There are few things more rewarding than photographing personal work, especially on film. During the Easter break we headed out to Martinhal Beach Resort, near Sagres on the south western tip of Portugal. The five star hotel and resort overlooks Martinhal Beach and is set within a protected natural park. I can honestly think of no better destination for a family holiday. We’re already counting the weeks until we can return – it really is a very special place.
Category Archives: Blog
Fun family photography at the beach in Scotland – with coats!
We went to the beach at the weekend. It wasn’t super-warm and we kept our jackets on for the duration but that’s Scotland for you! I’ve shot a ton of personal work so far this year – a mix of 35mm & 120 film, mostly shot on standard lenses. So, just for a wee change I photographed this set digitally with a slightly wider 35mm lens – all pretty much wide open to control the depth of focus and isolate the subject from the background. I love photographing at the beach. The light is a little bit cleaner which adds a bit of punch to photographs and the sand bounces light back up in to faces which is really quite flattering – not that kids require that to be honest. 
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Graflex Speed Graphic & Dallmeyer Pentac test Polaroid
My Graflex Speed Graphic and Dallmeyer Pentac 8in f2.9 aerial lens are finally an item! and, I’m delighted to say that I’m pretty happy with the results. Following on from my post here, I purchased a custom made lens board from Jo Lommen to mount the huge aerial lens on to the camera. It’s fair to say that the resulting combination of camera and lens is perhaps a bit on the cumbersome side and the possibility of hand holding has diminished somewhat but mounted on a solid tripod it’s real nice to use!
The story behind the shot by guest blogger Keith Pitts
Allow me to introduce Keith Pitts, a film wedding photographer and improvisational children’s portrait photographer from Phoenix Arizona. Having had a look around his blog I really admire how his subjects seem so relaxed and natural, there are so many moments captured right on the button – a true skill. Just like myself, Keith shoots a mix of traditional film and digital, opting for the most suitable medium for the conditions. I love the image that Keith has chosen to share here, I’m not a regular b/w shooter, it’s tricky to get right and easy to muck up but Keith has nailed it! Here’s what he has to say…
Some personal work with an Olympus OM1 film camera
Good old Santa Claus came up trumps this year and left me a cracking Olympus OM1 film camera for being such a good boy in 2012! Well, OK then I bought it just before Christmas on Ebay along with a winder and a few lenses. There’s a lot to love about the OM1. It is about the same size as a Leica M camera, way smaller than Canon and Nikon’s offerings of the same period. The viewfinder is without doubt the largest on any 35mm slr – it’s huge and pretty bright. I got it with some decent glass; 50mm f1.4, 35mm f2.8 and a 200mm f4. I love the fact that I can carry the lenses in my pocket without being totally weighed down – they’re tiny, especially the 35. Feature-wise it’s pretty basic, which I love – I used the built in meter for all of these pics below and the shots are consistent throughout. I always shot slightly over what the meter showed which I found matched with what my Sekonic meter read.
I felt a real connection shooting with the OM1 – I guess it reminded me of my first camera, a Nikormat FT2, which was a good bit bulkier to be fair but similar in many ways; for example the shutter speed selector sits just behind the lens instead of on the top plate like many other cameras of the period. Another nice feature (and just like Leica glass) is the aperture dial is at the front of the lens making it a doddle to turn, especially with gloves on. The film rewind release is on the front plate just like a Leica M. The pics were shot on well expired Fuji Superia 400 rated at 800 asa and pushed two stops by RPL. The scans are a bit on the grainy side but I think they suit the subject matter and the environment OK.
New adventures in large format film photography!
Set phasers to ‘moderately excited!’ I’ve just shot my first test (below) with a recently acquired Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4 press camera. Subject matter aside, I’m pretty chuffed! I’m basically looking to photograph some shots at weddings this year on 5×4 film in a bid to produce some imagery that is quite different to what I’m shooting now on 645. However, nice as the lens on my Graflex is, I’m looking to achieve a bit of a different look which requires a bit more exotic glass. Now it would be nice to go out and buy a Kodak Aero Ektar f2.5 lens and mount it on the Graflex but courtesy of David Burnett and his amazing results with the same combo, they are in demand and prices are crazy at the moment (as I write this there’s one selling on ebay for £750 still with an hour to go.) So, I’ve bought the closest British equivalent in the form of a Dallmeyer Pentac 8″ f2.9 lens for a fraction of the price. Let me explain…
Photo Professional Magazine film wedding photography feature
The good people at Photo Professional Magazine got in touch at the end of 2012 asking if I’d like to share a top tip for making 2013 my best year ever – how could I refuse? My tip was to shoot more gorgeous film for my wedding and portrait work and less digital. My aim for the year is to hit a 80/20 mix of film to digital. I was even more delighted when they said that one of my images was going to open the feature over a DPS. The photo featured was shot at a styled shoot at my favourite venue, Fingask Castle just outside of Perth. The model is the beautiful Laura Ferguson who works for Alison Kirk Bridal who kindly lent dresses for the shoot. You can see more pics from the shoot here. The films were processed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in the States and shot on my Hasselblad H1 camera.
Julie Young Dance Studios Pretty in Pink!
My lovely daughter Freya is following in her mum’s footsteps by taking ballet classes at the Julie Young Dance Studios in Perth. She’s been attending for a few months now and loves it -more often than not, reticent to take off her uniform when she gets back home! Anyway, Julie asked me if I wouldn’t mind photographing her pretty ballerinas this week as a wee christmas treat so we turned up a bit early and rigged up a quick two point lighting setup and photographed the girls as they arrived for class. They all did incredibly well and turned on the Christmas cheer for their portraits under the direction of Julie and her nigh on endless supply of festive props!
Why I shoot film by guest blogger Dena Robles
It is with the greatest pleasure that I introduce you to Dena Robles, a film portrait photographer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Dena has just moved back to the States after spending six years here in the UK and I’m pretty much sure she’s loving the light over there, especially shooting on film. Like me, Dena shoots her portrait work using ambient light on location and her work is very beautiful. You can check out her website here to see just how pretty her work is. Here’s what she has to say!
“Like many photographers I started my photography journey by shooting film and printing in a darkroom. Like most of those photographers I also made the switch to digital when DSLRs were finally available at a price less than the cost of a luxury car. And like a small handful of those photographers I have made the switch back to shooting film over the last few years. Why? I can talk on and on about the difference in the way film looks and feels, about the tangible quality of loading and advancing film, about the way it makes me slow down and think more about each frame I expose, about how inspiring it is to use classic old cameras. I won’t dare to try to qualify film as better than digital or vice versa. I know that is an endless and dangerous conversation to enter into. In the end, shooting film is a personal thing for me.
Recently I have discovered a bonus advantage for shooting film. Whether shooting with an old classic camera like my Hasselblad, or my tiny old school Pentax K100 or my large funky looking Contax 645, pulling one of these cameras out is a great conversation starter. People stop and notice, they recall memories of their father or grandfather using the Hasselblad or they might exclaim excitedly that they also learned photography on a Pentax K100 and relate “I should pull that old thing out and give it a try again.” Usually, this conversation leads to portrait making between the two of us, often it leads to a great cup of coffee and an afternoon talking about art and swapping stories. This autumn I vowed to carry the Pentax with me everyday for a month. When it wasn’t slung on my shoulder, it was parked next to my car keys at the front door, ready to go. I met many people, had coffee and lunch with several artists and students, and even scored free sushi when I started photographing the beautiful interior of a new sushi restaurant in my neighborhood. To my surprise, I was also stopped by the local TV News crew who were out filming a story one day during the lunch hour. I don’t know that I was necessarily ‘newsworthy’ but they did ask me to speak about what I was photographing and why. I declined the story, it felt to personal to me. It felt great to make these connections in my city and it was also very satisfying to discreetly document the activity going on that month. With such a vast amount of people owning, carrying and pointing digital cameras, I felt less conspicuous and like I had a free ticket to photograph the public.
Following is a snippet of the series I created documenting my new hometown. I think I will do this again in the spring, but with a fabulous old Polaroid, I would love to be able to immediately hand over a photograph to the people I meet, a little token of our encounter. I wonder if the news crew will be out that day…”
Test shots from Mamiya Press Super 23 6X9 film camera
I recently picked up a Mamiya Press 6×9 press camera to have a play around with. I’ve been hankering over a larger frame size for a bit now and this seemed to fit the remit. This is the Super 23 model which features movements on the back which I plan to put to use shortly in the studio shooting a small table top project I have in mind.
Anyway, it’s safe to say that this is far from a beautiful camera and it it somewhat bulky and awkward when it comes to handling. However, there are a number of plus points; bright rangefinder focussing with framing for three focal lengths and parallax compensation, leaf shutter makes it a doddle to hand hold at slower shutter speeds with confidence, ground glass adaptor fits on the back for super-precise focussing with movements mentioned earlier, huge 6×9 sized frame size.
The pics below were purely shot to see if there were any light leaks and to test how flat the lens was and how good it performed wide open. I photographed them on a stupidly dull Sunday morning shooting on Fuji 400H rated at 50ASA. They were shot either at f3.5 or f4 and I don’t think I shot above 1/60th of a second. Slowest speed was 1/15th as I recall. They were all hand held. The films were dev’d & scanned locally and aren’t quite as good as I’d like but it was only a test I guess.
I like them – they are pretty contrasty, sharp and even in to the corners and showing no distortion whatsoever. To be honest, despite the weight and overall bulk, the camera is quite pleasant to shoot with. There is a nice rhythm to it which is quite satisfying. I’m going to keep my out for a Universal body and a Polaroid back so I can shoot 3×4 Polaroids but use the existing 100mm lens. I think with decent light and better scans this will prove to be a cracking camera. I love the aspect ratio, although 8 frames on a roll of 120 is harsh on the pocket!