At the beginning of March I was fortunate enough to be granted permission to photograph at the Balliol College Ball but I didn’t know that the ball was even taking place until the day before! As usual I was on my lunch time photography walk around Oxford when I noticed some dodgem cars being unloaded into Balliol College on Broad Street. I stopped to shoot some pictures and got chatting with a couple of the guys. It turned out that they were a family run business that specialised in fairground rides and they mainly dealt with colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, it was then that they told me about the ball that was happening the next night at Balliol. Below are some pictures from that day and the lunch time of the following day. The end of this roll of film has shots from the beginning of the ball. It’s nice to have all of these shots on the same roll of film because it’s a nice time line for me when looking back through them.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 loaded with Ilford XP2 film. Processed in a Tetanol C41 kit and scanned by me.
These two guys were really fun to chat with
Unloading the dodgems
Dodgems controller
Setting up the dodgems in Balliol's quad
A little break from shopping, Broad Street
I love the light the comes around this side of the Sheldonian Theatre
Another film photographer. This girl had only just got this Diana F Lomo camera.
I love this shadow and the way the light bounces around in this passageway
One of the ground crew workers currently working on the building project at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street
One of the ground crew workers currently working on the building project at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street
One of the ground crew workers currently working on the bulding at the corner of Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street
These are fantastic! Your exposures seem spot on! Do you use in-camera metering or a different method? I would imagine it awkward to hold up a meter to a stranger’s face.
Thanks very much, James. I use a handheld spot meter. It’s very quick to use and if you keep talking to your subject to keep them engaged there’s no problem. I used to use an incident light meter but I find the spot meter much more accurate. The dynamic range of film is amazing so even if your exposure isn’t 100% perfect it’s hard to mess up completely.