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Oxford: The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show – part 3

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014

Here are some more images from backstage at The Benefactor Charity Show I was at last week. With these I decided to use one of my favourite films for low light photography – Ilford HP5. All shot in available light. You can see some of the hive of activity that was going on in the main room by the hair and make-up teams. A bit of a surprise was when some of the OUABC boxers turned up to model some boxer shorts. Boxers in boxers, very clever!

[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D, loaded with Ilford HP5 @ ISO1600, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Oxford: The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show – part 2

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

More backstage shots from The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show that I attended earlier this week. These are all on different film to the first post and you can see a clear difference in terms of both contrast and grain. I’ve found that Kodak Tri-X pushes to ISO 1600 very nicely if you have enough light. The hard thing about trying to photograph backstage at a fashion show is usually the lack of space and time to work in because of all the other things going on – hair, make-up, styling etc. The other hurdle is usually the quality of light you have to work with which tends to be fluorescent tubes in the ceiling which is the case at the Town Hall. It’s all of these challenges that make it exciting and I quite like having to work for my shots. The downside is that during the show the models usually have a minute between outfit changes which makes it impossible to photograph them which can be frustrating when you see lots of amazing outfits flashing past without being able to photograph any of them. You take the rough with the smooth, do the best you can and enjoy the journey. These shots are all from the same roll of film, I only get 15 frames with this medium format camera so it’s not a bad hit rate.

Credits: Hair by Toni & Guy, Oxford. Make-up by Majenta.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 80mm/2.8, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) @ ISO1600, processed in HC110 1+31 for 16 mins.

fashion show

fashion show

Oxford: The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show

Saturday, March 1st, 2014

Oxford’s Town Hall is a great venue for a fashion show, I’ve photographed quite a few there in the past and earlier this week that was where The Benefactor Charity Fashion Show was held. Here’s a first set of images but there are lots more to come. I decided to experiment a little and for these shots I combined a grainy film (Ilford Delta 3200) with a developer that is known to exaggerate grain (Rodinal). The film expired in 2007 and has lost some of its low light sensitivity but I like the results.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 80/2.8 lens, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9mins.

fashion show

Oxford: backstage at the Ashmolean Dress Up event

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013

The Ashmolean Museum had a fashion themed event a couple of weeks ago and I went along to do some backstage photography for Clements & Church, the awesome tailor’s on Little Clarendon Street. The schedule didn’t allow much time for photography before the models had to head off to the catwalk but I did manage to make some portraits on Fuji instant pack film with a Polaroid passport camera that I’m beginning to really like – here are a few of them. Others to follow. It was nice to see some familiar faces at the show from previous Oxford Fashion Show events, you might recognise some of them from my blog. Please note that as this film expired in 2006 the colours are not 100% accurate.

[Tech info:] Polaroid passport camera, expired Fuji FP-100C instant pack film (bleached negative).

Fashion: suited up backstage at OFW 2012

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013

These shots are from backstage at the Oxford Fashion Week Couture  show which was held at the Ashmolean Museum here in Oxford towards the end of last year. I’ve been meaning to post these but didn’t get around it and as tomorrow evening there is another Oxford Fashion Week event being held there I thought it timely to put these up. The backstage area was in one of the massive halls of the Ashmolean but the lights had been turned off at the far end where all of the male models were waiting around to go  line up for the catwalk which made it extremely difficult for me to manually focus my camera. It’s a miracle that any of these are in focus. I was holding my camera with one hand and a flash on a light stand with a big white umbrella with my other hand which provided the lighting in these shots and I’m very pleased with how they turned out. The outfits and styling was by the Clements & Church team who worked non-stop all evening.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi 645, 75mm/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 400 film. Developing and scanning by Ag Photolab.

Photo shoot: Balliol Style Suite (Fujiroids)

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

The Balliol 750th Anniversary Commemoration Ball is coming up next month and in preparation for that dress hire company Wish Want Wear brought a selection of dresses for students to try on. I went along to do some film photography in Balliol’s gardens and here are the shots I made on Fuji instant pack film (just like Polaroid). I’ll be one of the photographers at the ball next month and I’m really looking forward to it. The very first Oxford college ball I ever photographed at was Balliol’s last year, you can see some of my images here.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90/3.5 lens, Fuji FP100-C instant pack film.

Oxford: Wish Want Wear part 3

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Here are some shots from the second salon day at Keble College held by dress hire company Wish Want Wear. This was a lunch break shoot so I only had half an hour shooting time. Katherine did an amazing job at changing outfits in record time. I’ll be photographing at the Keble Ball on 4th May and I’m really looking forward to it.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens on Fuji FP100C instant pack film.

 

Oxford: Wish Want Wear part 2

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

During my photo shoot at the Wish Want Wear salon day at Keble College, Oxford, not only did I shoot with digital and film, I also shot some Fuji instant pack film (aka Fujiroids). Here they are below. Unfortunately I only had 5 sheets left in the pack and I didn’t take any more with me which was a real shame because these were a huge hit. Keble is such a great location and I am very much looking forward to photographing at the Keble College summer ball that is coming up next month.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens with an Arca Swiss sliding Polaroid back that allows me to shoot two shots on each sheet.

Oxford: Wish Want Wear

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

These shots are from the salon day at Keble College that was held by the designer dress company Wish Want Wear. If I had one wish it would be to have had more time to shoot because it really was a case of so many dresses and so little time. I previously posted some of the black & white shots I did there and now here are some colour ones for your viewing pleasure. I usually process and scan all of my own film but processing colour film during the freezing cold winter weather is a bit tricky because of the warm temperature the chemicals need to be kept at and my studio where I do my processing is like a fridge during the winter. That’s why I sent this roll of film away to a lab (Ag Photolab) and I’m very pleased with their scans. Zero retouching was done to these shots, none! Some more shots still to come.

If you’re looking for a ball gown to hire for one of the many upcoming Oxford University summer balls, give Wish Want Wear a look. Hopefully I can work with them again in the future because this was a really fun shoot. The Keble summer ball is on 4th May. See you there.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm f3.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 400NC.

 

Photo shoot: Oriental style

Monday, February 4th, 2013

After the success of my first fashion photo shoot for The Tab Oxford, I was asked to do another one. We did the photo shoot around Worcester college but as it was pitch black outside by the time we were ready to start I lit the shots with portable strobes. I’m a lighting fanatic so I jump at the chance to bust out some lights to experiment with on a shoot. Everything came together nicely for this one thanks to a really creative team and models that were brave enough to handle the cold. Thank you to all involved. Below are a couple of shots that didn’t make the final edit.

You can see the final selection of shots on The Tab website.

 

 

Oxford: Venus in furs*

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

We finally got some snow this winter and as luck would have it I got invited to do a fashion shoot with an amazing team in an incredible location. The stars must have aligned just right because it doesn’t get much better than that. I shot mostly on digital because of the fast next day turnaround required for the shots but I also took along a film camera with me to shoot some Polaroids which turned out to be a huge hit. I’m really looking forward to shooting some more with this creative team so stay tuned.

You can view the final photo shoot images on The Tab website here.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100mm/f3.5 lens, loaded with Fuji FP100C (expired) instant pack film.
*Trivia fans might like to know that the title of this post comes from the code name given to Photoshop 6.0.

First shot

Black & white

Backlit

Paisley

Paisley

Last shot in the snow

Oxford: Backstage during Oxford Fashion Week 2012

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

These images span two shows, The Elysium Show (held at Oxford Town Hall) and The Haute Couture Show (held at the Ashmolean Museum). All of these images are from the same roll of film. There are only 15 frames on the roll so I had to exclude some here because I wanted to make a neat grid. I’ll post the others in a different post. This was the first time I had used Kodak TMAX 400 film in many years so this was somewhat a bit of a test to see how it would cope in low light being pushed 2 stops. I’m stunned at how fine the grain is and how smooth the tones are considering the harsh lighting conditions I was working in (overhead ceiling lights). The results look better than the Tri-X I shot at the same time.

[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi with 75mm lens, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 film, rated at ISO 1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 for 7.5mins.