helen

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Photo shoot: smoke signals

Sunday, August 25th, 2013

Most of my photography is done outdoors but I really enjoy shooting indoors with natural light whenever I get the chance and this location was perfect – it’s a rented house that was empty because the people haven’t moved in yet. I love the film noir quality of these. This shoot was not about smoking, it was more about using smoke as an added element but as it turned out there wasn’t very much of it so we tried using incense as well. These are all medium format shots, I did also use 35mm which will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 105/2.4 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) rated at iso800, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 9:30.

 

Photo shoot: where there’s smoke

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

Here are some Fujiroids from a recent photo shoot I had with Helen. We lucked out with some gorgeous sunlight and a great location to shoot in. The great thing about the room we used for these shots is it had three windows in it, two facing south and one facing west. The great thing about this in terms of photography is if you’re in the right place in the room as the sun is starting to go down in the early evening you end up getting lit from two different directions. I’m very pleased with how these turned out considering the film expired in 2007. Film shots will follow at a later time once I’ve had a chance to develop them.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/3.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.

Oxford: Fuji instant pack film

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Here are some shots I made today at two different photo shoots. My first shoot was with Sarah who I first met during Oxford Fashion Week 2012. It’s only taken 6 months to find a day where we were both free and the weather was dry. It was a great shoot and I really like how these shots turned out and hopefully there will be more collaborations to come.

My second shoot was with Helen who has also been very busy so we haven’t shot much together so far this year. I ended up underexposing a couple of the shots because the slowest shutter speed on the camera I was using for these is 1/30th and there wasn’t enough light. I know that the negative (once I bleach it) will have another 2 stops of detail in the shadows so it’s not a big deal. I also shot some black & white film at both of these photo shoots and they will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4 camera with a variety of lenses (Dallmeyer 12inch, Pentac f2.9 and Kodak Ektar 203mm) on Fuji FP100-C (similar to Polaroid).

 

Oxford: Lunch hour session

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

One of my favourite cameras is my Graflex Super D which is a large format (5×4) SLR. The problem is I haven’t been able to use it very much this winter because the viewing screen inside it is quite dark so I need bright conditions to help me with focussing. The weather this winter has been overcast and cloudy most of the time which has been frustrating for me. This set of portraits were made on a rare sunny day last week during my lunch hour. There always seems to be more people around when the sun comes out.

[Tech info:] Graflex Super D, Carl Zeiss 18cm/f4.5 lens, Ilford HP5 film processed in Kodak HC110 for 5mins at 20C.

Christy & Helen, slightly out of focus. It's very difficult to focus when your subjects are backlit by the sun. I must remember not to do this.

 

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: Photo shoot – Helen, experimenting with window light

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

For a long time I’ve wanted to do a photo shoot where I experimented with window light so this is what I did in my recent photo shoot with Helen. Previously we have always shot outside so it was nice to have some limitations to work within (space being one and the light being another). These shots were all made a few hours after my shoot with Jake Dean (previous post) and by this time the sun had already started to drop along with the light level. The windows that were directly behind me face north which helped give a beautiful softness to the light quality which reminded me of paintings by the old masters. It was very interesting to see how moving a small amount made quite a difference and by using curtains you can completely change the feeling of the light altogether.

As with my previous shoot I shot both film and digital – these are all digital. I’m especially excited to see the results from film because I used a new type (Kodak Portra 800) which I haven’t used before. I also shot a roll of TMAX 400 at ISO 1600 after the great results I got from Oxford Fashion Week. Those shots will follow at a later time.

[Technical info:] Nikon D700, 50mm/f1.4D lens.

 

Photo shoot: Helen – from white to black

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

Some photo shoots can start off with with trying to plan every last detail, others have the room to breath and experiment to see what happens. This photo shoot falls in the latter. Helen sent me an image for inspiration and from there I decided I would only use black & white film and I took along four different cameras to experiment with (3 medium format and a 35mm). On the day Helen brought various outfits but I think it was a coincidence that we only ended up using black and white clothing. The images have a feeling of going from light to dark which was perfect as we raced against the fading sun. This is a story of a girl who’s man ‘did her wrong’. It was a fun shoot and I hope to do more of these.

[Tech info:] I used the following cameras, Pentax 67 with 105/f2.4 lens, Mamiya C330f with 80/f2.8 lens and a Mamiya M645 1000S with 80/f1.9 lens.  Film used was Kodak Tri-X and Fuji Acros 100. All of these shots were processed in Rodinal 1:50 (Acros for 10:00, the Tri-X for 13:30).

Test shoot: Helen part 2

Saturday, July 7th, 2012

During my second test shoot with Helen I was able to test out a number of different rolls of film. The shots below are all from the same roll (with this particular camera I only get 10 shots on a roll). This was towards the end of the shoot and we decided to change things up a bit by making use of a nearby tree. Helen showed her excellent climbing skills, barefoot! It was tricky to find a comfortable spot in such a cramped space but I think Helen did a great job. The film I used here is Kodak BW CN which is sadly no longer made. I bought some expired rolls from a photographer who was having a clear out. The advantage was that you could have the film processed at any regular photo lab because it requires colour film chemistry even though it’s a black & white film. This is only the second roll I’ve used of my batch and I really like it so far.

[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, Kodak BW CN (expired 2009). Processed and scanned by me.

Branching out.

Backlit.

Lean back.

Perched on the edge.

Eye contact.

Looking at the horizon.

Last frame.