Category Archives: People - Page 2

Colour in the Conway

Posted by on June 17, 2011 No comments

I shot a roll of colour film in my Conway box camera. It’s interesting because being a 1950s model, it wasn’t designed for colour use. You might think it wouldn’t make much difference, but the lens is neither coated nor corrected for chromatic aberration, so you end up with a low-contrast, soft and dreamy image. These are my favourites from the roll.

This is my brother, Edmund.

And these young men are the Squanderers – Cambridge University’s men’s hockey third team. They’re in fancy dress after their 2011 Varsity match against Oxford’s Infrequents.

And finally, here’s a picture of the second Severn crossing. This really hasn’t been edited at all – it really is that soft, yellow, faded and vignetted. And this is why I love analogue photography.

Me & my camera

Posted by on May 19, 2011 No comments

This photo was taken for the Photo Challenge this week – folks & their camera.

Taking a self-portrait on a camera that doesn’t have a self-timer is pretty hard, so I decided to pose with my fun camera and use my digital camera to take the picture.

Mothering Sunday

Posted by on April 4, 2011 No comments

This weekend I popped home to see my mum for Mothering Sunday.

Mothering Sunday brought with it a visit to church, where I spotted the sunlight glancing off the bevelled edge of this headstone.

Later in the afternoon, the sun went down between broken clouds and formed a very dramatic sunset. Because human eyes have a better range of sensitivity to light than even the best cameras, the photo didn’t really do the scene justice, so I’ve boosted the contrast to bring back some of the extremes.

Recreating a famous photograph

Posted by on March 15, 2011 No comments

I decided to set a tricky Photo Challenge this week – recreating a famous photo.

For my own entry, I decided immediately that it should be in black and white. Rather than imitating a fine art photograph, I tried to think of famous documentary or news-related photos. Probably due to the fact that I saw this article about an iconic image of Obama, I had the theme of American presidents in my head.

I remembered that I used to do an impression of Richard Nixon some years ago, and so I decided to try and recreate his photo. I’m not quite sure when this one was taken, but I think it might be May 1973, as he promised “no whitewash on Watergate“.

Overall, I’m pleased with my result. Comparing it to the original, I think my face could be a bit lighter, and I could do with longer hair for backcombing! :P

Passport photos

Posted by on March 13, 2011 No comments

All the passport photo machines these days seem to be digital. There’s no flash, it only takes one photo, you get to see it first, and then it prints all four the same. Not to mention that it charges you a fiver. How boring!

I miss the machines that produce four bright flashes and then a few minutes later, out come four different photos. So I decided to make some photo-booth-style pictures of my own, by setting up a white backdrop, a white umbrella flash and a camera on a tripod. I put the camera in continuous drive with self-timer, for a photo every ten seconds. The camera took quite a few frames of me and Hannah. I’ve now developed the film, and I will contact-print the film strips directly onto photo paper to give little strips of photos, for that retro effect.

But for time being I’ve scanned the negatives and uploaded them here. This is the full set of photos, in order.

Some photos from the Zorki

Posted by on February 26, 2011 No comments

I’ve been carrying the Zorki with me recently so these photos are from assorted days and occasions.

The first two were taken by the coast at Portishead.

This is my favourite tree. It’s in Oldbury Court, and I think it’s a chestnut tree because it has spiky things that look a bit like conkers (I’m not a tree person).

This is me standing in front of a semi-derelict building in Oldbury Court.

The sun is close to setting over Oldbury Court.

This was originally supposed to be an entry for the age v youth Photo Challenge but I didn’t get round to developing the film in time. These buildings are in Berkeley Square, Bristol.

These people are enjoying the first sunny day of February in Brandon Hill park.

Squanderers’ Varsity hockey match

Posted by on February 21, 2011 2 comments

Today I went to Cambridge to watch the Cambridge Squanderers play hockey against Oxford. I don’t really know much about hockey,but I had a vested interest because my brother Oliver was the captain, wearing number 33.

I took loads of photos, and here are the best. You can click for larger versions, or if you are a Cantabrigian and want a full-size copy of any of these photos (e.g. for printing), please hover over the picture to find its number and leave a comment at the bottom of this post :)

So here we see the Squanderers having a pre-match team talk.

Even after watching 70 minutes of hockey, I still don’t have much of a grasp of the rules, so I shall refrain from commenting on these pictures of the match. If you know more than I do, feel free to comment at the bottom.

As it turns out, Oxford won by two goals to nil but I thought the teams were pretty evenly matched and that it was an excellent game. Here the Squanderers jog round the pitch after the game, to much applause from the crowd.

The Squanderers team photo.

And after a quick shower, they re-emerged from the club house as Mafia men. Go figure.

Age & Youth

Posted by on February 19, 2011 No comments

This is my entry for this week’s Photo Challenge: Age & Youth.

Jaywalking

Posted by on February 7, 2011 2 comments

Jaywalking, or as it is more concisely known in the UK, crossing at the red man, really winds me up. So I decided to capture it for this week’s Photo Challenge – things that make you angry.

Working on a university campus, it wasn’t hard to find dozens of students walking in front of cars and cyclists on their way to lectures.

The thing I found most surprising is that with a casual glance, you’d expect a red man to be red, and his background to be black. Once I got home and looked at my photos, I noticed how yellow the red man is and how pale the background is. Maybe that’s why nobody pays any attention to him! Either way, I had to make him a lot redder so the black & white version didn’t look daft.

King Henry VIII relay on film

Posted by on February 7, 2011 No comments

You may have seen my recent photos of the King Henry VIII Relay. Those are the ones I took on my digital camera, but I also took a 35mm film SLR, since one camera just isn’t enough for me :D

These are my two favourites from the film.