These images were all made with a new lens that I recently picked up. This is the first test roll, needless to say I love this lens!

[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 110/2.8 lens, Kodak Portra 160 film. Hand developed and scanned by me.

I really like the John Lennon glasses and the whole retro vibe of this guy.

It was the white glasses that led me to stop this guy.

Ice-cream seller, Radcliffe Square, Oxford.

Dean.

Harry Potter fans.

The long hooded robes that these girls are wearing caught my eye. It was a very hot day and I couldn't work out why they would be dressed this way. After asking them to stop for a photograph they pulled out a note book to write down this blog address and then out came the quill pen. At that point it struck me, they're Harry Potter fans! The Hogwarts crest is embroidered on their cloaks and they had just come from visiting the Divinity Schools behind them which was used for the hospital scenes in the first movie.

A few months ago I came across a podcast dedicated to the use of film photography. It turned out that the podcast had been running for well over a year so I started to make my way through their archive of previous shows. For anyone interested in real photography using film (as opposed to digital imaging) I can’t recommend this podcast and their website highly enough. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic bunch of people and as a result they’ve built up quite a following and community worldwide.

From listening to the FPP podcast I learnt about Polaroid Automatic Land Cameras. Their website is a great resource for information including videos of how the cameras work, what to look out for when buying/using them and how to get the best out of these amazing cameras. The more I learnt about them the more I got hooked. A quick search on ebay turned up a bargain and from the first time using it I was instantly hooked. I’ve since acquired a few more of these cameras of different models and this week I took one out on the streets for a quick test. Below is a shot of my most recent purchase, a Polaroid 350 (photographed with my Polaroid 100 and portrait kit) and the two images below that were made with it. Polaroid no longer make the instant pack film but fortunately Fuji still does. There is something magical about producing a print directly from a camera and to think that these cameras date back to the 1960’s. The fact that they still work perfectly today is testament to how well made they are and to say that using one of these is fun and exciting would be an understatement. How many of todays digital cameras will be in use 50 years from now?

Polaroid 350 Automatic Land Camera

Degree robes

Elegant dresses in shop window, Little Clarendon Street, Oxford.

Sometimes I have a good run of coming across photogenic looking people on the street. These images were made on two consecutive days on the same roll of film a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve got a stack of film still yet to scan so if I told you that your portrait will be on here in a couple of weeks I apologise for the delay. Don’t worry, I will get to it so please keep checking back. If you see yourself in any of the portraits on this blog, please leave me a comment to let me know what you think. Thanks.

[Tech info]: Mamiya RZ67, 110mm lens and Portra 160 film. Processed and scanned by me.

This is local Oxford photographer, Paddy Summerfield. Back in the early 90's I worked at a photo lab processing E6 slide film and Paddy was a customer. I periodically bump into him around town from time to time. It's nice to chat about photography with someone that's been doing it for so many years. On this occasion Paddy was delivering this card to someone. He informed me that he had used the envelope that came with it for something else!

Cornmarket street, Oxford.

I'm sure you can guess why I stopped this gentleman. The midday sun was particularly harsh on this occasion so I used some nearby shade on the High street.

I liked this guy's look, it's kind of retro. The summer evening light brought out the colour of the tree in the background nicely. Brasenose lane, Oxford.

This set of images were made earlier in the summer. I had scanned them a while back but only just came across them in my archives and realised that I hadn’t posted them. They are all from the same roll where I was testing out a new lens that had arrived. The lens is a 165mm for Pentax 67 and it’s nicknamed the ‘bokeh factory’, now I can see why 🙂

[Tech info]: Pentax 67, 165mm lens, Fuji Acros 100 processed in HC110 (1:64).

Natural History Museum, Oxford.

Natural History Museum, Oxford.

Natural History Museum, Oxford.

Natural History Museum, Oxford.

Anyone for tennis?

This man was unusually chatty and had grand ideas about what we see around us is all an illusion. Maybe he's watched The Matrix too many times?

This man stopped to say hello so I decided to make his portrait. He didn't say anything else.

End of exams celebrations.

I stopped this gentleman and mistook his digital camera for a film camera. He was very pleasant and we chatted briefly about my film camera I was using because he too used to use the same one. I decided to make his portrait even though he wasn't using a film camera.

I’m back after almost a month of no posts. I must apologise to regular viewers of this blog and I hope you didn’t think I’d abandoned you. Truth be told I’ve been busier than ever with my photography but I haven’t had much time to develop and scan the films that I’ve been amassing in my fridge.

The good news is there will be a good supply of images appearing on this blog in the coming weeks as I feverishly work away at clearing the backlog. Yesterday 5 rolls of colour neg (C41) films arrived back from the lab and amongst those are shots from Eights Week that I’ve been looking forward to seeing. Over the next few weeks I am going to try my hand at developing my own colour neg films which will be a first for me. I have the chemicals ready but once I mix them they are only good for a week so I’ve been steadily building up a stock pile of films to develop.

Below are images from early July from a new camera format for me. The 645 format is 6cm wide by 4.5cm tall and is approximately 2.5 times larger than 35mm. The nice thing is the camera is smaller and more compact than my 6×7 cameras and I get 15 shots on a roll compared to 10. The downside is it takes me longer to finish the roll before I can develop it.

[Tech info]: Shot on Fuji Acros 100 film with a Mamiya M645 1000S. Developed in Kodak HC110 developer.

Pasties and coke

Divinity Schools quad, Oxford. This was shot in harsh midday sun with this gentleman being lit from behind. This is a perfect example of the amazing dynamic range of film.

St. Giles, Oxford.

Little Clarendon Street, Oxford. This gentleman said 'don't put my picture on Facebook!'. Lucky for him I don't put any of my images on Facebook.

Here in Oxford it’s the time of year where University students sit their end of year exams. For many that’s something to celebrate and let me tell you they sure know how to celebrate it here in style – with a trip to Tesco for some grocery shopping and then dumping the entire contents of said groceries onto a friend who has just finished their exams! It makes for a good photographic subject but it’s frowned upon at the higher levels of the university and students caught doing it can get fined £80. Some students that I came across pleaded with me not to photograph them for fear of being fined, so I didn’t. Others were braver and those are the ones you see here. I’ve delayed posting these images as a way of protecting them from a fine because exams are all over now and most of the students have gone back home for the summer.

[Tech info]: Mamiya C330f camera, Fuji Acros 100 film.

These outfits are called subfusc but I have no idea why.

Celebrating the end of exams

Celebrating the end of exams

Another film photographer

Another film photographer