Aberdeengrad

SHOOTING IN THE GRANITE CITY

Recently, I spent a Sunday afternoon wandering the streets of Scotland's third city, Aberdeen. The overcast skies, light drizzle, and fading light led me to choose a roll of black and white film, hoping to capture the city's mood in the brief time I had. While exploring an old disused health centre, I unexpectedly met another film photographer. We paused for a conversation, naturally sharing what we each enjoy photographing. I mentioned my interest in brutalist and 1960s architecture, of which there is a fair amount in Aberdeen.

During the conversation, he told me that the recent film Tetris set in the 1980s Soviet Union had in fact been partly shot in Aberdeen. I could imagine that with the removal of the local street signs and a sprinkling of parked Lada’s and GAZ’s parts of the Granite City could well perform as an excellent Cold War Moscow stand in.

Apparently the films director Jon S Baird, who is originally from Aberdeen, felt the area would be the perfect stand-in for Moscow in 1989 and the film's star Taron Egerton said Scotland having "greyness in abundance" was the ideal substitute for Moscow. For sure, I certainly want to see the film now, but for the time being I will make do with my shots of Aberdeengrad!

All photographed with CONTAX 645 on Kodak TMAX 400

Source: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/enter...

Portrait shoot using Kodak Vision 3 250D

 

Rescanned for the first time with the Nikon Coolscan 8000ED these portraits were shot using Kodak Vision 3 250D. Photographing on a cold but bright and sunny winter morning the light was strong, so using the beautiful Victorian structures of Hampstead's Hill Gardens Pergola to shield Juliette worked perfectly. The film handled the colours, light and shade that day sublimely. Then of course, there’s that Hollywood feeling that I always get when shooting Vision 3. It is after all, the film that films are made from!

As previously I hand developed the film, but this time rather than cross-processing in C41 as I had done before, I used Flic Film’s ECN-2 kit which includes a remjet removing pre-bath as well as all the other stages. This is a great product with the only issue being its short shelf life of only four weeks once mixed. If I were to use it again I would certainly bank up several rolls so that I could take full advantage of the kits lifespan.

Portraits taken with CONTAX S2 with Zeiss Planar 50mm ƒ1.4 and Zeiss Planar 85mm ƒ1.4 on Kodak Vision 3 250D
Model : Juliette Koch

The Eastern Panhandle

A day in West Virginia


Recently while on a job in Washington, D.C. I had a rare free day from work. I decided to hire a car and use the time to get out of the city and off the beaten track with my camera. Leaving early on a Sunday morning I headed through Maryland toward the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Less than 100 miles from the capital it was both far enough to see what I hoped to be a slice of the 'real' America and close enough so that I didn't spend hours driving on Interstates.

I was very lucky; it was a beautiful spring day with crisp light and sharp shadows. But what was best, was that universal photographic feel-good feeling of being somewhere undiscovered, somewhere different.  I’ve always pushed myself to photograph in my local environment and believe me, the home counties surrounding London are not exactly dripping with photographic opportunity. For me, it has inevitably become a sort of creative and mental exercise in seeing. I’ve always felt that ‘if I could shoot here, I can shoot anywhere’. Certainly, over the years as I have picked off all the close low-hanging photographic fruit, it has become more and more a challenge, but one that is still worth doing if only because it serves to amplify my excitement when I am somewhere new.

As a starting point I made my way to Martinsburg the largest city in the region and from there explored Shepherdstown, Charles Town and other areas in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties. Wandering around with a big camera around my neck caught the attention of one or two people, enough to start a conversation, the usual sort of thing ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Where are you from?’ Happy to have a guest in their town, if a little puzzled over my desire to shoot, as they possibly saw it, in such ordinary everyday place.

I spent the day exploring street corners and roadscapes, searching for my own slice of Americana and by late afternoon the spring light finally turned slightly golden then dusky dark so, after shooting several rolls of film, I stopped for a waffle at the iconic Waffle House before the drive back to Washington with a sense of satisfaction over my small but perfect American road trip.

All photographed with CONTAX 645 on Kodak TMAX 400 & Fuji Pro 400H

Alone in Cologne

Last week I was in Cologne for work, each day was busy with my only free time, the night. Usually, I like to walk the city, looking, seeing and all that stuff. But, with long days and freezing -5º C nights I used the Köln Stadtbahn. A sort of metro-underground-tram light railway system that covers the whole city. It gave me both a subject and the opportunity to shoot alone in Cologne regardless of the winter cold and my fatigue.

All photographed with CONTAX RTS III & Kodak Portra 400

The Boat Yard

Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire.

In the shadow of several huge cooling towers you can find a boat yard. Spread out over fields, scattered wide and packed close, boats propped on stands in various states of repair share the river and landscape with the UK's last remaining coal fired power station. Sitting together in a sort of strange but beautiful company. Both boats and chimneys coexist in an unlikely visual harmony jointly occupying the same space, if only for a short while longer.

The soon-to-be decommissioned power station is on borrowed time, closing its doors within a year. Its imposing towers are due to be detonated in a spectacular 'blow-down' event, the boats will soon lose their towering industrial companions.

All photographed with CONTAX 645 on Kodak Portra 160 & Kodak TMAX 400

Wide Open

A small selection of portraits from last year all shot wide open at ƒ2. Each for me, demonstrating that magical depth of field that the legendary Zeiss Planar T* 80mm. ƒ2 is rightly famous for.

All shot with CONTAX 645 and Zeiss Planet T* 80mm at ƒ2 on:
Kodak TMAX 100 & 400 and Fuji Pro 400H

Thanks to: Erika, Claire & Natasha

Coventry

Topographic wonderings around a West Midlands city

All photographed with CONTAX 645 on Kodak Portra 160, Kodak TMAX 400 & Fuji Pro 400H

Eight Years

In my previous post, I mentioned "It has been almost a year since I have written here" well something even longer than that is me using a digital camera for personal photography. I’ve looked back and the last time I did was eight years ago in 2014.

I do own a digital camera which I use for paid work. So recently when I worked with Danielle she specifically asked if I could shoot some digital photos as well as my usual film. She needed them for a job and quick so couldn't wait the two or three weeks it usually takes me to develop, scan and send my film photos. I duly bought along my digital camera and nervously spent the shoot outside my photographic comfort zone hoping I wouldn't blow out my highlights or run out of battery!

I've never liked participating in the endless Digital vs Analogue debate, because for me how a photograph is taken is secondary to what a photo looks like and how it makes you feel. In that regard whether it's a photo taken digitally or with film or for that matter with a polaroid camera or a mobile phone's camera, I don't really care. I'm mostly interested in what I see and if I like it. All those conversations about cost, convenience and how analogue photographers think they are so cool for shooting film or how digital photography is soulless are boring to me.

Of course, having said that I am, at my core visually attracted to film photography with its grain, tones and colours and that elusive filmic look. But, for every feature of a photo I like that is shot on film, I also think that a bit like Newton's third law of motion, with a digitally made photo there is an equal and opposite reaction. I love the sharp and accurate look of digital pictures. How dark and light are rendered and I really enjoy some of the dramatic effects of post-production whereby the colours are manipulated expertly by experienced photographers to give their work a signature look and feel. In the end, for me, it's the photo that matters most.

Look, I don't think I'm going to bring my digital camera out with me much in future but this was a nice reminder that there is another way to take photos and when it comes to photography my ‘secondary’ choice of equipment and method is a personal preference based on how I like to shoot and present my work, nothing more.

All shot with Canon EOS 5D and Canon EF 24-105mm ƒ4
Model: Danielle Wood

16km in Paris

When I travel for work I always take a camera with me because you never know when a meeting might finish early or a schedule might allow some time to walk and discover something photographic. So, when I went to Paris recently, never having been to the city, I had been saving it for some kind of special romantic getaway, not alone attending an exhibition at the Furniture Show near the airport! I made sure that I would get some proper photo-time by booking the last train back to London. With 6 hours and a couple of rolls of film, I wandered a foot-aching 16 kilometres through the city centre on my first and certainly, I hope, not my last visit to the French capital.

All photographed with CONTAX S2 and Zeiss Distagon f2.8 28mm on Kodak TMAX 400 & Kodak Portra 800

Artistic Impression

A series of portraits of Natasha Bush in her South London art studio. The first frame was selected by the picture editors at Vogue Italia for their daily photographic showcase PhotoVogue, which is always for me, gratifying especially when you see the quality of the other photographers and photography there. Theses photos were shot using Kodak TMAX 400 on a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 on a CONTAX S2.