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Photo shoot: Christy

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Here are some shots from a photo shoot I had today with Christy. The light in Christy’s room at college is amazing thanks to some tall windows and dark wood panelling on the walls which stops the light from bouncing around too much. I started the shoot with experimenting with some double exposures, then I set up my 5×4 Speed Graphic to shoot some b&w sheet film and then we finished off with experimenting with some fairy lights. I haven’t processed the b&w film yet so those will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Cameras used were 5×4 Speed Graphic, Mamiya RB67 with sliding Polaroid back and a Nikon D700 digital.

Fuji instant pack film (aka Fujiroids)

Oxford: Venus in furs*

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

We finally got some snow this winter and as luck would have it I got invited to do a fashion shoot with an amazing team in an incredible location. The stars must have aligned just right because it doesn’t get much better than that. I shot mostly on digital because of the fast next day turnaround required for the shots but I also took along a film camera with me to shoot some Polaroids which turned out to be a huge hit. I’m really looking forward to shooting some more with this creative team so stay tuned.

You can view the final photo shoot images on The Tab website here.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm/f3.5 lens, loaded with Fuji FP100C (expired) instant pack film.
*Trivia fans might like to know that the title of this post comes from the code name given to Photoshop 6.0.

First shot

Black & white

Backlit

Paisley

Paisley

Last shot in the snow

Photo shoot: Georgina

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

My first photo shoot of 2013 was with Georgina who I first photographed during a dress rehearsal of POSH at the Oxford Union almost a year ago. How time flies! The winter weather has been very grim with nothing but rain and heavy overcast gloomy skies so I haven’t been able to do any photography for the past month. My lunch hour photo shoots are always a bit rushed but I have to say I felt a little out of practice on this one so I didn’t shoot as much as I had hoped. This Fujiroid is from the very end of the shoot and the only colour shot from it. The black & white shots will follow (I left them hanging to dry in the darkroom over night), below is a shot of some of the 5×4 inch film hanging up. Georgina was great to work with and I hope we can shoot together some more.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm/2.8 lens on Fuji FP100-C instant pack film (similar to Polaroid).

Last shot from the shoot

 

5x4 negatives hanging up to dry

 

Oxford: Helen, window light experiments part 2

Friday, January 4th, 2013

A new year and I’ve yet to do any photography thanks to the gloomy weather we’ve been having. At least it gives me an opportunity to carry on working through my backlog from last year. Here are some film shots from my most recent shoot with Helen. I love the quality of the light in these and hope to do more. It’s completely different to shooting outside. For the first time I had a digital camera with me on this particular shoot for comparison and you can see some of those shots here. I also shot some colour film but I’m stock piling my colour film so that I can process more of it in one go with fresh chemicals so those will follow later in the year. It’s exciting to wait to see my images.

[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105/2.4 lens loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 @ ISO1600 processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 7:30.

Comparison of film and digital

 

Oxford: Vagrant [theatre production]

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Here are some shots of the cast from a student production of a play called Vagrant that was at the Burton Taylor theatre a couple of weeks ago. The writer/director Alex Darby contacted me to see if I wanted to do some photography of the cast before the performance started so I took the opportunity to test out pushing Kodak TMAX 400 film to ISO1600. I had previously had great results with this film while doing some backstage photography during  Oxford Fashion Week but I knew the light in the theatre would be a lot more contrasty so it would be a good test. I’m pleased with the results I got here and the grain is amazingly fine apart from the shadows which is to be expected.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm/f2.8 lens, loaded with TMAX 400 (rated @ ISO1600). Processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 7:30.

Photo shoot: Georgina

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

These images are all from the same roll of film that I shot during a recent lunch break photo shoot I had with Georgina who I first met at the Haute Couture show during Oxford Fashion Week 2012. What’s not apparent here is the amazing colour palette we had in these shots. The light was perfect and after I finished this roll of black & white I shot some images in colour but that roll is still in my camera because I ran out of time to finish it. Georgina was very nice to work with – very relaxed and easy going – and I hope we can collaborate some more after the new University term starts in the new year.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi with 150mm/f3.5 lens loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 (b) for 5:30.

Photo shoot: Adam

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

These shots are from a recent photo shoot I had with Adam who you might recognise from some of my shots from the Oxford Fashion Week 2012 Haute Couture show. It was an opportunity for me to test out a new lens that had arrived that morning and also to see how a certain film/developer combination handled very flat overcast light. When I say very flat light I mean extremely dull hard to get inspired horrible light. After starting off in an open area (top and bottom left) we moved under some cover which was a lot better because it gave some light/shadow to work with. I think the shots made during the second half of the shoot are the best and overall I’m pleased with the 150mm lens. Adam was very easy to work with and hopefully we’ll shoot some more in the future in better light and weather.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 150mm lens, Fuji Acros 100 film processed in Rodinal 1:100 for 1 hour (semi-stand).

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

To break up all of the images I have to post from Oxford Fashion Week we return to our regularly scheduled programming to bring you images of some people that I photographed during my lunch hour photo walks around Oxford city centre. These are mostly from the same day. You’ll notice some familiar faces in amongst this set. I’m very pleased with how these all turned out.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75mm and 50mm lenses. Fuji Acros 100 film stand developed in Rodinal 1:100 for 1 hour. Note the top left image was made on expired (2002) Tri-X. I meant to semi-stand and agitate at the 30min mark but I was processing some other film at the same time and forgot.

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

My tests with semi-stand film development continue, this time I used a roll of Kodak Plus-X that expired in 2001. It came in a batch of random expired films that I bought a while ago and to be honest I wasn’t expecting great results but I was pleasantly surprised when I hung this roll up to dry. For this roll I used Rodinal because some of my research into stand development suggested it to be a good developer to reduce base fog of expired film, this information proved to be correct. The whole roll was shot during one lunch hour in some of the gloomiest weather/light you can imagine but you’d never know it from the images. These images are from the first half of the roll.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75mm/f2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Plus-X (expired 2001), processed in Rodinal (1:100) for 1 hour with 3 gentle agitations after 30mins.

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Saturday, October 20th, 2012

These shots were made earlier in the summer during one of my lunch time photo walks. Somehow they got lost in the shuffle and were scanned but I didn’t get around to posting them (that seems to happen a fair bit with me because I do so much photography). Apologies if you were waiting for these to show up.

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).

Drama: Killing Hitler

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Back in May I was invited to do some photography during the dress rehearsal of a theatre production called Killing Hitler by the director of the production. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it so instead I went along to the opening night to try to squeeze in a little photography during curtain up. You’d think I would have learnt my lesson from trying that during a production of Cabaret with not a huge amount of success but I felt it was worth a try. Needless to say the cast and crew had more important things on their minds than to make time for my photography so all I managed to get was these three shots. It’s a shame because the set for the opening scene looked really good with the lighting. My thanks go to the director, Lucie Dawkins and the cast and crew for putting up with me.

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).

 

Oxford: St Giles’ Fair part 2

Sunday, October 14th, 2012

More images that I made during St Giles’ Fair at the beginning of September. This is the contents of an entire roll of medium format film, 12 frames, none deleted.  [Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 film, processed in Rodinal 1:50.