I’ve been debating for quite a while about whether to post non-Oxford related photography on this blog and I’ve decided that for now I will. This might change in the future.
Last weekend I spent Saturday in London, a trip that I decided to make the day before. Three photography exhibitions were showing for their last day so it was a case of snooze and lose. The galleries didn’t open until 11am so after visiting Silverprint to stock up on black&white film and chemical supplies I made my way to The Wapping Project gallery to see some work by Nick Knight and Peter Lindburgh. Out of the three exhibitions this was the most disappointing. Next it was Helmut Newton at The Hamilton’s Gallery and finally Bob Carlos Clarke at The Little Black Gallery (it was my first time seeing work by both of those photographers so that was a treat).
In the afternoon I met up with some photographers that I know through Flickr to do some street photography. We met at Covent Garden tube station and went to work from there. In a group of photographers that had hi-tech DSLR’s and wirelessly triggered flashes, I was the only one shooting with medium format film and available light. It was a fun few hours working on the busy streets with such a huge variety of people compared to Oxford and overall the people that I spoke to seemed friendly. There is something about the light in London that is very different to Oxford. Possibly it’s the tall buildings and the light bouncing around from so many windows, whatever it is it’s a joy work with on the streets. I’ve got some shots in colour on a different roll of film that will be posted at a later date once I’ve had the film processed.
[Tech info] All images made with a Pentax 6×7 and 110mm f2.4 lens on Fuji Acros 100 film. Processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution E 1:47) for 7mins.
Hi Nasir,
I enjoy your photography. What platform are you using for this blog? It has a nice, clean look.
Cheers,
Bob
Thanks, Bob. I’m using WordPress which I’ve found to be quite straightforward to install and customise.
Cheers,
Nasir
Hi there! I just discovered your blog thank to FPP which posted it on facebook, and I love your street photography and the portraits…it´s the kind of photography I would like to be able to do 🙂 I wonder how do you get the people to allow you to take the pictures of them… I don´t think I would be able to do it, I´m so shy! But maybe the fact that thay are being photographed make them feeling special…
Anyway keep doing that good job! My best regards from Spain,
Jorge.
Hey Jorge, thanks for your kind message. There is no secret to getting people to allow me to photograph them. I ask nicely and most of the time they say yes, but sometimes it’s no so I respect that. It probably helps a little that I’m using old film cameras. Some people are interested in them so it’s a bit of a conversation starter. When I started out with my street portraits I was using a DSLR so it’s not just the camera. Why don’t you challenge yourself to approach a few complete strangers and see how it goes. If you get turned down don’t worry, no one died, just move onto the next 🙂