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Monday, May 7th, 2018
For quite a while I’ve been looking for a cheap half-frame camera to test out and I finally managed to get one when I was least expecting it in a mixed lot of camera bits I picked up at auction. It’s an Olympus EE-3 which is fixed focus and true point and shoot because apart from the manual aperture settings when using flash, there are no other controls that you can change. The selenium cell light meter is dead on my camera but the shutter works so I decided to test it during a lunch break photo walk around Oxford. With 72 frames to get through on a roll of 36 exposure film I was able to be very instinctive with my shots – see something, point, click, move on. There’s no need to carefully consider the composition on every frame because this camera lets you use it almost without thinking, just like when you blink without thinking about it first, you just do it.
Here’s a selection of pictures from the first test roll and it looks like the camera is working well despite the dead light meter. I assume it’s working at sunny 16.
[Tech info:] Olympus EE-3, Eastman Double X motion picture film, developing in D96 for 7 mins, Pakon scans.
Posted in film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: d96, double x, ee-3, film, half-frame, olympus, oxford, pakon
Saturday, May 5th, 2018
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.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, hc110, hexar, HP5, konica, oxford, pakon, people
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.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, bronica, film, oxford, people, portraits, sqa
Sunday, April 22nd, 2018
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.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, fp4, hc110, hexar, oxford, pakon, people
Saturday, April 21st, 2018
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.
Posted in Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, ddx, delta 400, film, ilford, iso1600, leica, m6, oxford, oxford union, pakon, people, students, voigtlander
Friday, April 20th, 2018
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.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, delta 100, film, ilford, land camera, oxford, rolleiflex, SL66, tetenal
Thursday, April 12th, 2018
The Oxford University Photography Society organised a field trip to visit the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol a couple of months ago and I went along with a group of society members to have a tour of the place and to see the latest exhibition that had just gone up. Martin was a great host and after making us all tea’s and coffee’s he explained a bit of the back story of the foundation and then showed us around the building including a peek at some beautiful vintage prints and book dummy’s from other photographers that he’s collected over the years. Then after being shown a selection of photo books that are part of the ever growing library – some of which are extremely rare and valuable – we had some time to have a Q&A with Martin before having an opportunity to finish off our visit with a viewing of the current exhibition of street portraits by Niall McDiarmid.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit and I certainly came away with appreciating the beauty of photography in a printed form, whether that’s as a print or in a book. If you haven’t been to visit I highly recommend it and I’m very much looking forward to my next visit.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Pakon scans.
Posted in film | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, bristol, film, foundation, hc110, HP5, leica, m6, martin parr, voigtlander
Thursday, April 5th, 2018
Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 5 FILM 4 on Holywell Street in Oxford. The scenes filmed here were cut short in the final edit which was a bit of a shame but it’s often the way when you’re working to a set running time. Back when Inspector Morse was being filmed it was here outside the Holywell Music Room that I first encountered the crew, they were setting up a dolly track for an establishing shot as I recall. I’ve got the pictures in my archive somewhere, on slide film as that’s what I was mostly using back then.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton, Agfa APX 100 (expired) developed in Tetenal Ultrafin developer. Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, agfa, apx 100, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people, summer, tetenal, ultrafin
Friday, March 30th, 2018
Last month I visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley for the second time and on this trip I decided to take along a large format camera for a change. The most portable 5×4 camera I have is a modified Polaroid 110B which folds up nicely to make it very portable and easy to travel with. I’ve got some sheets that I haven’t developed yet and those will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Yashinon 127mm lens, Ilford FP4 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Last shot was made on Fomapan 100 (expired), developed in Rodinal 1+25.
Posted in Architecture, film | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black country, black&white, film, fp4, hc110, polaroid 110B
Sunday, March 11th, 2018
Sunday morning in Oxford’s University Parks, what a perfect place to film a punting scene for the tv show Endeavour. If only the sun would co-operate. After a very overcast start the sun did peek through the clouds just long enough to light everything up. I have some colour shots that will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X film developed in D76 1+1. Pakon scans.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, Oxford | 1 Response »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, d76, double x, endeavour, film, filming, leica, m6, oxford, pakon, people, voigtlander
Saturday, March 10th, 2018
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 5, FILM 5 in Brasenose college, Oxford. These shots are all from the same roll of film through my Rolleiflex. The scenes filmed on this day take place before the scenes filmed on the previous day in Radcliffe Square but it all matched up well in the final edit. Whenever I get the chance I try to photograph SA’s (supporting artiste’s) because I like the outfits from the 1960’s. You may recognise the college don below from various different Endeavour episodes and maybe even some other tv shows and movies.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC-110 1+31.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, hc110, HP5, oxford, rolleiflex
Thursday, March 8th, 2018
Behind the scenes photography from the filming of Endeavour series 5, FILM 4 in Oxford. It was mid-August when the picnic scene was filmed in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens and what was meant to be a nice summer’s evening ended up looking more like drizzly October. That’s when the magic of a large light ended up transforming the scene to look like the sun had broken through the heavy overcast sky – I shot some wider shots to show how dark the sky was. The last frame is from the next setup which was a nice scene that didn’t make the final edit. This was the last frame on this roll, more from that scene will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss planar, Ilford HP5 film @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC-110.
Posted in Behind the scenes, Endeavour, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, hc110, HP5, oxford, rolleiflex, summer
