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Sunday, February 9th, 2014
I have never photographed boxing so when I heard about the OUABC’s Town vs Gown competition that was being held at the Oxford Union Society I thought it would be a great opportunity to do some behind the scenes photography. The were already two official photographers covering the fights from ringside but that’s not what interests me. I’m more drawn to to what you don’t usually get to see before and after the fights and I have to say it was a fascinating evening. This is the first set of pictures, more to come. My thanks go to Jack, the boxing club president, for granting me permission and access and also to the rest of the club for being so accommodating.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 50/1.4D lens, loaded with Ilford XP2 film, rated at iso 1600, processed for 5mins in a home C41 kit.
Posted in film, Oxford, Sport, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: black&white, boxing, f100, film, nikon, oxford, oxford union, portraits, sport, students, xp2
Friday, January 31st, 2014
Last Saturday I did some backstage photography during TEDx Oxford 2014 which was held at the New Theatre on George Street. I have fond memories of going to the New Theatre as a child and once even saw a double bill screening of The Spy Loved Me and Revenge of the Pink Panther there. A large white safety screen was hung over the stage and the movies were projected onto that. So, I was excited to be backstage and get a glimpse behind the curtain.
I did do some photography of the speakers from the wings but for me I most important thing was to photograph the worker bees that were making the event happen because without them there wouldn’t be much of a conference. These shots are all from the same roll of medium format film, made in available light.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80mm Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), rated at ISO 800, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 2.8f, 6x6, backstage, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, students, TEDx, Tri-X
Tuesday, January 28th, 2014
These two portraits were made during my lunch break today, I wanted to test out a Polaroid 110B camera that I recently bought. This one has been converted to use instant pack film just like the Fujiroids that I enjoy using so much. This camera has a rangefinder for focussing which I’m not a big fan of but that’s how it is. I wanted to see if the rangefinder and lens were calibrated so I needed some test subjects and fortunately for me Amber and Freddie (who I’ve photographed before) came along. To eliminate camera shake I decided to set the camera on a tripod and I used a cable release to trip the shutter. So far so good, everything seems to be working. The interesting thing about these two shots is the exposure used is exactly the same (1/125th F4.7) with the lens wide open, the only thing that changed is the lens to subject distance. Look at the difference in depth of field when I focussed closer on Amber than I did Freddie.
[Tech info:] Polaroid Pathfinder 110B camera, Enna Werk Munchen Ennit 127mm/f4.7 lens, Fuji FP-100C pack film (expired 2007).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, film, fujiroid, oxford, people, polaroid, portraits, students
Sunday, January 12th, 2014
These shots are from a couple of shoots that I did towards the end of 2012 (oct/nov) that I don’t think I posted before. I’ve always liked how these turned out so here they are. The shots of Helen were made with window light (I was backed up right against it) that was controlled with curtains to create a strip softbox kind of light. The shoot with Jake was done around town on a bright sunny day but I was able to find some nice bounced light to use.
[Tech info:] Helen: Mamiya 645 1000s, 80/1.9, loaded with Kodak Portra 800Z (expired). Jake: Pentax 67, 105/2.4, loaded with Fuji 400H (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, 6x7, film, mamiya universal, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students
Saturday, November 30th, 2013
When I arrived at the Chicago dress rehearsal last week there was already a roll of film in my camera so I finished it off with some quick portraits of some of the performers before the dress rehearsal started proper. I rarely use on-camera flash in any kind of auto mode but I thought this was a good opportunity to test it out so I set the flash to TTL mode and bounced the flash from the ceiling in the corridor. I manually set the exposure on the camera to keep things consistent. These were all shot between f2 and f4.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 50/1.4D lens loaded with Agfa Vista 200 (Poundland), processed and scanned by Simon at ASDA Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: backstage, chicago, drama, f100, film, oxford, people, portraits, students
Tuesday, November 26th, 2013
If you’re one of the lucky people that got to see Chicago last week I’m sure these pictures will remind you how great the production was, if you didn’t manage to catch it then these pictures will show you a little of what you missed. I’ve got some very special film that I keep for special occasions and I was excited to photograph this dress rehearsal because it meant I could test out some of this film because it’s designed to be used under tungsten lighting conditions. What makes it so special is that it’s Kodak motion picture film, the same stock that is used by Hollywood studios for movies and tv shows. Under regular tungsten lighting this film can look incredible but because the colour of the lights kept changing during the performance it’s hard to get a sense of what this film is capable of rendering. I’m very pleased with these results and look forward to testing some more of it soon.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 50/1.4D lens, Cinestill 500T film, developed and scanned at ASDA, Swindon (thanks to Simon).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | No Responses »
Tags: chicago, cinestill, drama, f100, film, oxford, students
Sunday, November 17th, 2013
Here are some medium format film shots that I made last weekend during one of the rehearsal’s for Chicago that is on in a few days at the Keble O’Reilly theatre. This film expired in 2007 and generally high-speed film doesn’t age well so I’m very pleased with how these turned out considering the light level was incredibly low and not very contrasty. I was partly using this occasion as a test for a bright (Beattie) viewing screen that I recently installed into my Mamiya C330f camera and I’m happy to report that it’s a lot brighter and easier to focus with than the stock screen.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 (expired 2007), rated at ISO 1250, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 10mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, c330, drama, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students
Thursday, November 14th, 2013
Some shots from a rehearsal for Chicago which is on next week at the Keble O’Reilly theatre from 20th – 23rd November. From what I saw I can tell you that it’s going to be excellent. I almost titled this post ‘adventures in grain’ because that’s something I was testing when I chose to use some Ilford Delta 3200 that expired in 2006 for this shoot and then developed it in developer that is renowned for its ability to increase film grain. I think the film coped very well considering the room where the rehearsal took place had sunlight pouring in at one end while the other end was only lit by the energy saving light bulbs hanging from the high ceiling which was quite a punishment test for this film. My thanks go to Jack Sain, the director, for allowing me to photograph during the rehearsal and I hope to do some more photography during the dress rehearsal next week.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 50/1.4D and 70-200/2.8 lenses, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 rated at ISO 1250 (expired), processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 10mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, drama, f100, film, oxford, rodinal, students
Saturday, October 19th, 2013
I had to scan one of my Oxford shots for someone that wanted to produce some posters of it and while I was looking through my archives I decided to scan some other shots to make a ‘blast from the past’ post. These are all shot on transparency/slide film which was hand processed in the lab I used to work at from the late 80’s to early 90’s. Top right (both matriculation shots) and bottom right are from 1989 and shot on Kodak Ektachrome 64 film, I don’t have any other dates recorded but I think the rest are from the early 1990’s with the Encaenia procession being the latest, probably 1998 and possibly on Fuji Velvia.
The choir singing at the top of Magdalen Tower was on May morning during a perfect sunrise and the shot of the crowd below is from the same day circa 1992. The bottom right shot of the student covered in food and shaving foam was the end of a series that I shot of him after he had finished his finals exams and headed towards the Kings Arms pub along Queens Lane. It’s a great series of shots showing all of the various foods that were poured over him by his friends that had Tesco carrier bags full of stuff. Not much has changed in 24 years except now students can get fined if they’re caught, not so back in 1989. Something that is amazing to me is when I look back at most of these pictures the memories come flooding back of when I made them but when looking through much more recent digital photography my mind goes blank.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 and N90 cameras.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, e6, film, nikon, oxford, people, students
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Here’s another set of test shots from a roll of Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film. They were all shot during my lunch hour apart from the last two shots of Lauren. I deliberately underexposed the lower left shot and overexposed the lower right shot and you can quite clearly see a colour shift. These were shot within seconds of each other in very flat overcast light but it stayed consistent. I like the mood in the lower left shot even though it’s a tad on the underexposed side. There’s good shadow detail as you can see in the two shots above Lauren. The more I test this film the more I am beginning to see that it’s very versatile for all sorts of conditions.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film, processed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon (thanks to Charlotte B for getting my films there and back).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, film, fm2, hawkeye, oxford, people, portraits, students
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Here are a set of shots made on 5×4 large format film with Lauren. The middle two are from my first shoot with Lauren in some of the dullest and flat overcast light I have ever dared to photograph someone in, the others are from my second shoot (see the Fujiroids I posted a few days ago). I hope there will be more collaborations to come.
The maximum amount of 5×4 sheets I can process at once is six so that’s why I like to shoot them in batches of six. I love how all of these have turned out which is why I can’t choose between them so I decided to post them all. One of my favourite film/developer combo’s for quite a while has been Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC110 but recently I’ve been testing out Kodak Xtol and I have to say it’s hard to go wrong with it. I found the secret to mixing Xtol successfully is to use hot water which helps the fine powder dissolve.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Schneider 180/4.5 (top & bottom), Pentac 8inch/2.9 (middle), Ilford HP5 processed in Kodak Xtol stock for 8.5mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 4 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, HP5, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, students, xtol
Friday, October 11th, 2013
Here are two fujiroids from a photo shoot I had with Lauren, these are the bleached negs which have an extra 2 stops of shadow detail compared to the prints. There will be other images from this shoot to follow at a later time but they are almost all black & white. I really like how these turned out, very simple lighting in an incredible room.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, 180mm/f4.5 Schneider lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 1 Response »
Tags: 180mm, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, lauren, oxford, people, portraits, students
