fm2

...now browsing by tag

 
 

Oxford: Suited up

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

These guys need no introduction as they feature fairly regularly on my blog, Clements & Church, the Oxford tailors. They’re some of the sharpest dressed guys in Oxford and as I pass their shop on Little Clarendon Street during my lunch time photo walk to and from town I tend to stop by there to shoot a bit of film with whatever camera I happen to have on me at the time. They’re always friendly, generous with their time and happy to chat so if you’re ever passing that way pop in and tell them you saw them on my blog.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens, loaded with Fuji Press 400 film (expired). Dev & scan by ASDA Swindon. (Thanks Simon for your speedy service).

oxford tailors

Film: Agfa Vista 200

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

A bit of a mixed bag of pictures for this post. Firstly there are shots from a family woodland walk a few weeks ago and then there are some shots from my lunch time photowalk. These are all from the same roll of Agfa Vista 200 film which is for sale at Poundland for £1/roll. This post is mainly to show that this film is the real deal and capable of some great results. It’s a myth that shooting with film is expensive.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4 lens, Agfa Vista 200 film, dev & scan by ASDA in Swindon.

Oxford: Endeavour series 2 behind-the-scenes

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

The Endeavour film crew are back in town to film episode 2 of series 2 and I was fortunate enough to do some behind-the-scenes photography on what turned out to be an incredibly wet Sunday. There was a break in the rain when I arrived at the first location and I was optimistic that it might last but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I had had just enough time to photograph some of the extras before heading for shelter in the Covered Market. A pleasant surprise was when Shaun Evans arrived on set, he greeted a bunch of the crew and then came over to me to tell me that he liked the pictures that I had posted from the scene they shot in Brasenose Lane a few weeks back. What a nice guy! If only all actors were as down to earth. You can see those pictures here.

The pictures below are all from my 35mm camera, I did shoot some black & white in my Rolleiflex TLR but I haven’t had a chance to develop those yet so they’ll follow at a later time. On this occasion I didn’t get a chance to photograph any of my main actors but I don’t mind because there are so many people involved in the making of this tv show and I’d like my behind-the-scenes pictures to document them as well. It rained so much that I got a chance to speak with some of the crew while we sheltered from the rain. They all seem like a nice bunch and have worked on a huge range of different tv shows. It was a long day but incredibly interesting and I hope to get a chance to do some more photography as filming continues.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 lens, Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film, dev and scanned at ASDA in Swindon. My thanks go to Simon at ASDA for his excellent service and speedy turnaround on these.

behind the scenes of Endeavour series 2 filming in oxford

behind the scenes of Endeavour series 2 filming in oxford

Oxford: lunch hour session

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

Here’s another set of test shots from a roll of Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film. They were all shot during my lunch hour apart from the last two shots of Lauren. I deliberately underexposed the lower left shot and overexposed the lower right shot and you can quite clearly see a colour shift. These were shot within seconds of each other in very flat overcast light but it stayed consistent. I like the mood in the lower left shot even though it’s a tad on the underexposed side. There’s good shadow detail as you can see in the two shots above Lauren. The more I test this film the more I am beginning to see that it’s very versatile for all sorts of conditions.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film, processed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon (thanks to Charlotte B for getting my films there and back).

Oxford: lunch hour session

Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

These are shots from a new type of film that I’ve been testing recently, Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film and so far I really love the results. All of these are from the same roll shot mostly during my lunch hour with a few frames shot after work. You can see leaves on the ground which signifies the end of summer and a change in the light and weather. I’ve seen lots of great results with this film shot in sunny conditions but I intend to test it further in all sorts of light which is why I tried to keep things varied on this roll.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film (expired 2011), dev & scan by ASDA in Swindon.

Oxford: BMX Jam, Meadow Lane, part 3

Friday, October 11th, 2013

These are the only 35mm shots I managed to make at the BMX Jam that was held at the Meadow Lane skatepark back in July because halfway through the first roll of film the mirror inside my camera got stuck. I didn’t want to risk taking the lens off to look inside because of the risk of ruining the shots I had already made so I put the camera in my bag and switched to medium format for the rest of the event. This resulted in fewer shots and more portraits but less action (see my previous posts, part 1, part 2). After I got home and investigated a little more it turned out to be a piece of foam inside the camera that had gotten a little sticky with age, an easy fix. My beloved Nikon FM2 is back in service again, still going strong after 25 years.

I really enjoyed this BMX Jam and as it was my first one I didn’t quite know what to expect but now I know what it’s all about I can’t wait for the next one. It poured down with rain on the original date that had been set for this but on this day we had fantastic summery weather and a really good turn out. The portrait at top left is local BMX legend Alex Leech who I started my first day of school with many moons ago. I’d say he’s almost as passionate about BMX as I am about film photography and I always enjoy bumping into him at the skatepark.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 and Nikon 105/2.5 lenses, loaded with Fuji Superia 200, developed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon.

Photo shoot: Imogen

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

Sometimes I don’t get around to processing some of my film until weeks or months after shooting it and sometimes I don’t label what’s on my film so I have no idea what’s on it until I hang it up to dry after processing it. That’s what happened with these shots that are from a lunch time photo shoot I had with Imogen just over 3 months ago! It’s the little surprises like this that make using film so fun. I really like the contrast in these shots which I think is from a  film/developer combo that I haven’t explored much before (TMAX and Xtol). I’ll do some more testing with this.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50mm/1.4D loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 (expired), processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 9:15.

Photo shoot: Leonore & Cosima part 2

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013

Here are some more shots from my photo shoot with Leonore & Cosima at Christchurch. These were the last ones that we did and the light level was falling fast at this point so I had to shoot with an extremely shallow depth of field which is tricky when you have two people in the shot. I did my best to find little pockets of usable light and overall I really like how this set turned out.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens, loaded with Ilford HP5 rated at iso800, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Photo shoot: Tamsin

Sunday, June 16th, 2013

These images are all from my first photo shoot with Tamsin which went extremely well and was very enjoyable. I’ve wanted to shoot with Tamsin for a while but timings and weather never seemed to work out so I was pleased that we were able to arrange this shoot before the end of the academic year and the summer break. For this shoot I took along three different cameras, these shots are from two of them (medium format Rolleiflex 6×6 and 35mm Nikon), the other was a Mamiya Universal that I used to shoot some Fuji instant pack film, those shots can be found here.

This shoot went so well that I managed to finish a few different rolls of film – I don’t usually have enough time to finish more than one or two. The others haven’t been developed yet so those shots will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80mm/2.8 Zeiss lens,  loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 7:30. And a Nikon FM2, 50mm/1.4D lens, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5:30.

 

Lunch hour session: Oxford

Friday, April 6th, 2012

At the beginning of March I was fortunate enough to be granted permission to photograph at the Balliol College Ball but I didn’t know that the ball was even taking place until the day before! As usual I was on my lunch time photography walk around Oxford when I noticed some dodgem cars being unloaded into Balliol College on Broad Street. I stopped to shoot some pictures and got chatting with a couple of the guys. It turned out that they were a family run business that specialised in fairground rides and they mainly dealt with colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, it was then that they told me about the ball that was happening the next night at Balliol. Below are some pictures from that day and the lunch time of the following day. The end of this roll of film has shots from the beginning of the ball. It’s nice to have all of these shots on the same roll of film because it’s a nice time line for me when looking back through them.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 loaded with Ilford XP2 film. Processed in a Tetanol C41 kit and scanned by me.

These two guys were really fun to chat with

Unloading the dodgems

Unloading the dodgems

Dodgems controller

Setting up the dodgems in Balliol's quad

A little break from shopping, Broad Street

I love the light the comes around this side of the Sheldonian Theatre

Photographer using a Diana F Lomo camera

Another film photographer. This girl had only just got this Diana F Lomo camera.

I love this shadow and the way the light bounces around in this passageway

One of the ground crew workers currently working on the building project at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street

One of the ground crew workers currently working on the building project at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street

One of the ground crew workers currently working on the bulding at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street

 

TV: Silk 2

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

This is Rupert Penry-Jones starring in Silk 2 which is due on the BBC later this year. There was a small film crew shooting a scene where he rides this Norton Commando underneath the Bridge of Sighs. I came across them during my lunch break. He seemed nice enough. The funny thing is I don’t watch much tv at all so I had no idea who he was and had to ask a gushing fan nearby.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 camera loaded with Kodak Color Plus film (£1/roll in Poundland). Processed and scanned by me.

Rupert Penry-Jones standing in front of a Norton Commando

In front of the Norton Commando

Oxford: Balliol Ball 2012 part 5

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

These images were all made with a 35mm camera – my first SLR that I bought back in 1987 and it’s still going strong. I really enjoyed using it for these available light shots because it’s smaller and lighter compared to using medium format.

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 35/f2.0 lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO 1600, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:31) for 17mins.

On the dance floor in the live acts' marquee. Notice the band on stage in the background

I think these guys really wanted to be photographed because they wouldn't move from in front of my camera

Immediately to my right was a spotlight that gave a very film noir look to anyone that stood in the light beam

Enjoying the music

After the band had finished

Eye contact

Group shot