These pictures were made with my medium format Rolleiflex camera during Sir Ian McKellen’s visit to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event. Whenever possible I try to photograph the Oxford Union events I attend with both 35mm and medium format film but the 35mm pictures always get posted to this blog first because they are faster to scan.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600 developed in Kodak HC110 1+15 (using the ISO 3200 dev time).
There has been an impressive list of guests at the Oxford Union so far this term and a big highlight for me was when Sir Ian McKellen visited last week. His last visit to the Oxford Union was in 2015 which was before I started to photograph some of the guests there so I was pleased to see him listed on the term card for this month. The debating chamber looked completely full from where I was sitting and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was still a queue out on the street. It was a great event which started with Sir Ian McKellen giving a talk as he walked around the debating chamber as if it was a stage and then afterwards there was a Q&A session. So far this has been the most challenging of all the speaking events I’ve photographed at the Oxford Union because I’m not used to tracking focus as the guest speaker walks around. Fortunately there was a video crew with their additional lights which helped a lot with the exposure.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 film @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+15 for 10 mins. Pakon scans.
