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.
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.
I’ve always enjoyed photographing May Morning in Oxford because there’s always so much going on with plenty of interesting characters around and this year was no exception. Despite some drizzle early on it would take more than that to dampen the spirits of the people that had either woken up early or had been partying right through the night. There were some familiar faces among the Morris Men, people that I remember seeing over the years and this year I managed to make some nice portraits of them on Broad Street. I did quite a lot of photography this year so there will more shots to follow.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with Fuji Pro 400H (expired). Dev & scanned by Ag Photo lab.
Some behind the scenes shots while series 8 of Lewis was being filmed on Broad Street, Oxford last month. It wasn’t easy for the crew to film on a main street during lunch time and they certainly drew a crowd of curious onlookers. I particularly liked how they had transformed the empty Blackwell’s music shop on the corner of Turl Street into a coffee shop called Fix. The shot in the bottom left is of the props guy’s moving in some of the furniture.
[Tech info:] Zenit TTL, 58/2 Helios lens, loaded with Agfa Vista 200 (Poundland) film, processed and scanned by ASDA in Swindon. (Thanks Simon).
I haven’t used my Mamiya Universal press camera for a while so I decided to dust it off for a quick shoot with Imogen during my lunch break. No matter how hard I try I still don’t like rangefinder camera’s. I like to use wide aperture’s for shallow depth of field and having to focus in the middle of the frame and then recomposing is not helpful for maintaining critical focus. The thing I like about the Mamiya Universal is the versatility of being able to shoot so many different film formats and also full-frame Polaroids. These were all made with a 6×9 roll film back which gives you 8 frames on a roll of 120.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/2.8, 6×9 roll film back, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 7:30.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of the movie Testament of Youth that took place in Radcliffe Square, Oxford on 9th April 2014. In the first shot the Director of Photography for the movie is on the left. The movie is based on the memoirs of Vera Brittain and the lead role is played by Alicia Vikander who can be seen in a few of the shots below. Security was quite tight so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to vary my position for photography and my Rolleiflex TLR has a fixed 80mm lens so that was another limiting factor but I’m pleased with how these shots turned out, all from the same roll of 12 frames.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Despite the harsh lunch time sun today I managed to find somewhere with some nice light to make these portraits of Hugo and Jason, Oxford Tailor’s from Clements & Church. These guys are always dressed up looking smart and ready for a portrait.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Some test shots from a roll of Ilford FP4+ that expired 20 years ago (1994). I picked up a box of this film as part of a mixed lot of expired rolls and I’ve been waiting for some sunny weather to test it out. Spring seems to have finally sprung so this is the first test roll that I used on my lunch break photo walk around town in very sunny and contrasty light. The contrast of this film seems to have gone way down which is perfect for using on a very sunny day. I bumped up the contrast in post by an unusually high amount to achieve the results below. Overall I’m very surprised and pleased with the results.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired 1994), rated at ISO 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 12mins.
Last week a movie crew were in town filming a period drama called Testament of Youth which is based on the memoirs of Vera Brittain. It was wonderful to see a large scale production crew transform parts of Oxford to how it would have looked 100 years ago with the use of various props, old cars, horses, carriages, people dressed in period costumes and lots of grit to cover modern day tarmac and double yellow lines. There was a lot of interest from tourists and locals so there was plenty of security on hand to keep things under control with the use of barriers which made it difficult to move around for photography. While most people concentrated on photographing the main actors, I’m always drawn to photographing the crew, the unsung heroes who are usually the first ones to arrive on set in the morning and the last ones to leave at the end of the day.
Below you’ll find pictures of one of the lighting trucks, a 20K fresnel light waiting to be deployed, the Gaffer (Julian) with his ND filters at the ready, the lighting crew during their lunch break in the sun, Security guards (Neil and Duncan), stills photographer (Laurie) and old bicycles used as props in Radcliffe Square. It was very nice chatting with some of the crew members especially Julian and Laurie who have previously worked on some great projects.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Ilford FP4 (expired 1994), rated at ISO 100, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 12mins.
A few shots here of Richard from Clements & Church Tailor’s on Little Clarendon Street that I made to test out some film last summer. This roll of film has been in my fridge with a batch of others waiting to be processed. I had originally planned to build up a stash before mixing some fresh chemistry but I probably won’t get a chance for that until later this summer so I decided to send them off for processing. Since these shots were made quite a few things have changed – Richard has moved to the Leamington Spa branch of Clements & Church, the tree in the background of the first shot has been heavily chopped back so there won’t be any leaves on it for a long time to come and the Barclays Bank on the right hand side of the picture along with the cashpoints has now closed. That’s why I’m so passionate about photography, making photographic memories to have something to look back on.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 160 VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
This is how some students celebrate the end of their exams, Oxford style (aka trashing). After weeks of not coming across anyone in my lunch hour I finally managed to bump into quite a few students on the same day. These shots are from last summer but I didn’t want to post them too soon because I didn’t want anyone to get into trouble for it. I think almost a year after the fact is probably fairly safe.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with Kodak Portra 160VC (expired), processed by Ag Photo lab, scanned by me.
Helen and Pascale were raising money for a good cause outside Hertford College a few weeks ago with a pancake sale. I’ve never seen Catte Street so busy at lunch time. I managed to make a few pictures on my lunch break photo walk. Thanks for the pancake girls, it was very tasty.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with expired Ilford FP4, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (dilution b).
