There has been quite a flurry of filming activity on the streets of Oxford recently and I’ve photographed some of it. The scorching temperatures have slowed down the amount of photography I’ve been doing lately but I braved the heat when a certain crew rolled into town to film the next instalments of Oxford’s best loved detective. No spoilers.
[Tech info]: Rolleiflex 2.8F, Fuji 400H (expired), Fuji Frontier scans.
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).
Here are some pictures from my first visit to the Bicester Heritage Centre where they were holding a sunday scramble classic car event. It was very busy so I didn’t manage to get many opportunities to make shots with a clear background.
[Tech info:] Fuji 6×9, Fuji 400H film (expired), dev and scanned by FilmDev.co.uk
These pictures are from the first day of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 5 episode 2 in June 2017. The day started off nice and sunny as I recall and by mid-morning the streets were full of tourists which made filming quite difficult. There was a returning director on this episode – Andy Wilson – who I remember photographing briefly in 2014 when he was directing the episode titled Sway. The shots here are from half the roll of film, the other half contains episode spoilers so I’ll post those at a later date after the episode has been broadcast.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Fuji 400H film developed in a Fuji Xpress C41 kit.
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.
These shots are from the last episode of Endeavour III – I think I have more pictures from this episode than any of the others. After finishing the roll of film I stored it in my fridge with the intention of developing it myself at some point but I never got the chance so in my fridge it remained for almost 10 months. I finally decided to send it to a lab for developing and here they are.
I felt it somewhat appropriate to post these today as according to the Mammoth Screen Twitter account this is the first day of filming for Endeavour IV.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar, Fuji 400H (expired). Developed by Ag photo lab.
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.
The Lewis crew were in Oxford in May, here are some shots from a scene they filmed at Freuds on Walton Street. The last shot is someone who works there, I had one frame left on my roll. I’ve got a huge backlog of shots to post from the past couple of months so expect plenty of blog updates.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, Fuji 400H (expired), processed and scanned by Ag Photo lab.
The Gaffer and his crew.
Security
After the getaway
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.
Here’s the third instalment of pictures that I made at SS20’s 25th anniversary skate jam which was held at the Meadow Lane skate park in September. I took 3 different cameras with me that day, a 35mm (Nikon FM2), a Pentax 6×7 medium format and a Bronica ETRSi 645 which is what I used for these shots. I love how the colours have come out in the overcast light, they’re just as I remember. The crowd was a mix of some familiar faces from my previous trips to the skate park and lots of people that I’ve never seen there. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon with a group of people that share the same passion and I even had some nice comments from people that have visited this blog which was a pleasant surprise.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi 645, 75mm/2.8 lens, Fuji 400H (expired) film, dev & scan by Ag Photo lab.
The long awaited summer weather has finally arrived here in Oxford and after months of rain we’ve been enjoying scorching hot sun. When the sun comes out people are generally in a good mood and that makes for better conditions to make street portraits. I’ve got quite a backlog of films to process and scan but I’m working through them slowly. Here are some images made on a brand of colour film that I haven’t tried before but I keep hearing and seeing great things about it so I decided to give it a go. So far I love the results. These images are all consecutive frames on the same roll of film. I like how they’re sequenced. As you can see the tv show Lewis is currently being filmed in Oxford and Kevin Whately was nice enough to stop for a quick street portrait in Turl Street.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, loaded with Fuji Pro 400H film, processed and scanned by me.
Top frame: focus puller with the Lewis crew
Top frame: Party shop in Market Street, middle: Kevin Whately, bottom: sound crew working on Lewis.
Top: Michael, middle: Jamie, bottom: conservators working on restoring St Mary's Church.