Behind the scenes during filming of the first episode of Endeavour series 4 in Oxford. This set of shots is from the first roll that I shot so there aren’t too many people around other than the cast and crew. You can see street signs being twisted around so they wouldn’t be picked up by the camera and last minute touch ups on some of the supporting actors.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5, Ilford HP5, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5mins. Pakon scans.
Endeavour IV: film 1
If you use Twitter it’s no secret that filming has begun on the fourth series of Endeavour. Here are some behind-the-scenes shots when they were filming in Oxford recently. This is one of my favourite things to photograph because the combination of clothes and cars look so good. It was very nice to see the crew again who this time are a mixture of familiar and new faces.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5, Ilford HP5, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5mins. Pakon scans.
The Olympic gold medalist and two-time world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman came to the Oxford Union and I did some photography at the event. As the event started at 5pm the sun was starting to dip just enough to light up the interior of the library where the event took place so I didn’t have to push the film too much and I really like how these turned out.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, Kodak TMAX 400 @ ISO1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 11 mins. Pakon scans.
A while ago I picked up a Phillips K 165mm/f2.8 projector lens to experiment with on my Speed Graphic and last week I finally managed to make a few test shots. It’s always nice to have patient work colleagues when testing lenses. On this particular day it was very overcast and gloomy so I used a small LED video light for a bit of fill but it’s not very noticeable. There is no aperture inside this lens so it’s f2.8 all the time which could be tricky on a bright day so I must remember to keep some ND gels in my camera bag.
[Tech info]: Speed Graphic 5×4, Phillips K 165/2.8 projector lens, Kodak Tri-X 320 (expired 2003), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Colour shot is a bleached Fuji FP-100C neg.
Camera and lens used. I have since mounted the lens in a proper lens board. My cardboard effort was just to see if it was worth doing properly for this lens
A Hollywood film crew came to town last week as filming of a new modern day reboot of The Mummy began filming here in Oxford starring Tom Cruise. I’ve never seen so many trucks for one production before. All filming was done at night and security was obviously very tight but I did manage to do some photography during the day of a transformed New College Lane and the front of Hertford College which was made to look like a Hospital. It’s too bad they didn’t ask me to do some behind the scenes photography at night with my film cameras because this movie is being shot on film.
Please excuse the heavy watermarking which is not something I’m a fan of but I am tired of seeing the same images of Tom Cruise in Oxford being reused over and over on the internet with either no credit to the original photographer or credited to someone completely different.
[Tech info:] Canon Sureshot Supreme, Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 and Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak D76 1+1. Pakon scans.
Oliver Stone came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A session and I was there to do some photography. The previous two Q&A sessions I had photographed had been in the debating chamber but this one was in a much smaller more intimate space and for the first time I had daylight coming in through windows which made for some nice contrast. After my initial light readings before the start of the session I was only able to visually judge my exposure because as the sun was starting to set it gradually got darker outside and neither of my cameras had light meters in them.
[Technical info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 35/1.2 and 50/1.5 Nokton lenses, Ilford HP5 @ ISO1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31, Pakon scans.
A couple of pictures from the recent Mary Berry Q&A at the Oxford Union. Apparently the most watched tv show of 2015 was the final of The Great British Bake Off but I must confess that I don’t watch a lot of tv and I’ve never seen the show. This was probably a good thing because going into this event I had zero preconceptions of what Mary Berry would be like and I’m happy to say that I found her very down to earth and also quite funny.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 35/1.2, 50/1.5 Nokton, Iford HP5 @ ISO 1600 developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 11mins 45secs. Pakon scans.
Mark Hamill came to the Oxford Union last week for a Q&A session and I was fortunate to have permission to do some photography (thanks Stuart). Not only is Mark extremely funny but he’s also very talented at doing different voices and impersonations of people as he shared stories and anecdotes that only he can tell. The hour went by far too quickly but I’m sure this is a talk that everyone present in the room will remember for a long, long time to come. Video from the event can be viewed on the Oxford Union YouTube channel here.
I shot one roll of medium format film in my Rolleiflex 2.8F TLR but haven’t scanned those yet.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 and 35/1.2 Nokton lenses. Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600. Developed in HC110 1+31 for 11mins 45secs.
A generous friend of mine (thanks Clive) gave me an Olympus OM1 that he had been given over 10 years ago but never got around to using it. I was very pleased to accept it as I’ve been curious about the Olympus OM1 for a long time. I keep hearing so many positive things about it but I don’t have any experience of Olympus SLR cameras having been a lifelong Nikon user. It turned out that the light meter doesn’t work in this OM1 but fortunately it’s a manual mechanical camera and still works fine without the light meter or batteries. These shots are from the first test roll I put through it during my lunch break.
[Tech info:] Olympus OM1, Zuiko 50/1.8 lens, Kodak TMAX 1oo developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Pakon scans.
Here are some images from the first test roll through a medium format camera that I picked up recently. The Pentacon Six TL has been on my radar for the last couple of years because of one particular lens, the Carl Zeiss Jena 180/2.8. As luck would have it I came across a nice condition setup for sale last weekend for a reasonable price so I decided it was time to give it a go.
The first thing that struck me was the size of the front element of the 180/2.8 lens, it’s huge! My largest filters are 77mm but this lens requires 86mm filters. The camera is very nice to use, especially with a prism instead of a waist level finder which makes it easier to balance the big lens. The only camera I have that is similar in size and design is a Pentax 6×7 but two immediate differences struck me about the Pentacon Six TL – it’s a 6×6 format camera so you use it in landscape orientation the whole time, also the mirror in it is a lot quieter than the Pentax 6×7 and doesn’t cause as much camera shake. One thing I didn’t realise about the prism is that the viewfinder is not 100%. I’ve got a lot more image in the frame on the film than I remember seeing through the lens. I’m not sure if this is down to the prism or whether you get the same with the waist level finder (which I don’t have).
So far I’ve enjoyed using this camera and lens combo and look forward to seeing more results from it.
[Tech info:] Pentacon Six TL, Carl Zeiss Jena 180/2.8, Kodak Tri-X (expired 2002) developed in Kodak HC110 1+47 for 8 mins.
This is the third instalment of my photography from the Oxford Town vs Gown Boxing event at the Oxford Union last week.
[Tech info]: Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Kodak TMAX 400 @ ISO1600, developing in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 8mins. Pakon scans.
This is the second instalment of my photography from the Oxford Town vs Gown Boxing event at the Oxford Union earlier this week. More to come.
[Tech info]: Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Kodak TMAX 400 @ ISO1600, developing in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 8mins. Pakon scans.
