More images that I made during St Giles’ Fair at the beginning of September. This is the contents of an entire roll of medium format film, 12 frames, none deleted. [Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Rodinal 1:50.
Next month (November) there are a number of events going on for Oxford Fashion Week, some of which I’m hoping to do some photography at. Last year I did a lot of photography backstage at the various fashion shows but it was all digital. This year I’m planning to stick with film. Earlier today there was a casting call that I attended in an ‘unofficial’ capacity simply to do a little portrait photography to blog, just for fun. Thanks goes to Nick Seagrave, the OFW team and everyone that agreed to be photographed. All of these portraits were made on Fuji instant pack film which is just like Polaroid. I have a special back on my camera that slides to allow me to make two exposures on one print.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, sliding Polaroid back loaded with Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.
It feels so good to be back on the streets of Oxford for my regular lunch hour photo walk. After spending last week in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) it was nice to feel the familiar positive vibe on the streets in town. The University students are back and it’s impossible not to notice – they’re everywhere. I decided to shoot some Fuji pack film today at lunch time in what was a really good session. The images below are all in the order they were shot in the space of around 20 minutes. The construction workers are working on the new Bodleian library building that’s being renovated on Broad Street. I enjoyed chatting with them, a nice group of guys that seemed to appreciate my passion for using old film cameras.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.
Fab' Mo' Blues, Cornmarket Street.
Rob - Brookes University student. Market street.
Construction workers, Broad Street. I didn't notice the blood until I peeled the print back at my office.
Construction workers working on the Bodleian Library renovation.
Construction worker from the Bodleian Library renovation.
Here’s another set of images I made in Barcelona last week. Before I went I was really looking forward to shooting some street portraits but I found the language barrier to be a hurdle although I was able to overcome it sometimes with hand signals. Other times I had no problems because people spoke english but overall I didn’t feel the right energy on the street to approach people. The vibe I was feeling was people seem more guarded than I’m used to Oxford or London. My theory is that people are so used to being approached by others on the street trying to sell them things or asking for money etc that they automatically ignore anyone approaching them. It’s a shame because I saw so many people I wanted to photograph but alas it was not to be.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f loaded with Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Rodinal (1:50) for 13:30.
A friend emailed me in the morning to say he’d seen some filming going on in Broad Street that looked interesting – an alien, burlesque dancers and a guy carrying a coffin. How could I resist going into town to check it out. By the time I got there the filming was over and the crew had moved into Trinity College, it was the Lewis tv crew. I decided to have a wander to do some street photography, there were so many people around you could’ve mistaken it for the middle of summer. There was a graduation ceremony at the Sheldonian Theatre along with four weddings going on and tons of tourist groups on walking tours. It was a real circus especially when a horse drawn carriage rolled along Broad Street to transport the bride to her wedding. My camera of choice turned heads – I’ve never been photographed by so many different people on the same day! You can see one of the shots of me on the street at the bottom of this post (thanks Brian).
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens with a custom sliding Polaroid back loaded with Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.
This man is part of the Lewis film crew, a really nice guy that I photographed earlier in the summer when they were set up outside the covered market.
Another person I've photographed a few times. He always looks cool.
Brian is the photographer that made the portrait of me below. We had a nice chat about photography. In the shot I'm holding the print you see above.
Light leak! It's such a shame this got ruined, those gloves were so cute.
This man is not the artist of the picture, it was being drawn by his camera shy friend to camera left. I was surprised to hear that he knew about my photo blog.
Me on the street.
Some photo shoots can start off with with trying to plan every last detail, others have the room to breath and experiment to see what happens. This photo shoot falls in the latter. Helen sent me an image for inspiration and from there I decided I would only use black & white film and I took along four different cameras to experiment with (3 medium format and a 35mm). On the day Helen brought various outfits but I think it was a coincidence that we only ended up using black and white clothing. The images have a feeling of going from light to dark which was perfect as we raced against the fading sun. This is a story of a girl who’s man ‘did her wrong’. It was a fun shoot and I hope to do more of these.
[Tech info:] I used the following cameras, Pentax 67 with 105/f2.4 lens, Mamiya C330f with 80/f2.8 lens and a Mamiya M645 1000S with 80/f1.9 lens. Film used was Kodak Tri-X and Fuji Acros 100. All of these shots were processed in Rodinal 1:50 (Acros for 10:00, the Tri-X for 13:30).
Anyone that has grown up in Oxford will probably have some sort of memory of visiting St Giles’ Fair which is held once a year at the beginning of September. For me, the arrival of the fair signified autumn, the end of summer and the start of a new school year. When I was younger I used to love going on the rides but nowadays I prefer to do photography there instead. I really enjoy the huge diversity of people that the fair attracts and the underlying creepiness that seems to hang in the air from the shifty characters you see among the crowds.
This year I really enjoyed photographing at St Giles’ Fair. The weather was warm, there were loads of people there and the light was very interesting. Previously I have always tried to concentrate on making images of the rides but this year I decided to concentrate on the people instead and capturing something of the atmosphere.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80mm and 55mm lenses, loaded with Kodak Tri-X, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b.
This set of images are all from the same roll in early August. Some were made during my lunch hour photo walk and others were made at the weekend.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 105mm lens loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
These images are from a roll of film I shot at the beginning of my Pandora’s Box photo shoot earlier in the summer. I just came across it and realised that it had never been scanned. You can see part 2 here.
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000s with 80mm/f1.9 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
Here are the second set of images I made at the Meadow Lane skate ramps on the last day before they were demolished to make way for a bigger and better concrete skatepark.
As of last week the ramps have been demolished and work has begun on the new design. After being tipped off about the demolition day I cycled over there after finishing work to make some shots of the demolition site but I got there a few minutes too late and the van full of builders drove past me as I cycled along Meadow Lane. Doh! There were no holes in the fence big enough to poke my lens through so unfortunately I don’t have any images of it but if you can imagine a big pile of plywood that’s what it looked like.
[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105mm lens loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
The next generation
In conversation
Onlookers
Captive audience
Original skater
Final shot
Quite a few months ago I bought a box of 5×4 infrared sheet film and it’s been in my freezer ever since. I was waiting for summer to arrive with lots of sunshine and clear skies so that I could experiment with it. Partly due to the wettest summer on record I forgot about the infrared film until a few days ago. The weather this past week was unusually sunny and warm for September and that somehow reminded me that I had some infrared film in my freezer. I’m pleased to report that my initial tests were a success, you can see some of them below and there are lots more to come.
[Tech info:] Wista 5×4 with Schneider 90mm and 150mm lenses. Efke 820c infrared film processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14mins (20c).
All in a row
View across Hinksey lakes
Over the bridge and far away...
Lock keepers cottage, Iffley lock
Setup shot
This is the second half of the first roll of film I shot at the Caucus Race on Christchurch meadow. You can see the first set of images here.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 105mm lens loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in HC110 1:31 (dilution b).
One of the Art Deco swimmers
These Art Deco swimmers were a couple of my favourite characters at this event. They stayed in character and were fantastic.
I'm not sure what character this gentleman was but I thought he looked very relaxed sitting in the shade
I remember this guy coming across as being very nervous at being photographed. I've never seen anyone blink so fast and rapidly but I got my timing just right.
One of the hype men tasked with whipping the crowds into a frenzy
The House of cards built by the crew in my first set of images. This was at the entrance.
