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.
The Oxford University Boxing Club invited me to photograph this years’ Town v Gown Boxing event at the Oxford Union because they really liked my pictures from the previous two years and I was very happy to go along. It was nice to see some familiar faces and new ones too. I tried to mix things up with photographing some action in the ring along with behind the scenes shots but the lighting on the ring was too harsh to record it well. 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.
Some more shots from the last night of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 3. This was close to when the crew wrapped just after midnight. I remember it feeling quite chilly out there despite this being the end of July. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this scene looks in the final episode of series 3.
My sincere thanks go to Olly Blackburn, the director of this episode, for allowing me on set to photograph. I wish more directors were as accommodating. More pictures to come.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 35/1.2 Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak Xtol stock. Pakon scans.
This set of behind the scenes pictures are from the final day of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 3. It was a beautifully lit outdoor concert that took place on a summers evening in Exeter College gardens. The lighting crew did a fantastic job with all of the lights and the string quartet played for real which was a joy to listen to during every take. As it was the end of July the sky didn’t become dark until quite late so filming didn’t start until around 9pm and wrapped at almost exactly midnight.
My sincere thanks go to Olly Blackburn, the director of this episode, for allowing me on set to photograph. More pictures to come.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Ilford HP5, ISO 1600, developed in Kodak Xtol stock solution. Pakon scans.
Last year I photographed the Remembrance Day ceremony is Oxford with only 35mm film so this year I decided to change things up and only use large format. There’s no sense in repeating things, right? After much deliberation I opted to use my Speed Graphic 5×4 and 7 inch Aero Ektar lens (aka The Burnett combo). Using a lens from WWII seemed somewhat appropriate and I need all of the speed I could get because the sky was very overcast and the light level very low. Once I had packed my camera bag I only had space for 6 film holders (12 sheets of 5×4 inch film) so that’s all I took. Some of my shots ended up with very strange looking focus shift so I think in my rush to set up I must have moved the lens from being parallel with the film plane. Overall I think this camera and lens combo is well suited to this subject and hopefully I’ll get a chance to photograph some more military parades when I’m not rushing so much.
[Tech info]: Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens, Ilford HP5 developed in HC110 1+31 for 5 mins.
Back in the summer some professional skateboarders from North America visited the OWP skatepark on meadow lane for a skate around as part of a European tour. I must confess I’m not a skateboarder so I didn’t know anything about the guys that were coming but a lot of people did and I’ve never seen the skatepark so busy. Here are some frames from the roll of film I had in my M2. The beginning of the roll had Lewis shots on it (see previous post). I think I have some other shots from a different camera which I’ll post at a later date.
[Tech info]: Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Fuji Reala 100 (expired), developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Some of my behind the scenes photography during filming of Lewis season 9, episode 2 in Oxford back in the summer. The was some very clever set dressing on this one when they converted the front of the Oxfam bookshop on Turl Street into a tattoo parlour. I came across it when the conversion was almost complete and it looked so authentic I was struggling to remember which shop used to be there. The university offices building was once again made to look like oxford police station and the crew spent the best part of a day filming different coming and going shots.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Fuji Reala 100 (expired), developed in a Rollei digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.
This set of pictures are all from the same roll of film from the previous post. Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 3, film 4 on Merton Street in Oxford. The last handful of frames are from the following day on the steps of the Clarendon building. This is a busy part of town at the best of times and it just so happened that filming took place at the height of rush hour with a minimal crew which didn’t include the usual crowd control staff. I lost count of the amount of times they had to reset and re-shoot.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Eastman Double X film, developed in Kodak D76 1+1, Pakon scans.
I think I shot more film during the filming of this episode of Endeavour than any other. The action here took place on Merton Street which is very well preserved with period buildings and cobblestones so it’s fairly easy to dress it for scenes that take place in the 1960’s. This was the first time I had seen firearms used on Endeavour which made it quite exciting. There are more shots to follow from this roll and as before I’ve decided to split the shots across two different blog posts.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Eastman Double X film, developed in Kodak D76 1+1, Pakon scans.
Just over a year ago I went to London for the day with a photographer friend of mine, Benedict Campbell, with the sole purpose of doing street photography. The weather was unusually warm for October and we were fortunate to have some amazing light to photograph in. We had a fantastic day of photography and it’s something I hope we can manage to do again some time. I’ve still got lots of shots from that day to post and as it’s just gone past the one year mark I thought I would dig some out from my backlog.
[Tech info:] Canon Sureshot Ace, Kodak Pro Image 100 film, developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Lewis IX on Catte Street in Oxford earlier this summer. This is a very busy location to be filming in and quite difficult for the crew to lock down during each take so it was quite time consuming to film a relatively short scene. Usually I don’t tend to focus my attention on the main cast when doing my behind the scenes photography like most people do because it’s the crew that I feel are the ones that don’t get seen and they’re the ones that are usually doing the most interesting things. Unfortunately some of the Lewis crew were not happy about anyone with a camera being near the set which made it difficult to document things. What a shame and a missed opportunity. Things got even more difficult on subsequent episodes because someone had filmed a key scene of Lewis and Hathaway making an arrest and then uploaded it to YouTube. I’m very careful about photographing anything that might be a spoiler and often only post my pictures here after an episode has been broadcast on tv, as is the case with these pictures.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 85/1.8D, Fuji Superia 400 film developed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.
These shots were made during my lunch break yesterday, all from the same roll of film that I used to test a Contax G1 camera I recently bought. The weather has been very wet the past two days but fortunately there was a break in the rain just long enough for me to shoot this roll. In a few of the shots I was also testing an external flash (TLA 200) that I got with the camera body. It’s very simple to use as it only has two modes, manual and TTL. I left it on TTL. The light from it seems nice and balanced and it’s small enough to keep in the camera case without noticing it. One thing I did notice is the AF doesn’t seem to lock on very well if you try to focus on something that is low contrast or backlit. Some of the shots on the roll were slightly out of focus. So far I’ve been enjoying using the G1 as a point and shoot camera.
[Tech info:] Contax G1, 45/2 Carl Zeiss lens, Ilford FP4 film (expired) developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9mins. Pakon scans.
