Oxford: flooded meadow

Written by Nasir Hamid on January 14th, 2021

During December 2020 the UK saw a lot of rainfall and some parts of the country were flooded. I don’t remember Oxford receiving enough rain to cause flooding but as the massive volume of water from other parts comes rushing through Oxford the rivers swell which in turn causes some areas to flood, especially a local meadow. I made the most of the flooding and did some photography with a large format camera I’ve been wanting to try out for a while. It’s custom made with a 75mm Schneider lens which is fitted to a helicoid for focussing and the back rotates – something I found out by accident which was a nice bonus. There is no branding on it but it’s extremely well designed and made.

I wanted to fill the frame with sky and the reflection in the water so I had to stand in the water because a 75mm on 5×4 film gives an extremely wide angle of view. The Benbo Mk 2 tripod is perfect for this because the legs extend upwards from inside the bottom part of the legs and is designed to stand in water. What a didn’t realise was how easily one of the feet would end up coming off in the mud because it had a split in it, something I only noticed once I got back home. Fortunately Paterson in the UK still sell spares and supply them in a pack of 3. I’ve included some behind the scenes pictures below.

[Tech info:] Custom red dot 5×4 camera, 75mm Schneider lens, FP4 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (-1 minute to prevent the highlights blowing out).

20201229_Flooded_Meadow_75mm_FP4_HC110B_001_web 20201229_Flooded_Meadow_75mm_FP4_HC110B_002_web 20201229_Flooded_Meadow_75mm_FP4_HC110B_003_web 20201229_Flooded_Meadow_75mm_FP4_HC110B_004_web IMG_5044 IMG_5045 IMG_5049 IMG_5053

 

 

 

 

2 Comments so far ↓

  1. Eugen Mezei says:

    Where did you get that frame for drying the film? Does it help to get flatter negatives?

    • Nasir Hamid says:

      I think I got it from eBay with a rack to slot it into. It allows me to dry a bunch of sheets in the rack at the same time but more recently I’ve been using x-ray film drying clips attached to one corner. I don’t have any problems with sheet film flatness no matter how I dry them. I don’t use a hot drying cabinet so that might be why.

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