember seeing over the years and this year I managed to make some nice portraits of them on Broad Street. I did quite a lot of photography this year so there will more shots to follow.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with Fuji Pro 400H (expired). Dev & scanned by Ag Photo lab.

Oxford: Mikado rehearsal

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Here are some shots from a rehearsal for The Mikado that I attended a few months ago at New College thanks to the show’s director, Tim Coleman. I had hoped to photograph at the dress rehearsal as well but unfortunately the timings didn’t quite work out. I used this occasion to test out some film that I’ve been struggling with to find a look that I like. The film is Ilford Delta 3200 which is designed for low light photography but finding a developer that produces results that I am very happy with has proven tricky (not least because the film expired 7 years ago and has lost some of its sensitivity) but I think I’ve finally cracked it with a developer named Rodinal. Ironically Rodinal is renowned for increasing grain which is usually the last thing you want with fast film but I like these results and will continue to test with this combination.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 rated at ISO 800, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 7 mins.

 

Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 – swimming & water polo

Sunday, March 16th, 2014

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.

Oxford: The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show – part 2

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

More backstage shots from The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show that I attended earlier this week. These are all on different film to the first post and you can see a clear difference in terms of both contrast and grain. I’ve found that Kodak Tri-X pushes to ISO 1600 very nicely if you have enough light. The hard thing about trying to photograph backstage at a fashion show is usually the lack of space and time to work in because of all the other things going on – hair, make-up, styling etc. The other hurdle is usually the quality of light you have to work with which tends to be fluorescent tubes in the ceiling which is the case at the Town Hall. It’s all of these challenges that make it exciting and I quite like having to work for my shots. The downside is that during the show the models usually have a minute between outfit changes which makes it impossible to photograph them which can be frustrating when you see lots of amazing outfits flashing past without being able to photograph any of them. You take the rough with the smooth, do the best you can and enjoy the journey. These shots are all from the same roll of film, I only get 15 frames with this medium format camera so it’s not a bad hit rate.

Credits: Hair by Toni & Guy, Oxford. Make-up by Majenta.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 80mm/2.8, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) @ ISO1600, processed in HC110 1+31 for 16 mins.

fashion show

fashion show

Oxford: The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show

Saturday, March 1st, 2014

Oxford’s Town Hall is a great venue for a fashion show, I’ve photographed quite a few there in the past and earlier this week that was where The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show was held. Here’s a first set of images but there are lots more to come. I decided to experiment a little and for these shots I combined a grainy film (Ilford Delta 3200) with a developer that is known to exaggerate grain (Rodinal). The film expired in 2007 and has lost some of its low light sensitivity but I like the results.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9mins.

fashion show

Oxford: SS20′s 25th anniversary skate jam – part 3

Monday, October 21st, 2013

Here’s the third instalment of pictures that I made at SS20’s 25th anniversary skate jam which was held at the Meadow Lane skate park in September. I took 3 different cameras with me that day, a 35mm (Nikon FM2), a Pentax 6×7 medium format and a Bronica ETRSi 645 which is what I used for these shots. I love how the colours have come out in the overcast light, they’re just as I remember. The crowd was a mix of some familiar faces from my previous trips to the skate park and lots of people that I’ve never seen there. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon with a group of people that share the same passion and I even had some nice comments from people that have visited this blog which was a pleasant surprise.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi 645, 75mm/2.8 lens, Fuji 400H (expired) film, dev & scan by Ag Photo lab.