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Monday, September 30th, 2013
The first roll through my Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 (75mm Tessar) that I shot during my lunch hour. The camera is a joy to use, everything works like a brand new perfectly engineered machine so it’s hard to believe that this camera is from the 1950’s. The minimum focussing distance on Rollei TLR’s isn’t all that good so I also bought a set of close-up lenses which I used on some of these shots. There doesn’t seem to be any reduction in image quality that I can tell. I’m going to enjoy using this camera a lot more.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 loaded with expired (2003) Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, automat, black&white, diptych, film, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, Tri-X, xtol
Sunday, September 29th, 2013
These portraits are from SS20’s 25th anniversary skate jam at the meadow lane skatepark. It was getting towards the end of the day and light levels were dropping so I struggled a little with the focus on a few of these but at this size they’re okay. I really like how these turned out considering the flat light and expired film I was using. Classic dignified portraits are what I like to make, no stupid poses or pulling faces – save those for camera phones!
[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105mm/f2.4 lens, loaded with expired Kodak TMAX 400, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1 for 9:15.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Sport | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, owp, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, skateboarders, skatepark, tmax, xtol
Friday, September 20th, 2013
The second series of Endeavour (the Inspector Morse prequel) has started filming here in Oxford and I stumbled upon a scene being filmed during my lunch hour photo walk yesterday. I don’t watch much tv these days but Endeavour is one of my all time favourite tv shows to watch so you can imagine how pleased I was to come across the set. It’s amazing how Oxford can be so easily transformed to the 1960’s with minimal set dressing (I’ve read that series 2 is based in 1966). I only had five frames left on the roll of film I had in my Rolleiflex so I had to use them carefully. Shaun Evans who plays the title role was very down to earth and nice enough to stop for a couple of pictures, others I photographed below were some extras, the make-up artists, sound engineer and one of the guys in charge of the vehicles. I’m really glad that it was my Rolleiflex twin-lens that I had on me because it’s from the 1960’s. Some of these shots were from lunch time and some are from after work when they had moved to a different location. I would love to do more behind the scenes photography of Endeavour over the coming months but it’s impossible to know in advance when and where they’ll be filming around Oxford.
Here are some of my pictures during the filming of the final scene in the pilot episode of Endeavour back in 2011.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f Planar, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | 9 Responses »
Tags: black&white, endeavour, film, morse, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, tlr, Tri-X, tv, xtol
Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
Some images I made at the Thursday Gloucester Green market to test out my Rolleiflex twin-lens camera. I don’t often go to this market but I think I might change that because there are lots of interesting stalls and people there. My Rolleiflex seemed to attract a lot of attention, I’m not sure if that’s because of the name written on the front in large letters or because it’s a twin-lens but I don’t mind chatting to people about it. The lady in the bottom images was very nice to chat with and I think she has great style, she used to work with photographers as a stylist and it was her stall of vintage goodies that caught my eye because it was so well laid out (the two middle images). Regular visitors to my blog might recognise Martin in the top two images, he features in quite a few of my blog posts when I have a camera, lens or film to test out. He used to play in a local rock band named Targa who were big in the 1980’s and a little known fact is they were the first band to play live on the opening night of Oxford’s ice-rink. The word around the camp fire is there could be a new band forming with a few of the original Targa band members but that’s just a rumour at this stage.
[Technical info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Planar, 80mm lens, Ilford FP4 (expired) processed in Kodak Xtol.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, fp4, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, tlr, xtol
Monday, September 16th, 2013
On day 2 of St Giles’ fair there was less rain than the previous day but the sky was a lot more overcast which made the light level quite dark and dull for photography. Here’s a selection of my shots from day 2, there will be others to follow that I made with 35mm once I receive them from the lab (aka Asda). You can probably tell that the Rotor is one of my favourite rides to photograph and I think it looks great in both black & white and colour.
[Technical info:] Pentax 6×7, 55mm and 105mm lenses, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired), processed in Kodak Xtol.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, fair, film, fp4, oxford, pentax, people, st giles, xtol
Thursday, August 1st, 2013
These shots are from a photo shoot I had with Alice last month on the last day of term, right before she was leaving Oxford for the summer. We had been trying to find the time to shoot but for one reason or another we never managed it but I’m so glad we got to arrange this at the last minute. The first time I photographed Alice was for a 1920’s themed promo shoot which I thought she was the perfect choice for and I’m hoping we can shoot some more when term starts again in October especially as Alice is a really good stylist with a wonderful collection of fabrics and clothes that will be fun to photograph . These shots were all made with a medium format camera, the 35mm shots will follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 ProTL, 80/1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak XTOL 1+1.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, film, oxford, portraits, students, summer, Tri-X, xtol
Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013
I recently bought a batch of expired film which I have no idea about how they’ve been previously stored so I decided to test some out to see how well they worked. In this test I was using Kodak Tri-X 400 which expired in 2002 and 2004. Fortunately Tamsin was happy to help out for the testing but it started to rain just as I was loading the first roll of film so I rattled through the film at quite a pace. Also in this test I was using a lens that I haven’t used an awful lot – a 165mm/2.8 Pentax 6×7 which I found out is very difficult to hand hold steady at f2.8 and 1/125th shutter speed which resulted in quite a few out of focus shots (not shown here). I also shot a roll of Agfa colour film that expired in 1996 which I’m very curious to see the results from.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, 105mm/2.4 and 165mm/2.8 lenses, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film, processed in Kodak XTOL 1:1.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students, tamsin, xtol
Saturday, June 29th, 2013
These images are from a photo shoot I had a few weeks ago with Leonore and Cosima. I’ve photographed Leonore a few times for Industry magazine and the Oxford Tab but I’ve wanted to photograph her on film for quite a while. I had originally arranged the shoot with just Cosima but fortunately Leonore was able to come along too and as they’re friends everything worked out. I really enjoyed this photo shoot but as I’m not used to working with two people at once it was a little challenging – in a good way. I’ve recently been trying out a new film developer and I decided to put this roll through as a test. So far I really like the results I’m getting. More shots from this shoot will follow at a later time.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 with 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film (rated at ISO800), processed in Kodak XTOL 1:1 for 8mins.
Posted in film, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, SL66, students, Tri-X, xtol
Thursday, June 27th, 2013
Some film shots of Josh with the amazing elephant costume that he made for a party. Tamsin was called in to keep the elephant under control. Some Fujiroids from this shoot can be found here. These shots were from the very end of the photo shoot, I used some colour film earlier on but they’re still in my pile of colour rolls to develop so they will follow in the future. I’m trying out a new film developer (Kodak XTOL) and this was one of the first rolls of film that I put through it. So far I am really liking the results.
[Tech info:] Mamiya 645 ProTL, 80/f1.9 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 film developed in Kodak XTOL 1:1 dilution.
Posted in film, People, Photo shoot, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, black&white, film, josh, people, portraits, students, summer, tamsin, Tri-X, xtol
