A large format portrait made on 10×8 inch xray film. The making of pic below was made by Amanda from her viewpoint but you don’t get a sense of how large this camera is. I really enjoy making simple honest portraits like this with nothing fancy in terms of styling, lighting or location – just one light, subject and camera.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, Sinaron 300mm lens, green sensitive xray film, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6 mins.
Wista pic by Amanda | Xray film hanging up to dry
Portraits of some of the cast from the Oxford University Dramatic Society production of Twelfth Night which played in the Old Schools Quadrangle, Bodleian Library. These were made five minutes before the audience were allowed in and I’m very grateful to the cast for giving up some of their warm up time. These costumes came from the Royal Shakespeare Company and were amazing when you were up close.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji Pro 400H film, developed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.
Some film shots from a promo shoot I did for the Christ Church Commemoration Ball 2014 who’s theme was English Eccentrics. This was a really fun shoot to do but one of those times where I wished I had more time to shoot film. Thank you to everyone that gave up their time for this shoot and to the amazing Tori for putting it all together.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji 400H (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.
Colour portraits of some of the Giffords Circus performers when they were in Oxford last month. They’re such a talented group and very patient with me photographing them back stage during the performances. The light was very different this year to last, it was also quite a bit hotter on most of the days. The sun was beating down for most of the day so I’d take slow film with me but then by early evening heavy clouds would roll in and the light level would drop quite a bit which made things tricky but that’s all part of the fun with film. I find that being challenged keeps things interesting and you pay a lot more attention to the light than you would if you were just changing the ISO in a menu on the back of the camera.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji Reala (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.
If you only see one drama production this summer I can’t recommend this one enough – Twelfth Night playing in the Old Schools Quadrangle, Bodleian Library. Tomorrow (14th August) is the final date in Oxford before the production travels to London and Guildford. I was fortunate enough to photograph the opening night yesterday and I can’t even begin to say how incredible all of the performances were and what a brilliant job the entire crew has done in putting this show together and no, they’re not paying me to say this! Yesterday I only had a chance to photograph during the performance but I was so impressed with everything that I felt compelled to rush back there this evening to make some portraits before the show started. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to photograph the entire cast (my apologies to those that I missed) because they needed to warm up and we only had a few minutes before the doors opened. Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me.
[Technical info:] Mamiya RB67, 140mm macro lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired), sliding diptych Polaroid back.
Here are some shots from back in March that I made with my Zenit Russian tank of a camera. It gives random light leaks which I’ve come to quite like. This film is Kodak Double X motion picture film as used by some Hollywood movie studios.
[Technical info:] Zenit 35mm, 50/2 Helios lens, loaded with Eastman Kodak Double X film, processed in Rodinal 1+25.
Here are my first results from push processing Fuji slide duplicating film. This film is designed to make duplicate copies of slide film when projected in an enlarger with a tungsten light source. It’s not designed for regular photography in daylight but it seems to work very nicely. Not only did I use this film in conditions it wasn’t designed for I also (deliberately) cross-processed the film in the wrong chemicals. Film is amazing stuff and part of the fun is experimenting.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Aero Ektar, Fuji CDU II slide duplicating film, rated at ISO 25 and pushed 1 stop in processing using Tetanol C41 chemistry.
These shots are from my first shoot with Suzie on an overcast Saturday morning. I decided to experiment a little here and keep the overall look a little underexposed for a heavier feel. Two different cameras were used on these shots – one of them had a wide-angle lens on which was not what I had intended but I decided to go with it anyway and I quite like the results despite the obvious distortion. More to come.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, 105/2.4 lens. Bottom two images with Mamiya RB67, 50mm lens. Kodak Tri-X (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Waterbird is a short film directed by Alex Darby which was being filmed in Oxford a few weeks ago. Alex invited me along to shoot some behind-the-scenes stills during a night shoot in the Westgate car park. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for very much of it but I did manage to shoot a roll of film of some of the cast and crew.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, Kodak Tri-X @ ISO800, processed in Kodak HC110 for 9 mins.
Waterbird is a short film directed by Alex Darby which was being filmed in Oxford last week. Alex invited me along to shoot some behind-the-scenes stills during a night shoot in the Westgate car park. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for very much of it but I did manage to shoot a roll of film of some of the cast and crew. More to follow.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, Kodak Tri-X @ ISO800, processed in Kodak HC110 for 9 mins.
These shots are from a few weeks ago from possibly one of my shortest photo shoots ever – start to finish I think we spent around 15 minutes. They were all made handheld on 5×4 large format film and I really like how these have turned out. The camera is from the 1960’s and was originally designed to shoot on Polaroid film that came on a roll. It was never designed to shoot 5×4 film so the viewfinder is not 100% accurate for what will be on the film and that’s something I’m still trying to get used to which is why the top of the frame is cropped so tightly in a few of these shots. This summer I plan to do more large format film photography than I have before and I think my modified Polaroid 110B will be getting quite a bit of use.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B land camera (modified by Holga Mods), Ilford HP5 5×4, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5mins.
It’s been a while since I shot any Fujiroids with the Oxford Tailors at Clements & Church so I decided to stop by there during my lunch break today. This pack film is in date (expires in September 2014) which is unusual for me because I mostly use expired film. I also shot a few frames of slide film which will follow later in the summer when I mix up the E6 chemistry to process the batch of slide film I’ve been building up since last year.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Fuji FP-100C.
