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Friday, April 6th, 2012
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
Posted in Architecture, film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: black&white, fm2, oxford, people, portraits, xp2
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Here’s another batch of images from the Balliol college ball that I attended a few weeks ago. The images are very grainy due to the expired film I was using. I’m not sure of the expiry date of this film, it came in a batch of different films that I bought as a job lot. Despite the grain I like how these images have turned out, they capture the mood of the evening which was people having fun.
Some exciting news related to my Balliol ball photography is that a couple I photographed that evening liked my photography so much that they’ve booked me to photograph their wedding next year and I’m going to be doing it on film! It’s not obvious from this blog but I do photograph weddings as well as doing other photographic commissions and I’m really glad they emailed me to enquire about it. Here’s a little extract from the lovely email I received “…have been looking at the websites of wedding photographers around Oxford, and we haven’t found a single one whose work we like as much as the photographs on your blog.”
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f camera and 80mm lens on expired Ilford Delta 3200 film, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution B (1:31).
Backlit in the live music marquee
Hai Lin and friend
Outside the live acts marquee
I really like the moment I've captured here, especially with the guy laughing next to the very serious guy next to him
Outisde the live acts marquee
I asked these girls to follow me all the way to the side entrance of the college just so we could use the light in the archway. It worked out well.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: ball, balliol, black&white, c330, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
This is Rupert Penry-Jones starring in Silk 2 which is due on the BBC later this year. There was a small film crew shooting a scene where he rides this Norton Commando underneath the Bridge of Sighs. I came across them during my lunch break. He seemed nice enough. The funny thing is I don’t watch much tv at all so I had no idea who he was and had to ask a gushing fan nearby.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 camera loaded with Kodak Color Plus film (£1/roll in Poundland). Processed and scanned by me.
In front of the Norton Commando
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tags: 35mm, fm2, oxford, people, portraits, tv
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
It’s been while since I posted some lunch hour street photography so I apologise if you’ve been needing your fix. There’s no shortage of it to post (as I’m out with a camera just about every weekday if it’s not raining) it’s just that I wanted to get the bulk of my Balliol College Ball photography posted. Speaking of College Balls, I’m going to try to obtain permission to photograph some more this summer so fingers crossed on that. If you know anyone that can authorise permission please send them a link to this blog and ask them to contact me. Thanks.
All of the images here are from the same roll of expired Tri-X. I don’t know how expired it was because there was no wrapper on it but judging from the base fog of the film I’d say it’s over 10 years out of date.
[Tech info:] Expired Kodak Tri-X film loaded in a Mamiya C330f with 80mm lens. The film was rated at ISO 200 and processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b.
This guy was visiting Oxford for the day. We had a pleasant conversation about photography, film and digital. He had travelled from Ohio.
This scout was visiting from British Columbia, Canada.
Creative graffiti on a red telephone box on St Giles.
Construction work going on inside the Bodleian Library. The openings on the right will be the new entrances.
This bike was all chrome.
A shady spot underneath the scaffolding on Walton Street
This seat has had a lot of use. The bike it's on is nice and old but it's had a recent paint job which is a bit of a shame
It's a bit of a shame I didn't have colour film in the camera because the colour scheme of this guy's outfit was pretty cool. I like the shadows cast by the sun.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, Street style | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, c330, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, street style, students, Tri-X
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
These two images were made with a Kodak Aero Ektar lens on my Speed Graphic 5×4 large format camera. The lens was designed for aerial photography during WWII and it’s quite a chunk of glass. Here’s a picture of the setup: http://www.simplyoxford.com/equipment/equipment-aero-ektar
I’m still getting to grips with how best to make use of the shallow depth of field you get with this lens but so far I think it’s a good start.
Broad street & Catte street junction. This film is Ilford XP2 (expired).
Broad street. This film expired in 1991. I bought a job lot of it so I'm pleased with this result.
Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, people
Sunday, March 11th, 2012
These images were all made with a 35mm camera – my first SLR that I bought back in 1987 and it’s still going strong. I really enjoyed using it for these available light shots because it’s smaller and lighter compared to using medium format.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 35/f2.0 lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO 1600, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:31) for 17mins.
On the dance floor in the live acts' marquee. Notice the band on stage in the background
I think these guys really wanted to be photographed because they wouldn't move from in front of my camera
Immediately to my right was a spotlight that gave a very film noir look to anyone that stood in the light beam
Enjoying the music
After the band had finished
Eye contact
Group shot
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: black&white, fm2, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students, Tri-X
Thursday, March 8th, 2012
Here’s the third batch of my images from the Balliol Ball 2012 and they’re the best so far. I really like the look of these and that’s largely due to the film, Kodak Tri-X. I should give this film more credit in low light, most of these shots were made in light levels that were so low that I could hardly see the eyes of my subjects to focus on. Most of these images revolve around the live acts’ marquee because that seemed to have the most light. More images to come.
If you’re involved in organising any summer college balls and you like my photography please let me know. I’d love to do more documentary photography of other college balls.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f and 80mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO1600, processed in Kodak HC110 B (1:31) for 17mins at 20C.
Fixing a bow tie (live acts marquee)
Watching one of the live bands
Outside the live acts' marquee
Outside the live acts' marquee
Outside the live acts' marquee
The lighting in this shot is coming from the live acts' stage. It was very noisy in the marquee which made asking people if I could photograph them a little tricky
This girl looked very striking with her tattoos. I'd like to photograph her again so if anyone knows her please let her know
I thought it was a great idea to have Mission Burrito at the ball. The people behind the counter were very friendly
Hai Lin. This portrait was made right next to the Mission Burrito stand to make use of their light
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 3 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, ball, balliol, black&white, c330, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, Tri-X
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
These images are the first of what will be quite a large collection of images shot on film from the Balliol Ball that I was fortunate enough to attend last week. I didn’t label the rolls of film as I finished them on the night so when it came to choosing which roll of film to process first I decided to pick the last roll from the night. The film (Ilford Delta 3200) expired in 2005 and was part of a batch that I recently bought on eBay. It’s always a gamble when buying expired film because you never really know how the film was stored or whether it has suffered heat damage. Judging by the quality of this film I’d say it has suffered from being badly stored over the years. Still, these images have a unique look to them that is 100% real, no Photoshop filters or plugins were used on these images.
Earlier this evening I processed another few rolls of film from the ball and I can’t wait to start scanning them in. I left them hanging up to dry in the darkroom and will collect them tomorrow.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f and 80mm lens loaded with Ilford Delta Pro 3200, processed in Ilford DD-X 1:4 at 20C for 9 mins.
One of the few places I found available light to photograph with was near the loo in the basement by the photo booth.
I found this group of people in the photo booth room and managed to convince them to stand in front of my camera.
Photo booth group. I like how this one turned out.
The lighting here reminded me of an old movie set. These two guys were watching the dodgem cars which are directly behind me.
The light level was so low here that I couldn't see these people clear enough in my viewfinder to focus and the exposure was a bit too long for me to hand hold steady.
The light level in this shot seems a bit brighter than the previous shot but it was still too low to focus properly.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 1 Response »
Tags: 6x6, ball, balliol, black&white, c330, oxford, people
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
The majority of my photography last Sunday during the Oxford V Cambridge Varsity competition was done during the Powerlifting. I started off by doing portraits of some of the competitors (which I will post soon) in the warm up area. Right next door was where the actual lifting was taking place. It was a great atmosphere with clouds of chalk dust everywhere and black walls which reminded me of black boards from school. The light level was low for photography (too low I thought) but the quality of the light looked really nice and I thought it was worth giving it a shot.
For these shots I used a roll of Kodak Tri-X that I rated at ISO 1600. I thought the light level was so low that I didn’t bother with taking a light reading. I simply set the shutter speed to the lowest I thought I could hand hold steady (1/60) and kept the lens wide open (f4.5). If I had known that the images were going to turn out this well I would have shot a lot more.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 and 50mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X rated at ISO 1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b, 1:31) for 17mins at 20C.
It's a shame I cut this guy's feet off but I was standing directly behind and over the judge so I couldn't get a better angle.
With all of the health and safety rules and regulations these days it's amazing that this guy doesn't have to wear steel toe protectors!
Taking the strain.
Bench pressing.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, hc110, oxford, people, RZ67, students, Tri-X
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Last weekend I visited the University sports centre on Iffley Road during the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity sports competition. My intention wasn’t to make action shots of sport it was to find people to make portraits of. Not being a particularly sporty person myself, I found it very interesting to be among so many people that were. As I write this the Varsity competition is not over yet, it’s spread across different weekends with some other events to follow in the summer. I did quite a lot of photography during my visit and I’ll post the images in batches as I make my way through the scanning.
My thanks go to Simon Griffin from the sports centre for being so accommodating and supportive of my photography and also to everyone that made time to stand in front of my camera.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 and 110mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b, 1:31) for 7mins 30secs.
These guys were not part of the Varisty competition but as I walked past the room they were practicing in and saw the diffused light I knew I'd be able to make some great images. Fortunately these guys were very friendly and didn't mind me interrupting their practice session.
These two guys are also photographers which made it easier for me to get my shots. At first they were a little surprised when I barged in on their practice session and announced that I wanted to photograph them but after they saw the size of the camera around my neck they knew I was serious.
These was the last shot on my roll and shot outside quite a while after the first couple above. Imagine having a face off with this guy.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | 2 Responses »
Tags: 110mm, black&white, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, Tri-X
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Here are two portraits I made on the end of the roll of the Cabaret portraits in the previous post. Both on the same day during my lunch break.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm/f2.8 lens, on Kodak Tri-X 400 film rated @ ISO1600, processed in Kodak HC110 (1:31) for 17mins.
Kevin, a Big Issue seller I pass almost every day on my way back to work. I'll be giving him a print of this.
Catte Street looking towards The Bridge of Sighs
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 110mm, black&white, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, Tri-X
Monday, February 20th, 2012
These are the portraits I made of the cast and crew of Cabaret back stage at the O’Reilly Theatre, Keble College. Curtain up was probably around 20mins away so I was very rushed and also very cramped for space. These were done in a corridor at the bottom of the rear stair well, the bright lights facing the camera are lights on the wall. I thought they might look good as a background but they’ve turned out being brighter than I would have liked. I left my spot meter at home so I was unable to make very accurate exposure calculations. Overall I think these turned out well with all things considered. Thank you to everyone below that made time to be photographed.
I’m interested in doing more backstage photography on film so if you’re involved in a project or performance please get in touch.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm lens loaded with Kodak Tri-X film rated at ISO1600. Processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution B, 1:31) for 17mins at 20c.
Cast member
I did a rough retouching job in Photoshop to erase the bright lights in the background of this image and I think it works better without them.
Cast member
Choreographer (right) and assistant choreographer
Cast member
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot | No Responses »
Tags: backstage, black&white, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, Tri-X
