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Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 – Fencing

Thursday, March 13th, 2014

Last weekend was packed with sporting events for the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity 2014 competition and on Saturday morning I attended the Fencing which was held at the Examination Schools on the High Street. It was a grand venue for a sporting event and I really enjoyed seeing some of the action. Although I went prepared with a small lighting kit I decided to make use of the daylight coming in through the windows. These portraits were all made during the competition which is why there aren’t very many. This is the contents of an entire roll of film, all 10 frames. I did also photograph some of the action but those shots will follow at a later time.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).

fencing

fencing

Oxford: Filippa portraits

Thursday, February 27th, 2014

These portraits of Filippa were made last June (2013) but they got a little lost in my mountain of negatives  so I’ve only just scanned them. All from the same roll of 10 frames with not a duff shot between them. Less is more. Zero retouching on these. Filippa was extremely easy to work with and it was a very relaxed shoot as I recall in tricky lighting which was rather flat. I think it worked out well in the end and I really like how these turned out. I hope I get to shoot with Filippa again, perhaps with large format next time.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 180mm lenses. Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired) film. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

filippa

 

Oxford: BMX Jam, Meadow Lane, part 2

Sunday, August 11th, 2013

This is the second instalment of my pictures from the BMX Jam that was held at the Meadow Lane skatepark last month. It was a really fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon – even my wife and daughter stayed for the whole thing so it must have been good! I tried to photograph some of the action but with a maximum shutter speed of 1/400 it proved to be quite challenging to capture the peak of the action but I gave it my best shot.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 150mm lenses, loaded with Fuji Acros 100 and Kodak Tri-X 400. Processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

Oxford: BMX Jam, Meadow lane, part 1

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

Last Sunday I went along to a BMX Jam at the Meadow lane skate park  that had been organised by local BMX legend Alex Leech. As I’ve never been to one of these events before I didn’t quite know what to expect but after enjoying this one so much I can’t wait for the next one. It was great to see some familiar local faces that I’ve photographed there before and plenty of new ones too. I took along two cameras with me but sadly one of them (a 35mm SLR) developed a fault shortly after I got there so I was down to just my medium format camera which has a maximum shutter speed of 1/400 so action shots were proving a bit tricky but I gave it a go at anticipating the peak of the action. The shots below are all from the same roll of film – I only get 10 frames with this camera. More images to come.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110/2.8 lens, loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400 film (expired 2004), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.

BMX jam portraits

BMX jam

Photo shoot: Xin

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

A few weeks ago I had a lunch hour photo shoot with Xin and these are some of my favourite shots from that session. I first met Xin while I was photographing at the Keble summer ball last year. We really lucked out with the weather and light on the day of this shoot because for the most part January hasn’t been a particularly great month for outdoor photography – not for me at least. When the weather warms up a bit I hope we can shoot together again.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 6×6 back. Lenses used were 110mm/f2.8 and 150mm/f3.5 on Fuji Acros 100 film. Processed in HC110. The last two images were made on a Nikon FM2 with 50mm/f1.4 lens on 35mm Ilford Delta 100 film.

Photo shoot: Georgina

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

My first photo shoot of 2013 was with Georgina who I first photographed during a dress rehearsal of POSH at the Oxford Union almost a year ago. How time flies! The winter weather has been very grim with nothing but rain and heavy overcast gloomy skies so I haven’t been able to do any photography for the past month. My lunch hour photo shoots are always a bit rushed but I have to say I felt a little out of practice on this one so I didn’t shoot as much as I had hoped. This Fujiroid is from the very end of the shoot and the only colour shot from it. The black & white shots will follow (I left them hanging to dry in the darkroom over night), below is a shot of some of the 5×4 inch film hanging up. Georgina was great to work with and I hope we can shoot together some more.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm/2.8 lens on Fuji FP100-C instant pack film (similar to Polaroid).

Last shot from the shoot

 

5x4 negatives hanging up to dry

 

Oxford: Vagrant [theatre production]

Friday, December 7th, 2012

Here are some shots of the cast from a student production of a play called Vagrant that was at the Burton Taylor theatre a couple of weeks ago. The writer/director Alex Darby contacted me to see if I wanted to do some photography of the cast before the performance started so I took the opportunity to test out pushing Kodak TMAX 400 film to ISO1600. I had previously had great results with this film while doing some backstage photography during  Oxford Fashion Week but I knew the light in the theatre would be a lot more contrasty so it would be a good test. I’m pleased with the results I got here and the grain is amazingly fine apart from the shadows which is to be expected.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm/f2.8 lens, loaded with TMAX 400 (rated @ ISO1600). Processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 7:30.

Photo shoot: Helen #4

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

I had another photo shoot with Helen recently and here are some of the results. We went to University Parks but used a different area to our last shoot and thanks to some nice late after summer sunshine we had everything we needed to make some nice images. This was a really relaxed shoot just like our previous one and I think that comes through in the images. I’ve had more compliments from people on my shots of Helen than any others on this blog and I look forward to collaborating more in the future.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 150mm lenses, Fuji Acros 100 pushed one stop in HC110 (8 mins) dilution b.

First shot

Lounging

Near the river

Catchlights

Lotus

The sun was going down directly behind Helen so I'm amazed at how good this turned out.

Last shot

 

Photo shoot: Punting down the river part 2

Friday, August 31st, 2012

Some more images from my punting photo shoot on the river Cherwell here in Oxford. These shots were all made on film whereas the previous ones were all from Fuji instant pack film (similar to Polaroid). Part one is here. More to come from this photo shoot.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm and 150mm lenses on Fuji Pro 400H film, processed and scanned by me.

I love how this image turned out. One of the first frames of the photo shoot.

Looking at the setting sun.

Despite this being underexposed I like how this has turned out. Note the heavy colour shift towards green.

We kept the punt turning to vary things up. Some shots have the sun to camera right, others to the left.

A lovely bit of rim lighting and lens flare.

 

 

Acting: headshot

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

A little while ago I was contacted by Andrew McCormack, a student studying here at Oxford University. He said he’d decided to give acting a serious go and wondered if I would do an acting headshot for him. I had previously photographed him during the dress rehearsal for POSH at the Oxford Union and he really liked my shots from that. I really like making portraits so of course I said yes but I wanted to do it on film, no problem he said so we arranged to meet up at his college to do the photo shoot in the grounds. It was the end of the day and the sun was dropping in the sky so we had to rush a little before the whole of the college quad was covered in shadow from one of the buildings. I decided to use a medium format camera for the shots and as there are only 10 frames on a roll of film  with that camera the shoot didn’t take very long at all.

Andrew was very pleased with the final shots and so am I. Hopefully they’ll play a part in helping him secure some great jobs in his future acting career. If there are any other aspiring thespians out there that require a headshot do please get in touch.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 camera with 150mm lens loaded with Kodak TRi-X film, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:31).

This was Andrew's final choice. We shot this in the shade against an off-white wall

Frame 10. After 9 shots I knew I had it in the bag so this was the last shot on the roll. A more pensive portrait.

Test shoot: Hai Lin #2

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

After the photo session with Hai Lin and my Aero Ektar setup (here) went so well I arranged to do another session a couple of days later because the late afternoon light was really nice and I wanted to test out a different camera, this time a medium format one that was more portable and faster to use than my 5×4 Speed Graphic. I shot a roll of colour film as well as b&w but I haven’t processed it yet.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm and 250mm lenses on Kodak Tri-X film. Processed in Kodak HC110, dilution B (1:31) for 7:30 at 20c. Processed and scanned by me.

Looking towards the sun with the shadow from the Bridge of Sighs

Looking towards the Clarendon Building

I like the shadow on the ground and how much detail there is in this shot despite Hai Lin being backlit

The sun was starting to get quite low at this point

I really like the vintage look and feel of this image. It feels like a movie still or promo shot to me.

 

Sport: Oxford v Cambridge Varsity 2012

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

These are the remaining images that I made during my first visit to the Oxford v Cambridge Varsity 2012 at the Iffley Road sports centre. Still to come are some images I made the following weekend of Rugby so stay tuned.

[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 loaded with Kodak Tri-X film, processed in Kodak HC110 dilution b (1:31).

Netball team member

Netball team member

Badminton team member

Badminton spectator

Powerlifter (available light only)

Powerlifter (ambient light only)

Powerlifter (ambient light only). The far corner is where I made the portrait shots.

Athletics track spectators