Portrait

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Oxford: instant pack film

Monday, May 27th, 2019

It’s been a while since I used any Fuji instant pack film so I decided to test out a recently acquired Polaroid 190 Land Camera with some Fuji FP-100C. I visited University Parks in my lunch break to photograph a tree that had fallen into the river and also came across the tree surgeons having a break after trimming the tree.

After work I met up with fellow photographer (and co-host of the Sunny 16 podcast) Graeme for a photo walk with his recently purchased Intrepid 5×4 large format camera. We had perfect summer evening weather and light and I finished off a roll of colour film that was in my Sputnik stereo camera (pictures from that coming soon).

[Tech info:] Polaroid 190 Land Camera, Fuji FP-100C (expired).

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Mapledurham at War 2018 – part 2

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

Here are some portraits I made at a WWII re-enactment event in Mapledurham back in the summer. The weather was overcast which was perfect for the colour palette and colour negative film I was using. These shots are all from the same roll of film through my Rolleiflex 2.8F. Part 1 of my portraits can be found here, made with the same camera but different film. More to come.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Portra 160VC film (expired).

Mapledurham at War 2018 – part 1

Sunday, June 24th, 2018

Here are some portraits I made at a WWII re-enactment event at Mapledurham recently. The weather was overcast which was perfect for the colour palette and colour negative film I was using. After much deliberation on which gear to take I settled on two 6×6 medium format cameras – Rolleiflex 2.8F and Pentacon Six TL – because I mostly wanted to concentrate on portraits and I like the balance of the 6×6 format. Shots from the Pentacon will follow.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Fuji Pro 400H film (expired).

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Oxford: Lunch break photo walk

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018

For a while now I’ve been meaning to use my Bronica SQA but either the weather or other things kept conspiring against me. Last week I finally managed to do it and here’s a set of pictures from the roll I shot during my lunch break photo walk. The shots of the drainpipe and the painted house number sign were made using a +1 close-up filter that I wanted to test and the last three shots were made with a red filter – the Radcliffe Camera shot had a polarising filter as well.

[Tech info:] Bronica SQA, 80/2.8, Ilford Delta 100 developed in Tetenal Ultrafin T-Plus.

Endeavour: portraits on the last day of series 5

Thursday, December 7th, 2017

These portraits were made on the last day of filming of Endeavour series 5. Towards the end of a very busy day I managed to find a place in the corridor of the CID interior set where there was a nice pool of soft light that was perfect for some portraits so I took full advantage of it. In all of the years I have been photographing behind the scenes on Endeavour this was only the third occasion that I had seen Anton Lesser on set so I was especially pleased to have a chance to make his portrait just before a take. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to photograph more of the cast and crew on this occasion.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak XTOL 1+1 18mins.

Oxford Union: Baz Luhrmann Q&A – part 2

Monday, December 4th, 2017

Whenever I photograph Q&A events at the Oxford Union I try to use both 35mm and medium format film cameras for a bit of variety. These shots were made with my Rolleiflex TLR during Baz Luhrmann’s visit to the Oxford Union. I had the opportunity to make a quick portrait of Baz before the start of the event and quickly positioned him next to a floor standing lamp that was in the Gladstone room where the drinks reception had taken place. I only had time to shoot one frame but sometimes that’s all you need.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+15.

Oxford: Endeavour 5, episode 4 – part 1

Thursday, August 10th, 2017

The Endeavour crew were back in Oxford for a few days of filming for episode 4 of series 5 and I did some behind the scenes photography. Here are some shots from Exeter college where they were mostly doing interior scenes. I’ll share some of the interior pictures after the episode has been broadcast – no spoilers! For these shots I was trying out a film I don’t often use – Ilford Delta 100. The day was sunny and bright but most of the action was in the shade and I struggled with sufficient depth of field on some of these shots. Next time I’ll stick with Hp5. The last shot on this roll is from Radcliffe Square where a short scene was filmed. The big light on the scaffolding provided a little rim light.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Ilford Delta 100, developed in Tetenal Ultrafin 1+20.

 

Oxford: Giffords Circus, 2017 – part 2

Sunday, July 23rd, 2017

When Giffords Circus were here in Oxford last month I tried to do as much backstage photography as I could manage in my limited spare time. Here are some backstage portraits during a performance when we had scorching hot weather. These were difficult to do because obviously I didn’t want to delay anyone so I had to be quick, one shot each, no bracketing exposure, no second chances, one and done. Many thanks to the Giffords performers for being so generous with their time.

[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105/2.5 lens, Fuji 400H (expired), developed in a Fuji Xpress C41 kit.

Endeavour crew portraits – part 1

Thursday, June 29th, 2017

This is a slightly different Endeavour post than usual because there are no shots of filming equipment, cool looking vintage cars or costumes. Here are portraits I made of some of the Endeavour crew on the last day of filming on series 5, episode 2. I really enjoyed spending the whole day with them at their base and can’t say enough about how hardworking and talented this crew is. This was towards the end of a very busy and extremely hot day of filming. A lot of my pictures from the day will be posted after the episode has been broadcast next year.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar loaded with Ilford HP5, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5 mins.

Oxford: Giffords Circus, 2017 – part 1

Sunday, June 25th, 2017

Giffords Circus rolled into town and set up in University Parks for a series of sold out performances and I went along to make back stage portraits of some of the performers as I have done in previous years. This time last year I was suffering from a lot of back pain so unfortunately I don’t have any portraits from that show. Most of the performers this year are new but there are still some familiar faces in the group and it was nice to see them again. If you haven’t seen the show I highly recommend it. You can see some of my photography from previous years here.

[Tech info]: Polaroid 180 Land Camera, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film bleached negs.

Portrait: Rachel Owen, Artist

Wednesday, December 21st, 2016

In the summer of 2012 I was starting to experiment with large format x-ray film and looking for willing volunteers to sit for a portrait so that I could test things out. One of my test portraits was of Oxford artist Rachel Owen who I knew also worked with film when we chatted at her Artweeks exhibition months earlier. Yesterday I was very sad to hear that Rachel died on Sunday 18th December from cancer. Pembroke College announced the news on their website.

[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, green sensitive x-ray film rated at ISO 50, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 6 mins.

Rachel Owen, Artist (1968-2016).

Rachel Owen, Artist (1968-2016)

Wet plate collodion tintype photography

Friday, August 19th, 2016

 

Recently I have been doing some wet plate collodion tintype photography and as it’s World Photo Day today I thought it appropriate to share some of my early results. It’s still early days for me and I don’t have my workflow dialled in yet to achieve consistent results but I’m really enjoying the surprise and beauty of the inconsistent results. These plates were scanned before I varnished them so the final results are slightly darker, richer and quite mesmerising to look at.