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Friday, November 21st, 2014
In between lots of wet weather over the past couple of weeks we’ve had some nice dry spells and I managed to finish off a roll of film in my M2 during my lunch time photo walks. A bit of a mixed bag here including a shot of me from the generous photographer with the Polaroid camera. I spotted him crossing beaumont street while loading in a fresh pack of Impossible b&w film so I stopped him to ask if I could make a quick portrait of him and he was happy to oblige (picture at the bottom of this post). I don’t know what caused the bright white patch in the middle of the picture but it does make it a bit more mysterious.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Summicron 50/2 (rigid), Ilford FP4 (expired 12/99), processed in D76 stock for 8.30.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: ashmolean, black&white, d76, film, fp4, impossible, leica, m2, oxford, people, portraits
Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
This is my second set of pictures from the Remembrance Sunday event on St Giles in Oxford. After I finished the roll of Ilford Pan F I loaded a roll of Kodak TMAX 100 film into my M2. While I had another roll of Pan F in my bag, I decided to use the TMAX because I didn’t know how the extreme contrast was going to render so I thought I’d cover all bases by using a different stock. It was also a good experiment to see how different both films might be in the same conditions. For this roll I also changed lenses for a different perspective.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Summicron 50/2 (rigid), Kodak TMAX 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1:31 for 6 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, hc110, leica, m2, oxford, people, remembrance sunday, summicron, tmax
Monday, November 10th, 2014
Here’s a set of pictures from the Remembrance Sunday service and parade that took place on St Giles yesterday. I’ve never been before so I didn’t quite know what to expect but the scale of the event was very impressive. After a wet and miserable Saturday we were fortunate to have a dry and sunny morning but even though the contrasty light made photography difficult I did like the long shadows and rim lighting. I packed my Leica M2 because I wanted to be discreet without using a noisy camera and apart from some difficulty with the rangefinder when looking towards the sun I soon found a workaround so it wasn’t too bad.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voightlander Nokton 35/1.2 II, Ilford Pan F (expired), processed in Kodak D76 stock.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: black&white, d76, film, leica, m2, oxford, pan f, people, remembrance sunday
Sunday, November 9th, 2014
These shots were made during my lunch break to test a wide-angle lens I picked up for my Leica M2, it’s a Voigtlander Nokton 35/1.2 II. A couple of years ago my friend Benedict Campbell bought this same lens and the first place he went to test it out was the Natural History Museum in Oxford so I thought it appropriate that I should do the same. Not only are the light levels inside perfect to test out such a fast lens but there are also lots of interesting things to photograph as well as lots of people. The film I used was an expired roll of Ilford FP4 but there was no box with it so I don’t know how old it was. The grain seems heavier than I would expect so perhaps it was quite old. On my way back to my office I stopped off at Clements & Church tailors on Little Clarendon Street to use up the last few frames with Ian who is always obliging.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voightlander Nokton 35/1.2, Ilford FP4 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, People | 4 Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, fp4, hc110, leica, m2, natural history museum, oxford, pakon
Monday, October 27th, 2014
Never say never! That’s probably the best way to describe this post because there was a time when I swore I would never own a Leica. That was when time and time again I would notice people carrying them around as some sort of display of wealth when clearly they had no idea about how to best use it. But not all Leica’s are the same and while the digital models can set you back more than a Rolex watch, there are plenty of old film models that are cheaper than a lot of DSLR’s and built to last much longer too. After I started to enjoy using my Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder camera more and more I began to look for something that would give me more options such as interchangeable lenses and full manual control and when it comes to rangefinders it’s hard to ignore the king of the hill. I ended up getting an M2 from 1964 which seems to have been looked after and is a pleasure to use. This is a 100% mechanical camera – no batteries required. This set of pictures are from the first roll I put through it in my lunch break last week. It started to rain on my way into town so I spent most of my time in the Ashmolean Museum.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, 50/2 Summicron rigid, Ilford FP4 (expired Dec/1999), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford | 4 Responses »
Tags: ashmolean, black&white, film, fp4, hc110, leica, m2, oxford
