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Oxford: Worldwide Photo Walk Day

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

Last Saturday was Worldwide Photo Walk Day (in case you didn’t know) and there was a walk organised in Oxford with the theme of film. I didn’t sign up so I wasn’t officially part of the group but I decided to go along to show some love for film and to make some pictures on a Saturday afternoon. It was a good opportunity to put a second roll through the Pentax 645N that I recently got but haven’t had much time to test out. The film I used came in a batch of expired films but there was no date on it. I suspect it’s quite old because the backing paper has left a mottled texture on the film – something I don’t actually mind here.

[Tech info:] Pentax 645N, 105/2.4 lens (attached with a 6×7 to 645 adapter), expired Ilford HP5 film, processed in Kodak D76 1+1 for 13mins.

 

10×8 portrait: Amanda

Monday, September 1st, 2014

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

 

Drama: Twelfth Night cast portraits

Thursday, August 28th, 2014

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.

Oxford: English Eccentrics shoot

Sunday, August 17th, 2014

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.

 

Oxford: Giffords Circus, 2014 – part 2

Saturday, August 16th, 2014

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.

Oxford: Twelfth Night, Oxford University Drama Society

Wednesday, August 13th, 2014

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.

Oxford: Film test with Ariel

Monday, August 4th, 2014

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.

Quick photo shoot with Charlie (large format)

Wednesday, July 9th, 2014

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.

Oxford: lunchtime session with the Tailors

Tuesday, July 8th, 2014

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.

Oxford: Giffords Circus, 2014 – part 1

Monday, July 7th, 2014

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year already since Giffords Circus was in town especially as I remember it so well and it feels more recent than that. This year there are familiar faces that I saw last year and also some new people. I saw the show this afternoon and it was fantastic – very different from last year. If you haven’t been to see the show yet I highly recommend it. Here are some portraits I made back stage.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Oxford: Fujiroids with Cos

Tuesday, June 17th, 2014

Here are a few Fujiroids from my first photo shoot with Cos which was a lot of fun. The sky was overcast the entire time but that made for nice and consistent lighting without any harsh shadows to contend with. We shot plenty of film but those shots will follow at a later time once they’ve been processed. These shots are from the bleached negs which are a lot sharper than the prints and have more colour saturation too. I see there is a slight light leak from the ageing bellows so I’ll have to repair that but for a camera that is over 50 years old it still delivers.

[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B converted to use Fuji instant pack film. FP-100C (expired).

Archive: some shots from 2012

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014

Here are some images that I made back in autumn 2012 that I thought I had already posted but after checking back I realise that I hadn’t. Last week I bumped into the guy in the top left shot and after he told me that he hadn’t seen his shot yet it prompted me to check. He looked a little different but I still managed to recognise him and he remembered me making this picture during my lunch break which is nice considering it was over a year and a half ago. Some of these shots were made during my lunch hour photo walks and a couple are from a day trip to London. Same camera, different rolls of film.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar. Fuji Velvia 100 and Kodak Ektachrome 100G films. Processed in a Tetanol E6 kit.