portraits
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Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
Last week Balliol College held their 750th Commemoration Ball here in Oxford and I was there to photograph the event. The weather was a perfect summers evening with gorgeous light and as a photographer I couldn’t have asked for more. I believe there were somewhere around 1,200 guests in attendance so I kept busy the whole night. While there was still daylight I used colour film and after it got dark I switched to black & white. The colour images will be a while as I try to decide on whether to develop them myself or to send them out to a lab. I have a pile of colour films I need to develop which has been steadily growing over the past 5 months. I’m waiting to order the chemicals necessary to develop them because the 5L kit is good for 100 – 120 rolls and once you start to mix the chemistry it has a shortish shelf life.
So, here we have a little preview of some of my black & white shots from the evening. The 2012 Balliol Ball last year was the very first Oxford University ball I’ve ever attended and some of the images I made on film that night are my favourites from all of the ball’s I’ve attended so far. It was nice to see some familiar faces at this ball from last year and also to meet some visitors of this blog. Lots more film images still to come but I’ll be drip feeding them because I have so many to post.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at ISO1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, ball, balliol, black&white, c330, film, hc110, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X
Monday, June 24th, 2013
These two portraits were made yesterday at the same skatepark session as the two in the previous post except these were made on 5×4 black & film. The maximum amount of 5×4 sheet film I can develop at the same time is 6 sheets so that’s usually how many I load into film holders at the same time. I had already used 4 sheets from this batch at a shoot I had with Imogen so I only had 2 sheets with me when I decided to go to the skatepark. It’s a shame because the light was nice (when the sun wasn’t behind a cloud) and there was a good crowd there.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 5×4, Pentac f2.9 @ f4, Ilford Delta 100 processed in Ilford DDX 1+4.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, bmx, ddx, delta 100, film, graflex, meadow lane, owp, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, skatepark, summer, super d
Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
These two portraits were made at my local skatepark today. It was a really fun session and my portrait volunteers did really well to stay still whilst being heckled from their friends. I wanted to test out my Super D camera after I had some focus issues the last time I used it and the good news is I’ve managed to achieve critical focus again with my workaround but the bad news is that I need to use the camera on a tripod to do it. When you’re working with really shallow depth of field it’s always a good idea to mount your camera on a tripod so it’s not the end of the world. I only had two sheets of film with me and these last two shots of Fuji instant pack film. The film shots will follow (I left them drying in the darkroom overnight).
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D with Pentac f2.9 lens @ f4. Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, bmx, film, fujiroid, graflex, meadow lane, owp, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, skatepark, super d
Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
Whenever possible I take a camera along with me to my photo shoots that is able to shoot some Fuji instant pack film (similar to Polaroid). Here are some from recent photo shoots. I haven’t developed any of the film from these shoots yet so they’ll follow on later. The camera I used for these is a bit of a bulky beast with rangefinder focusing (not my favourite) but when I get it right this camera does deliver.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm/f3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: fp100c, fujiroid, mamiya universal, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer
Monday, June 17th, 2013
Here are some images from a photo shoot I had with Imogen recently. I took along two cameras that were completely opposite in size, a 5×4 large format SLR (Super D) and a 35mm rangefinder (Yashica Electro). I’m not a fan of rangefinder cameras (despite owning a few) and whenever I use them it’s not a very enjoyable experience mainly because I much prefer to see the viewfinder image go in and out of focus but I do like the results I got from my Yashica in this session.
I was keen to try out my Super D with an old lens I had adapted to fit but after the first test Fujiroid I noticed the focus was a little bit off – when the image in the viewfinder was in focus the image in the final print was focused slightly in front of the point that I had focused on. As a result of this I had to do a bit of guess work with the rest of the shots so they’re not as sharply focussed as I wanted. Later when I got home I figured out the problem is that the mirror doesn’t rest as low as it should so now I have to manually twist and hold a lever to push the mirror down while I am focussing. It’s a bit of a faff so I need to find an alternate method.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 5×4, Pentac f2.9 lens @ f4, Ilford FP4 film processed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Yashica Electro 35 loaded with Kodak TMAX 400, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, fp4, graflex, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students, super d, tmax
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.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 3 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, fm2, hc110, oxford, portraits, SL66, students, summer, tmax, Tri-X
Friday, June 14th, 2013
This is the second batch of portraits that I made back in April at the Meadow Lane skatepark. It was a great session and I made a total of eight portraits (that’s all the film I had with me). The first batch can be seen here. I really enjoy using 10×8 but unfortunately the camera and lens alone are a bit too heavy for me to safely cycle with on my back, not to mention the tripod and film holders I need to carry as well. This limits my usage and how far I can travel with it which is a shame because there are so many images I’d love to make with this size of film. I really like how these have turned out and I hope to make some more during the summer if time permits.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, 300mm Sinaron lens, green sensitive x-ray film, ISO50, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: 10x8, black&white, bmx, film, owp, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, summer, wista, x-ray film
Thursday, June 13th, 2013
These Fujiroids are from my first photo shoot with Tamsin. I also shot some regular film and those images will follow after I develop them. It was a really fun shoot and I hope to do some more with Tamsin if time and weather permits before the University summer break. Regular visitors to this blog may recognise the location, I’ve used it quite a few times because I really like the big windows and the quality of light inside.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm / f3.5 lens, loaded with Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: christchurch, film, fujiroid, mamiya universal, oxford, portraits, students, summer, tamsin
Sunday, June 9th, 2013
These Fujiroids (aka Polaroid) are from a photo shoot I did a few weeks ago for Industry magazine. The magazine is out now so I can finally share these. Whenever I shoot digital images for a publication I usually take along some film to shoot for myself. We had the perfect location and perfect evening light on this day and I’m really pleased with how these turned out. In a few of the shots that were in the shade I added in a speedlight with an orange gel to mimic late afternoon sunlight. The top right shot was to demonstrate with and without. My thanks go to the models for being so patient while standing in the cold lake and to the rest of the team for organising everything.
Here’s a short video from the shoot.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm and 180mm lenses, Fuji FP-100C (expired) instand pack film in a sliding Polaroid back.
Posted in Fashion, film, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 7 Responses »
Tags: 6x7, diptych, film, fujiroid, oxford, polaroid, portraits, students, summer
Saturday, June 8th, 2013
This set of images is from a lunch hour photo shoot I had with Sarah recently. At this time of year the midday sun is not very flattering for portraits so I have to work extra hard to find pockets of light where the quality is nice. Having a location where there are walls to bounce the light around can help and fortunately I have such a location not too far from my office. I previously posted some Fujiroids from this shoot but the colour of the light at this time of day is not very nice which is why I shot more black & white film.
Sarah was really great to work with and I’m very pleased with how these turned out, especially the large format shots on the bottom row.
[Tech info:] Top two rows: Pentax 6×7, 165mm and 135mm lenses, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 (expired) film. Bottom row: Speed Graphic 5×4, Ektar 203mm and Dallmeyer 12 inch lenses on Ilford HP5 film. All processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, 6x7, black&white, film, hc110, HP5, oxford, pentax, portraits, sarah, speed graphic, students, summer
Friday, June 7th, 2013
For this photo shoot I only had three sheets of 5×4 large format film with me so I tried to use them wisely. The light inside Hertford college chapel was very nice and consistent which is just what I needed to minimise waiting around. I really like the interior of this chapel, especially the carved spindles in the last shot below. I did shoot some medium format film as well, those will follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Pentac f2.9 lens, Ilford HP5 film developed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 1 Response »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer
Thursday, June 6th, 2013
Here are some shots from a photo shoot I had with Chloe around a month ago. It was hard to whittle down my selection because there were so many shots that I liked from this shoot. Chloe is incredibly easy to work with which always makes for a high rate of keepers. I was struggling a little with the harsh late afternoon sunlight but it forced me to make the most of the natural reflectors that were all around us (i.e. the cotswold stone walls). We met outside the Sheldonian Theatre and while I was waiting for Chloe to arrive I noticed a photo shoot going on. The crew had a van full of clothes that was a similar style to those you find at Jack Wills but I’m not sure what brand it was for. They had nice late afternoon light to shoot in so they picked the right day.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, 105mm lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 1o0 and Kodak Tri-X 400, both developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Anti-clockwise from top right, the first three shots are on Acros 100, the others are on Tri-X.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, acros, black&white, chloe, film, hc110, oxford, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X
