Portrait Shoots with the Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180mm 2.8 adapted to Pentax 67

This is a turn up for the books! I haven’t written a single blog for this website in months and in the space of a few hours here I am writing my third!! When I started this blog all those many years ago, I had very little idea what I was doing (still don’t) and no idea who I was writing these blogs for - I just felt that I had something to say and blogging felt like a good medium to say it. All these years later and whilst there is an audience (demonstrated by the numbers of visitors) I think in lots of ways - I write this blog for me. And while I am very grateful that anyone at all might stumble upon it and find it possibly useful or mildly amusing or even in rare moments - inspiring. Even if no one saw these ramblings, I’d still write them. There is very much to be said for writing about something that you are passionate about. BUT. We are not here to elucidate on the vicissitudes brought about through blogging (swallowed a dictionary)?

We ARE here to talk about making space for creativity though - so maybe there’s a link to my thought process??! I wrote a while ago about my initial experience with the wonderfully sublime portrait lens the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180mm 2.8 lens that at the beginning of this year I obtained a copy that was adapted to Pentax 67 mount HERE I felt it was high time that I shared some images from a couple of Portrait shoots using this lens along with some rambling thoughts (as if I haven’t shared enough of those already).

The lens balances so well on the Pentax 67 it could easily have been a stock OEM set up! I loved this lens on the ARAX CM and you can read a little more about my experience HERE but it was unwieldy and tricky to focus - no such issues now! Image quality is exceptional! This Sonnar lens comes with a very great reputation which doesn’t always translate into a positive shooting experience in practice (lots of internet myth built up over years - another motive for starting a blog, dispelling that stuff)! I digress… yes a lens with a big reputation… but it delivers on that promise, punchy, contrasty, beautiful details rendered in the areas of focus, with a lovely drop off into smooth and creamy bokeh - yum.

The examples here were taken on different shoots and were developed and scanned by me using Bellini C41 chemistry, Epson V600 & Negative Lab Pro.

The two images above were shot with Fay on expired Portra 400. We’d originally intended an outdoor shoot but then it poured with rain and I wanted to try the P67 / Sonnar so before we went into the studio we used the landing at the top of the stairs to my studio and made the most of the natural light.

The images below are from a shoot with Becca, this time on expired Portra 800 - again on location at the studio but using the derelict Mill at the back of the building.

I really loved shooting with Fay and Becca - both amazing models to work with and we always get some great results! The Pentax 67 and Sonnar combination feels like it was meant to be - absolutely love using it, the results speak for themselves I think!

After spending so much time wrestling with the ARAX CM it’s a relief to shoot the Sonnar on a camera which makes it a much more enjoyable experience, focussing is easy on the bright P67 screen and I’ve already mentioned how well this combination handles.

The Sonnar holds its own alongside the wonderful stock Pentax 67 lenses too and I think it brings a different look and feel to the table, it’s equivalent to 100mm so a nice portrait focal length, the Sonnar remains one of the best Portrait lenses I think I’ve ever used - if you get the opportunity to pick one up whether its on a Kiev 60 / Kiev 88 / ARAX or adapted I would HIGHLY recommend!

Studio Portraits with the Speed Graphic and Lomography Lomograflock

Tradition demands that I start this blog with an apology for my tardiness of late!! In my defence I have been busily building a business and all my energies have been focussed on that - and over recent months I’ve not had much time to shoot - but when I glanced at the blog page the other day I was mortified to see that the last published blog was in FEBRUARY!! I have definitely got some cool stuff to share with you since then so to make amends here’s the first in what I hope will be a little flurry of new activity!

Down to business then!

I bought the Speed Graphic camera as my first foray into 4X5 large format photography and ostensibly my motivation was to give me a platform that I can shoot the legendary Kodak Aero Ektar lens with - I’ve already blogged about that a million years ago HERE and HERE.

I flipping love shooting with this camera, it’s wonderful! I did have encounter an issue with my speed graphic with the shutter speeds being a bit erratic but since the camera is from about 1948 I think it’s fair enough!

I had the camera service by a George Walsh in Liverpool who I HIGHLY recommend and its back in fully working order! The Speed Graphic and Aero Ektar are a good match because of that built in shutter - it means you can effectively stick any bit of glass that covers the film size on the front and shoot away! It does however mean that it’s not so good for studio work and that my friends is my very very long winded (and suspiciously self justifying) reason for buying another lens for my 4x5 camera - the Schneider 210mm f5.6 - it has a built in leaf shutter which means I can hook it up to some studio strobes!!

With the flick of a switch on the speed graphic I can disengage the built in focal plane shutter on the camera body and use the leaf shutter in the lens - lovely!! I got the lens for an absolute bargain price because the slower shutter speeds don’t work but I wasn’t bothered about that cos in the studio I’m really only going to be using the faster speed (everyone keeping track of all this? There’s a quiz at the end ya know)!

Any road, let’s talk about the shoot!

I wanted to use the Lomograflock back and shoot some instax film to see how it performed under studio conditions (I also shot some 4X5 sheet film but had a bit of a ‘mare with that).

My friend Becca was kind of enough to join me in the studio and help me test everything out and as you can see from the images - we got some really flipping cool shots!! I LOOOOOOVE shooting instant film, I mean REALLY love it! I bought the lomograflok out of curiosity but honestly it’s a really great way to shoot the speed graphic and you get that instant kick when you see the image appear!

Working with film in a studio situation is…. challenging, but in a fun way! I use my handheld meter initial to give me a ball park reading, now Instax film is 800 speed but in natural light I’ve tended to shoot it at 640, in the studio I was between 400 and 640 for most of these shots, the lens was wide open at 5.6 (which is actually quite fast for large format) and the shutter was generally at 1/400 which is as fast as it’ll go!

Right enough technobabble - I am embracing these new fangled ‘moving’ images so that I can show what went on during the shoot as well as the resulting images!!

I’ve mentioned previously the process of using the lomograflok back which has a few steps involved and when shooting portraits it’s vital that you communicate the need for your subject to hold as still as possible while you attach the film holders etc fortunately Becca was amazing at this and we got lots of nicely sharp shots!

I did manage to get one good 4X5 frame out of the shoot as well, but I did lose a sheet as well because I hadn’t quote loaded it properly and couldn't get the dark slide back in! oh well! thems the breaks as they say - I’ll share the large format shot in a future post! B

Huge thanks to Becca for being such a great model and creative collaborator and thanks to anyone who has read this far - well done!

Pentax 67 and the Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180 2.8 - a match made in Heaven (or more specifically Poland)

A few years ago I very foolishly dropped my beloved Pentax 67 - it was such a traumatic experience (for the camera as well as me) that I wrote a blog about it HERE. Ever since then my P67 has not been a happy bunny - frame spacing was out of whack and the film advance mechanism sounded like a bag of spanners…. I did get it repaired but this was just a patch up job and it was never the same after, I would regularly lose a frame or the advance mechanism would jam…. considering that the P67 is my absolute main battle camera (and responsible for 90% of my portfolio work) I am amazed that I managed to limp along with it in this sorry state for so long.

It had gotten to the point where I was avoiding using it and leaving the P67 in the camera bag makes no flipping sense so I decided to bite the bullet and get my beautiful Pentax 67 repaired and serviced. After a bit of research I opted to use ASAHI PHOTO for the repair work and I am very pleased to say that they did a fantastic job - the film advance mechanism was replaced and the camera also had a full CLA and service, they repaired the bottom plate which was cracked and replaced some of the leatherette which had come loose too - it feels so awesome to have my Pentax 67 in full working order!!

While it was away being repaired (it only took a couple of weeks) I made the decision to finally let go of my Soviet built Kiev 60 and lenses - I was really only keeping this camera because it gave me access to the absolutely AMAZING Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180 mm 2.8 lens and I decided that since I was getting the Pentax 67 repaired I might as well do something else that I’d had on my wish list - to have the Sonnar lens adapted from Pentacon 6 to Pentax 67 mount!!!

I’d heard of a place in Poland called Bokeh Factory who could do the conversion - when i contacted them I discovered that they were closing down!! eeek! Not only that but they had no more conversion kits and only a couple of lenses left!! So I decided to go for ANOTHER Sonnar lens and to sell my Pentacon 6 lens (are you still paying attention at the back)??!

Anyway loooooong story short - here we are!! What a combination this is!! The lens pairs beautifully with the Pentax and is a much more pleasing experience than using the big Sonnar lens on my long since sold ARAX CM or soon to be sold Kiev 60.

The conversion process takes a little bit of length out of the barrel which helps, also because of the change to a 6X7 sized frame rather than 6X6 the effective focal length in 35mm terms is about 100mm so it’s a perfect portrait lens!

I decided that I couldn’t wait for a portrait shoot to take this new combo for a spin - I wanted to road test the P67 and the Sonnar together so I took a short walk around the block with a roll of Fomapan 100 and grabbed a few ‘nothing’ shots.

I shot the Fomapan 100 at box speed and developed in what is becoming my favourite developer 510 Pyro if you haven’t tried it out yet then I strongly suggest that you do, it’s lovely stuff, buy it from Zone Imaging HERE - the data sheet recommends rating Foma 100 at 80 but since I shot it at 100 I extended developing time by 90 seconds.

Please excuse the dust marks - I didnt have time to remove them! Anyway, what do you think? I am VERY happy to have my P67 in full working order and to have it matched with one of my favourite lenses the wonderful Car Zeiss Sonnar 180mm 2.8 - what a fantastic piece of glass!

As you can see in the images, the lens is capable of creamy and dreamy Bokeh, SUPER sharp where you want it too - the fall off between these two extremes create a wonderful 3D pop to the images too I cannot wait to bring this combination to my next Portrait shoot!

I tested how the lens handled strong back light with the sun just out of the frame top right - I am very impressed!! There’s a drop in contrast that you’d expect but it’s not unpleasant, in fact i like it!

It felt good just to get out and shoot whatever situations presented themselves to me, I used to do this kind of thing ALL.THE.TIME - note to self: more photowalks please!

Something Old and Something New: Shooting Portraits with the Speed Graphic, Kodak Aero Ektar & Lomograflok instant film back

It’s fair to say that blogs have become somewhat sporadic over this last 12 months - there are some VERY good reasons for this and I am happy to report that I’ll now be making a concerted effort to post more regularly. I also have some VERY exciting news to share about opening up a darkroom & photo studio where I’ll be running workshops and events as well as using to create my own work too! I will share more details in a dedicated blog about all of that very soon - in the meantime check out the ‘workshops’ page for details HERE

Now let’s get down to business - whatever our passions and inspiration in life there are often things that we associate with that, maybe you’re a musician and you want to learn how to play a particular instrument, or perhaps you’re into football and you really want to erm…. kick a ball (this analogy is wearing thin) anyway I’m a film photographer and ever since I realised this about myself I have flipping well wanted to shoot Large Format - more precisely a Speed Graphic camera with a Kodak Aero Ektar lens and hey ,guess what? Now I have!!

I’m gonna say this now - there are SOOOOO many new elements, processes, fancy bits of kit and just god damned cool toys to play with that I will no doubt be writing further blogs just on this set up alone, consider this blog like a whirlwind run through the whole thing and to share my initial results - I’ll circle back to this theme and delve deeper into certain aspects very soon I am sure!

I first encountered this combination through the work of photographers like David Burnett who is one of my photographic heroes he has used large format cameras to cover major events such as the Olympics and even reporting on the Presidential election campaign trail in the US.

The Speed Graphic is a camera that many of you will know well, even folks not well acquainted with photography will recognise them from old movies - these were the quintessential press cameras of the 1940’s 50’s and into the 60’s.

Just a man in a cape with his camera

They are relatively rare over here in the UK but are readily available in the US where they were manufactured. It is a wonderfully designed and built piece of kit - I picked mine up which is a pacemaker version of the Speed Graphic for less than £150 on evilbay and was expecting to need to get it serviced before being able to shoot but once I had it in hand I realised it was good to go!! I believe that my copy dates from the late 50’s to the early 60’s although I am not 100% on that!

I’ll say more about the operation of the camera in another blog - now let’s also have a look at the business end of this set up - the Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm 2.5 lens.

This lens is a cult classic and for good reason, photographers such as Dave Burnett showcased what was possible with this glass and like me, once you’ve seen the images it can resolve then it becomes something that you just have to try out for yourself.

You might be surprised to learn that the Aero part of the name of this lens relates to the fact that it was originally designed to be mounted on to an American aircraft in WW2 to shoot reconnaissance photos! My particular copy was actually built in 1944! It boggles my mind what this lens may have seen during it’s life time! My copy is actually quite rough - cosmetically there is loads of paint chipping and optically there is a fair amount of fungus and possibly some delimitation of the elements and consequently I got it for a VERY good price. In my experience lenses can resolve great image quality even when suffering issues like this and having taken a punt on this one it seems to have been a good call

Obviously using a lens designed to be fitted into a warplane requires an adapter in order to mount properly - the lens is HUGE compared to what might be considered a ‘normal’ or ‘proper’ lens for the Speed Graphic - once fitted to the adapter the lens required a little bit of gentle persuasion to be mounted on to the camera but now it fits perfectly.

This pic was taken pre-the arrival of my adapter to mount the Aero Ektar - look at how tiny the standard lens would be compared to the beast like Aero!!

So once combined in this way we have what I would hand on heart say is the most exciting camera I have EVER had the opportunity to shoot with! Other things worth mentioning are that I absolutely NEEDED to add the following items to enable me to use this camera:

Tripod - an old Gitzo all metal affair, this is a thing of beauty all on it’s own! A very solid platform to work on and whilst its a bit on the heavy side it gives me confidence when shooting on location that my camera is safe!

Film Holders - at the time of shooting I had two film holders giving me a whole FOUR sheets of film to burn through! Being a trigger happy soul I have since added two more film holders to my set up.

Focussing Loupe - a must have item I reckon, this little device allows you to check critical focus on the HUGE focussing screen

Dark cloth - maybe not essential but when shooting in bright light you need ‘something’ to drape over your head and allow you to see properly, I figured I’d go all in on this and the bonus is you can wear it like a cape! :)

So you’re all set to shoot Large Format Chris! What’s the big hold up? Why am I not now just looking at loads of Large Format photos? Great questions!! Well the main reason is that I also got hold of a thoroughly modern piece of kit to compliment all of the above - the Lomography Lomograflock Instant Film back!! As I said before I will definitely be doing some individual blogs to go into further details about different aspects of this new shooting experience but for now its enough to know that this amazing bit of technology allows you to shoot Instax Wide instant film on the Speed Graphic!! WOW!

And so to the shoot itself - who else other than my long time creative collaborator Danni Shepherd to help me test this monster of a camera out. We met at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds on a beautifully bright late summers day and shot a few packs of Instax colour film and FOUR sheets Fomapan 100 in 4X5. I have waffled on interminably for long enough - let’s see the results of the shoot.

OMG! Seriously I am just blown away by the results with the Lomograflok - what an amazing piece of kit!! Rest assured that a dedicated blog about this instant film back will be coming soon - but there are so many awesome new things I want to share and this blog is already MAHOOSIVE so let’s just agree that the Lomograflok is ACE and little more needs to be said, to whit: Let’s have a quick look at the 4X5 shots…

Or rather ‘shot’ as in singular - mainly cos at the time of writing I haven’t scanned any of the other three shots, but WOW!!! LOOK!!! AAARGH! This is just everything I dreamed of with this camera and lens combo and more besides - the original scan itself has an ENORMOUS level of detail and resolution, it’s super sharp where you want it to be and soft and dreamy where you need it too, the way that film format, micro contrast and focus fall off give you a proper 3D pop. I am stunned by this shot - especially on my first outing with the camera!

I developed and scanned the film myself, this is something I am now going to be doing more often as I have my own darkroom and workspace too :)

I have to say that shooting with the Speed Graphic is a wonderful experience - the process has a number of steps but once you get into the rhythm it becomes very natural. I’ve read so many other photographers talk about having random members of the public ask them about their old film cameras - I’ve never had that before until now!! Pretty much everyone who walks past wants to know more about it so that’s definitely something to be aware of, you can’t be low key with this kind of camera!

A huge thank you to Danni for being absolutely amazing on this shoot, we always have a lot of fun and always create some stunning photos together too. I think this is really the beginning of a new phase of my work - not just the camera but the darkroom and workshops coming soon too, so much to tell you all about!

Just with this set up and the results of one shoot I think I’ve got at least two or maybe three blogs to write up just to go into some details - and on top of that I need to share what’s been happening with the new Darkroom and workshops and there’s another business that’s going now too…. yikes… Thanks for making it this far if you did!! I’ll see you again real soon!

More is More: Medium Format and 35mm Portraits on Black and white film: Part 1

There is a school of thought which advocates only shooting one camera and one lens in order to fully focus on your creative process which in the case of portraiture is about connecting with your subject. I have subscribed to this view for a long time - minimise your kit and maximise your attention on being present rather than spending time deciding which lens/camera to use next. Makes good sense and it absolutely works!

But during COVID as the restrictions meant that opportunities to shoot became fewer and farther between ( I also realised just how important to my mental health shooting is) my mindset shifted towards one of ‘this might be the only shoot I have for X months, why not bring some more stuff’.

I’m not here to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing because this is all down to personal preference - for me (for now) I’m adopting the ‘more is more’ approach. Like any new practice I went overboard at first and brought too much stuff which did kind of get in my way but now I feel I’ve found a balance that works for me.

So let’s get down to business shall we? I’ve decided to split this into a two part series of blog posts about the same shoot (this is all about maximising right)? The shoot in question took place recently with a wonderful model Fae Rose someone I haven’t shot with before but absolutely will be working with again! Thank you Fae!

First up we’ve got some images from the ARAX CM using the stunning Carl Zeiss Jen Sonnar 180mm 2.8 lens.

Yikes this lens is so sharp!! Skin glows and backgrounds melt into a creamy dreamy blur. yum! I reckon this is the best portrait lens EVER made! It’s only downside is it’s size / weight - its a bit of a beast and it’s certainly not one for people who like to go unnoticed… people will think your toting a rocket launcher carrying this thing around! KABOOM!

A few words about the film stock too - I have a few rolls of Fuji Acros 100 on ice which I picked up very cheaply, WOW! I am only really now appreciating this film, its beautiful stuff… I’ll be searching out more and also checking out the new version too!

And now some 35mm shots from the Nikon F3 with the Nikkor 50mm 1.2 loaded with Rollei Retro 80S.

Yikes again!! Loving the results on 35mm film too - I only recently got the 50mm 1.2 and it is a stunner! I’ve shot Rollei Retro 80S before and again it does not disappoint - it has a very crisp, punchy contrasty look which is unique.

I am over the moon with how shots from both cameras came out - it’s given me two quite different look and feel with the different formats, social lengths and film stocks.

Ironically I decided not to swap lenses on either camera on this shoot (but I was glad to have the option to do so)

So what the heck was all that about then? Well, on one level I think it’s purely about 'what the hell is the point in owning all this stuff if you’re not shooting with it’ and on another level it’s about the final vision - offering different creative possibilities.

I am not advocating just taking LOADS of camera gear, throwing the kitchen sink at your concept and seeing what happens, I am however suggesting that if you put some thought into your shoots upfront you can select some kit that will help you realise your vision.

In part 2 of this series I’ll share two more sets of images from two different film stocks on this same shoot!

Going for Gold!! Kodak Gold 200 Review

A quick note before we begin: The majority of the text here was written back in August 2021 but the blog was languishing in the ‘draft’ folder since then and I’ve been so busy with other things that I am only now (December 2021) getting round to completing it!

There is no escaping the fact that film seems to be getting more expensive - price rises across the board from Fuji, Kodak and Ilford. This has prompted a bit of a rethink in terms of my ‘go to’ films. In fact it’s also driven me partially back into the arms of digital (the horror) but more of that another time…

I’ve spent a couple of years shooting almost nothing other than Portra 400 and I love how consistently awesome it is especially when it comes to shooting in low light. But recently I’ve refrained from shooting it in any other conditions - the price rises (and hey - more are on their way) mean Portra has become a specialty film stock for me, one which only gets used when I absolutely require that level of flexibility.

I’m a glass half full kinda guy so I’m viewing this as an opportunity to start looking at alternatives and as it turns out there are some amazing film stocks available at a lower price point which do brilliantly when you have lots of lovely light to play with! During what passed for summer here in the UK I took some of these films out for a spin!

In today’s blog we’ll be looking at Kodak Gold 200 which is a classic ‘consumer’ film that has been around in one form or another for a long time.If you bought 35mm Kodak film from the chemists in the 80’s/90’s there’s a fair chance it was this stuff that you bought! I’ve shot Kodak Gold a few times before - usually for street and travel stuff but I’d never used it on a portrait shoot until HERE. I was really pleased with how it turned out and keen to really get a feel for what it can do.

These photos were taken on a beautifully sun drenched late afternoon in the picturesque town of Saltaire with the wonderful Lauren who as well as channelling some retro 60s/70s vibes with her outfit also brought along her classic mini which she restored herself - when Lauren commits to a look, she goes all in!!

Kit wise as you can see in the inset picture I was using the Nikon F3 for 35mm duties - these shots were either on the 85mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.4 AIS lenses. I’ll share photos from the Pentax 67 in another blog at some point (in the next decade at this rate)!

I think the images can speak for themselves (but rest assured I’ll waffle on a bit about what I think too…)

Yikes!! Contrast: Check. Tones: Check. Grain: Yummy, check! Detail: erm… Check. Not much to complain about here, I shot these at box speed 200 as I wanted to see how it looked and I am very happy!! The grain structure is very much present and personally I LOVE it! If you’re one of those ‘I don’t like grain people’ then get the fuck out of here… no sorry! I’m joking! come back! :)

The classic film look really suits the style and look for this shoot - I feel like we’re shooting the cover of vogue circa 1971 or some marketing materials for British Leyland!! (I think these are good things)!

In this shot above we can see how the film (and the glass) handles backlit/direct sunlight which was just cresting the trees in the background - I really like playing around with positioning the light in my frame to affect contrast and tones, it gives a whole other look and is another part of why I love film - you can make your editing choices in the moment using the natural resources that you have to hand!

A huge thank you to Lauren for an amazing shoot! We couldn't have asked for better weather, a better location or a better film stock to suit this style.

In conclusion then - Kodak Gold 200 is fucking brilliant! If you have lots of golden sunlight then you can’t go wrong! I’m not sure how well it will push or handle under exposure but perhaps that’s a blog for another day!

Helios Dreams - Shooting Portraits with the Helios 40-2N

There really aren’t that many lenses left on my “flipping heck I really really really want to own that” list - I am fortunate to have owned / sold on some pretty amazing glass in my time! That being said there is one that I have finally managed to tick off the list - the Helios 40-2! I’ve had one in my sights for a few years now - just casually waiting for the opportunity to bag it at a price that made sense - and that time has arrived my friends! Behold the Helios 40-2N 85mm 1.5!

You will probably have heard about the Helios 44 series of lenses, they are small, cheap and plentiful - easy to obtain and every photographer should own (at least) one! I’ve written about these sovet era lenses previously HERE and HERE But the Helios 40-2? This is a different beast all together! It’s big, heavy, relatively rare and unless you get very lucky they can be quite expensive too.

The eagle eyed among you will note that it is mounted on to my Nikon F2 - that’s right, this ‘N’ in the name Helios 40-2N stands for Nikon - although strangely enough it won’t quite make infinity focus…. I haven’t seen any othe reviews mention this but it definitely doesn’t focus to infinity, nearly but not quite. The good news is that this first and foremost a portrait lens and in that role it’s not often you’ll want infinity focus, but even still. Anyway with that minor gripe out of the way let’s dive into some lens geekery shall we?

I could quite easily write a whole blog post about the history of post world war two lens design and manufacture in the USSR and fellow eastern bloc/satellite country the DDR (but I won’t)!

Suffice it to say that this lens is based on a 1930’s German Carl Zeiss design and then WWII happened and long story short it didn’t end well for Germany in lots of ways, one of which was having large swathes of their industrial and technological knowledge taken as reparations - optics and lens design being one these technologies. And so not long after that the Soviets started churning out lenses that were strangely similar to those 1930’s German designs…. any who…enough with the history lesson because while there is certainly a long heritage to this lens’ design, my version is actually my most modern lens (by quite some margin) using the serial number to date it this Zenit Helios 40-2N was built in 2016! Yep that’s right - they still make them in Russia to this very day! This late version has a redesigned housing (and IMHO a more user friendly lay out) than the older versions - its also cheaper to buy than the classic versions.

Some folks like to shoot the older style perhaps because this has an aesthetic appeal or it complements their other camera gear, but me I’m a shooter first and foremost and I love this more modern looking lens, not just that but the handling is very good, the focus ring is smooth as silk - some of those older versions are more than 50 years old so it’s a bit of pot luck whether you’ll have a nice smooth focussing action after all that time!

The Helios 40-2 is well known for creating wonderfully swirly bokeh and heck yeah - it certainly does do that well, but it’s more than a one trick pony, I think there are several stand out features which make this lens a must for your camera bag.

I took it for a spin on a portrait shoot with the lovely Danni and the Nikon F2 - I shot two rolls of 35mm film that these first images are from a roll of expired Konica Pro 160 which I have to say I like VERY much, it being expired at least 10 years ago I gave it an extra bit of light and rated it as 100. In an unusual move for me I tried my best to shoot all of these wide open at 1.5 or very occasionally stopped down to f2 - reasons for this are that those wider apertures play to the dreamy charachteristics of this lens and I wanted to make the most of them.

The image above was the very last frame on the roll and it’s probably my favourite of the whole shoot! Shooting wide open - especially with a manual focus camera like the F2 presents a challenge and even though the depth of field isn’t quite even across both of Danni’s eyes - I actually don’t care! I am coming more and more to the idea that critical sharpness is not that important when it comes to overall image quality, and yet some folks obsess over it! I’m much more into the overall look and feel of an image, what kind of textures are at play - you can see that the Helios 40-2 is capable of critical sharpness but as with many great portrait lenses it isn’t so sharp as to be unflattering. Things dissolve into a lovely dreamy mush out towards the edge of the frame - again this is perfect for framing your subject in the centre and giving them a little more POP!

The trees lined up in the distance caught my eye for this composition and I really love how this shot came out - the out of focus areas have a painterly feel, plants in the bottom right corner doing that melty/dreamy thing again and there’s a bit of refined swirl going on in the background. I’ve read that you need to have the correct distance between you, your subject and the background to really make the swirls appear - I’ll definitely be trying it out again next time!

Again more melty/dreamy bokeh and a hint of the swirly stuff in the background - there’s some motion blur and a bit of glow around Danni framed in the centre which is another nice effect of this lens, some people might say that these features of the lens are weaknesses but to me this is all part of the point. The Helios 40-2 is like an art lens - sure when you photograph test charts wide open it’s not the best performer but where’s the fun in that? I love how the lens resolves light!

Now let’s take a look at some of my faves from the 2nd roll, this was Kodak Gold 200 - technically expired but it’s been on ice since fresh - I shot these at 100 too as I find Kodak Gold really does respond well to a bit of over exposure.

Dreamy dreamy dreamy dreamy…. love it!! I would have loved to have nailed critical focus on Danni’s eyes for the shot above but that’s the joy of film over digital innit! No instant replay - you just gotta do your best to nail it right there and then! I still really like this shot - you can get pretty close up with the Helios!

These two shots are among my faves too - I love the tones and the grain, that melty/dreamy background is doing it’s thing again and on these two occasions I even managed good focus on Danni’s eyes - whatever next?!

I like the overall look and feel of the shot below although I’d have liked (and was aiming for) good focus but it wasn’t to be….I’m including it here to demonstrate a couple of things, first: look at those bokeh balls of light in the background! Yum! Secondly: This was shooting pretty much directly into the light - the lens handled it with aplomb! Another reason in my view to go for the more modern lens as it has modern coating

Is this lens technically perfect? No. Is it the sharper than a really sharp thing? No. Do I love it anyway? YES! One of the many things I love about shooting film is that so many of your creative decisions are made up front - choice of film, lens and then of course exposure, composition and use of light, you have to commit to that moment and work with what you have at hand. Digital invites you to spend more time after the fact bringing your creative vision to life - and sitting at a the computer moving sliders around in lightroom just isn’t my idea of fun! I’ve said this before many times in these blog posts but it bares repeating as this lens really does illustrate the point - the Helios 40-2 is a creative tool, it can add a dash of dreamy, swirly, melty goodness to your shoot and that my friends is worth the price of entry!

Can you dig it? Shooting Rollei Retro 80S with an Orange Filter

A few weeks ago I scheduled in some much needed time to get out and about with my camera and shoot some film - the existence of this blog may give you the false impression that is literally all I do - gadding about awash with film and film cameras - don’t believe the hype my friends!!

In fact of late I’ve been finding it very difficult to make time to get out and shoot - I am very pleased therefore to present these images as proof that I recently carved an hour out of my busy schedule to do just that. These images represent a much needed reminder to myself to make space for creativity for the pure sake of it, to stretch my legs - literally and metaphorically.

This little micro adventure on film (it literally lasted about an hour) was a stroll through Magwoods just outside Huddersfield - a beautiful stretch of woodland along the edge of a valley, I had no particular goal in mind except that it was a sunny day and having spent far too long staring at a computer screen I grabbed my Nikon F2 and the Nikkor 24mm 2.8 lens, an orange filter and a roll of Rollei Retro 80S film and set off on my expedition!

Rolle Retro 80S is a film I have shot quite a bit over the last few years I’ve travelled with it HERE and shot Portraits with it HERE and I’ve always been really pleased with the results - it’s a super contrasty film which absolutely sings in good sunlight - I was very interested to see what effect an orange filter would have and I was not dissapointed!! Using an orange filter with black and white film gives you even more contrast, the blue sky shows as more dark and contrasty and if there are clouds present it will make for a bolder and more dramatic sky - the image above is a good example!

As well boosting contrast and making the sky look AWESOME an orange filter when combined with a film like Rollei Retro 80S will also give a look verging on the infrared - with lots of bright whites and deep dark black tones, I love it! Rollei Retro 80S is such a finely detailed film in the first place and the orange filter has just dialled everything up to 11 (how much more black can the shadows get? None. None more black) ;)

Gone are the days when in my working life I would travel up and down the land, thus having plenty of opportnities to shoot some street/travel/casual day to day shots - in fact aside from portrait shoots I can’t remember the last time I went out and just shot a roll of film for fun! It was great to just be present and focus on my surroundings - allowing my eye to be drawn where it may - as it turned out I was particularly drawn to the texture and details of the trees (well I was in a wood so it’s not too surprising) I love the punchy contrast in these images which works great with the textures of the wood.

After strolling through magwoods and along the valley I remembered that there’s a derelict mill along the route (to be fair - in this neck of the woods you are never too far away from a derelict mill) but I had completely forgotten about the derelict digger that rests near by (or maybe it just wasn’t there when I last came this way a few years back) either way my attention was completely taken with this mechanical monster.

I have a thing for abandoned things. Is it just me or do you feel it to? The ineffable pathos of ruin…The machine stops….amidst a tangled mass of weeds, slowly being engulfed by the twisting tentacles of branches…. great innit?!

I proceeded to cover the scene like some CSI photographer covering all the angles, looking for clues to this long forgotten crime!

I’m trying (and failing) to come up with a snappy metaphor or analagy or something to end on - I was hoping I could think of something smart and (moderately) funny to link the difficulties I’ve been facing in making time to get out and shoot and discovering this burned out digger - so instead I’ll just say this: making time to do creative stuff just for the heck of it gives me great joy…it doesn’t matter one bit whether the resulting images are any good (although to be fair I really like these shots) the satisfaction comes from spending a short bit of time not distracted by this or that, not thinking about the past or what is to come but just being present, keyed in to my surroundings, focussing (literally) on the details, being open to whatever is around the corner and making the most of whatever I find there (especially if it is a burned out digger) hang on a minute - was that a metaphor, similie or analogy??? I need to check google and find out! Until next time friends - stay safe out there! :)

Film Photography Workshops - Start your Adventure on Film!

I am delighted to announce the launch of my in person film photography workshops! Whether you’re a newcomer to the world of film photography or an experienced shooter looking for a new creative challenge - my film photography workshops are built around your specific requirements.

I can tailor a workshop to suit your requirements, examples of topics covered include:

• The fundamental principles of photography

• Metering and working with light

• Create stunning portraits using natural and artificial light

• Choosing the right film for the right occasion

• Developing and scanning your negatives

• Printing your negatives in the darkroom

Sign up to recieve updates about my in person and online workshops and get access to your free ‘Adventures on Film’ guide to film photography which is packed with my top tips for shooting with film and making every frame count!

Lomography Lomochrome Purple Review

Hello friends!! It’s been a little while since I did an out and out film review but fear not!! Today I shall make amends for this by giving the first of THREE (that’s right THREE) film reviews - gosh aren’t you lucky (don’t answer that)! These were all brand new films to me that I hadn’t used before each with their own unique look, so while they may have been shot on the same shoot they definitely have their own story to tell. First up we’ll begin with some purple otherwordly strangeness in the form of Lomography Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400 (my goodness what a mouthful)!!

I’ve had a couple of rolls on ice for some time and so with Lockdown restrictions easing here in the UK making photoshoots ‘a thing’ again I defrosted one roll and loaded it up into my Nikon L35AF point and shoot which accompanied me on a shoot with the very talented Monika - check her out on IG for more evidence of her awesomeness!!

As you can see Lomochrome Purple does exactly what it says on the tin - Blue becomes green, green becomes purple, yellow becomes pink! It’s an effect that is possibly as near to shooting old school aerochrome colour infrared that us mere mortals will get these days (proper colour IR film is STUPID expensive) what I love about the film is it can introduce an entirely new angle on a shoot - alongside the Lomochrome I shot some ‘normal colour’ film stocks but it was great to have this additional creative film along for the ride.

According to the box this film can be shot anywhere between 100 and 400, but looking around online I think it’s best to stick to the 100 side of things as this will give you the most pronounced purple colour shifts, of course your mileage may vary but this film isn’t cheap and I very definitely erred on the side of caution with my metering!

These were taken on a very bright sunlit day - in fact I had a reflector with me that I didn’t use and I wish that I had for one or two of these a: to balance the hard shadows and b: to give the film some extra light to work with - as you can see this film does not record shadow detail very well and the drop off is quite pronounced, that being said but I do kind of like the effect in the background elements as it gives you quite a punchy, contrasty look but I thinkI’d have liked to have kept some more detail around Monika as my subject!

The grain structure is visible and I quite like it. The film resolves quite a lot of detail especially in the highlights and where it does fall off the grain has a gritty feel - this is most definitely not a smooth film so be prepared to embrace the grain! What I did notice in the film scans and I confirmed this with Exposure Film Lab who developed the film for me was quite a few thin lines across the image possibly from dye running off through the development, it was easy to remove in lightroom but certainly expect to do a bit of post processing removing weird artefacts in Photoshop or Lightroom (I felt like a digital shooter for a minute)! UURGH!

I picked the above image out as it shows a few things worth taking note of:

1: This was probably the most extreme example of the lines that were apparent on more than a few frames

2: My sadness at the big bloody STUPID line spoiling the shot was lessened because clearly the little Nikon L35AF wasn’t feeling the strong backlighting here (even though it has a little lever to compensate for back lighting) clearly there are limits to what you can expect - and in this situation you can expect to see a big increase in grain and lack of contrast

3: Which moves onto point number three - The lomo purple clearly didn’t enjoy this lighting either - you can see the purple shifting to a more muddy, muted, brownish colour, and the grain structure kind of falls apart a bit too and loses contrast - meh!

I tried my best to make the most of the greenery around, at the time of the shoot most of the trees were still bare but there was enough evergreen ivy around for us to work with and Monika did a great job of diving into the spiky Ivy branches! Skin tones were very much on the pinky/red side of things despite Lomographys assertions that this film keeps skin tones looking natural but to be honest my advice is to just embrace the colour shifts and go with it, I really love how these shots came out - Lomochrom Purple is a great way to add an instant creative edge to a shoot and works well when shot alongside some more traditional colour/black and white stocks.

So in conclusion then what can we say about Lomography Lomochrome XR 100-400 (aside from the ridic long name) well my completely subjective and unscientific analysis is: I absolutely love it! (‘What a fucking surprise’ I hear you cry)!! Fair comment - I am yet to meet a film stock that I didn’t fall in love with one way or the other…. although with this one I was especially uncertain with it being such an unusual film to begin with and then first time shooting it.

One of the things that I enjoy about film photography is that many of your creative choices are made up front when it comes to choosing films stocks etc Lomo Purple gives you a really ‘out there’ trippy vibe right off the bat. It’s not a cheap film and based on my experience it really does need good lighting so while I have another roll on ice, I’ll be waiting for the right opporutnity to bring it out. I have to say that it was great shooting the little Nikon L35AF loaded up with this bonkers film - a great little camera that will have a blog of its own one day I promise!!

Would i use Lomo Purple as a stand alone film stock for a portrait shoot? No… I feel it’s more of a creative addition to your colour pallete rather than the main focus or at least that’s how I used it, which brings us nicely to a reminder to watch this space for parts 2 and 3 of this film review trilogy - I’ll be bringin you another Lomo film this time a more traditional stock Lomography colour 100 in medium format! I bet you can’t wait…. but you’ll have to, I haven’t written the damn thing yet…

New Topographics - finding the extraordinary in the every day world

I don’t know about you but I’m definitely feeling the burn with Lockdown 3! Hope you’re all doing ok out there! One thing I’ve been doing with my time (time?what’s time?) Ok on the rare occasions that I have time… I’m checking off some of those “I really must take some photos of that one day” places that I have listed in my brain. Do you do this too? These are places which you might pass once or twice or maybe it’s somewhere you visit everyday and something about it speaks to you…. well on more than one occasion I have been caught out when these places have been demolished/rebuilt or otherwise spoiled (photographically speaking) and one such place which has been on my ‘to shoot’ list was this old gas works just outside Huddersfield Town centre - oh the glamour!!

I recall seeing quite a few of these things knocking around in my youth - but not so much these days, and this one certainly has the air of a place that if it’s not too careful could end up on the literal scrap heap of history! It’s certainly an enjoyable architectural/structural subject which inspired me to shoot it in a ‘new topographic’ style - finding the beauty in the banal and the extra-ordinary in the ordinary!

I was keen to take my ARAX CM out for a spin, in part because I just love shooting with the thing, also I thought that 6X6 square format would suit this subject and I wanted to undertake a very technical test…. I’ve been experiencing some annoying light leaks with this camera, most likely source is where the interchangeable film back joins the body, so to be doubly sure I used some black electrical tape around the join to make sure - and voila! No light leaks! I’ve ordered some replacement seals and time permitting (ha) I might write a ‘how to’ on the repair job (assuming I don’t knacker it further in the process of course)!

I shot 1 roll of Ilford HP5 rated at 1000 ISO - it was an overcast day with even and plentiful available light, perfect conditions really! So why did I want to push the film to 1000?? I hear you cry! Well two reasons, firstly that extra speed allows me to stop the lens down whilst still maintaining a reasonable shutter speed, this allowed me to get more of the structure in focus which I think suits this subject better (I know that the ‘I only shoot wide open’ brigade will recoil in horror at this idea but hey - fuck them)!

I don’t think a blurry background would suit this subject and in some of these frames I want the backdrop to form a part of the composition too. Secondly - HP5 just sings when it’s pushed! It’s such a flexible film stock I very rarely shoot it at 400 it’s usually around 1000 or 1600 I find it works best for me.

And just look at the details! Beautiful!! That pealing paint work in the foreground, the decaying dome in the middle distance and the framework forming the background - I love these shots!

Composition wise I just keep things fairly simple really - my main challenge is that the structure itself is surrounded by a modern metal fence so to shoot these I had to stick the camera through gaps in the fence!

I really enjoy shooting square format especially for subjects like this it prompts you to work the angles for an interesting composition, similarly using the 80mm Biometar lens (equivalent to a standard 50mm) was another compositional prompt to isolate elements of the scene - I was tempted to bring a wide angle lens with me too but on reflection I’m glad I didn’t - less is definitely more! (Says the man who owns too many cameras)

I’m very happy with how these have turned out - I’d like to try printing some of these in the darkroom (yes I am planning my very own darkroom - watch this space)!

So there we are, finding the beauty in the everyday! I hope that this structure remains a part of the skyline in this part of town for a long time to come but whatever happens in the future I’ve ticked this one off my ‘must shoot it one day’ list!

Holga Portraits

Hello there! How are we all holding up out there? Lockdown 3.0 here in the UK has definitely been a challenge - one of the things I miss most is being able to shoot portraits. Of course we have to stay safe and follow the rules until this pandemic is under control but I’m really looking forward to the day when we can re-connect and get shooting again!!

I am so glad that I managed to get a shoot organised with Danni in between Lockdowns - for this one I wanted to take my Holga out for a spin! I love using the Holga for it’s quirky otherworldly randomness but I’ve never used it for portraiture and I was very excited to try it out.

Given the tendency for the Holga to produce unexpected results (which is one of its major strengths and/or weakness) I wanted to hedge my bets so I brought along a trusty Spotmatic loaded with a roll of Portra 400 and sporting a Helios 44M lens too (I’ll do a seperate write up on those images) because I needn’t have worried! I flipping well love the results!

It is worth saying at this stage hats off to the beautiful Danni - not only is she an amazing model who is wonderful to work with but she is quite happy to trudge through loads of mud on a bitterly cold winters day in a sparkly dress! :)

The Holga has a very primitive focussing system so to help achieve something anywhere near critical focus I used a tape measure and measured out approximately 3ft for shots that were a closest focussing - this is all pretty much guesswork anyway since the viewfinder is not coupled to the lens so the less hung up about critical focus the better, but then that’s the joy of shooting Holga’s right?!

I had a bit of a senior moment after the shoot when I thought that I may have nocked one of the very few controls on the Holga - the buttong which switches between ‘bulb’ and ‘normal’ shooting - so to take account of the potential variations in shutterspeed from standard issue Holga style ‘who knows what’ to literally it could be anything ‘who knows what’ I semi stand developed the film in Kodak HC110 for 1 hour in 1:100 dilution with a little shimmy shake at 30 mins.

Judging by the results it looks like I didn’t actually nock the bulb button but anyway I love the results - the semi stand process gave me some extra punchy images :)

Using the tape measure to get in the ball park with focussing I think is a must at least until you get your eye in and given that you only get 12 shots per roll and it’s a bit of a faff to unload/load the holga on location (mainly cos of all the black electrical tape holding it together) i would err on the side of caution. This shoot definitely made me want to rush out and buy ANOTHER Holga just so I could burn a couple of rolls without the hassle of reloading but myabe that’s just G.A.S talking!

Really love these images they just have a certain ‘something’ don’t they? The Holga is an exercise in limitation and simplicity - unencumbered by dials, menus and controls it’s just you, a roll of film, a plastic lens and your imagination. Perfect!

Creating colourful dramatic portraits with LED lights on film

I’ve been experimenting with LED lighting and coloured gels in my portraiture, in particular I’ve been exploring new creative themes taking inspiration from some of my fave Sci fi movies as a way of experimenting with lighting to evoke the mood of the original films and it’s also been wonderful to play around with characters, settings and stories.

I was fortunate to collaborate once again with Charlie and Jony to create two really distinctive looks. Firstly Charlie channelling her inner ‘Ripley from Aliens’ and Jony doing an amazing job with a ‘Deckard off of Bladerunner’ look. We finished the shoot with Charlie joining Jony in a Dark Future Dystopia by reprising her role as ‘bad ass Terminator Cyborg’ from our previous shoot HERE.

Once again this was an all Kodak Portra 400 affair, I rated the film at 800 and had the lovely folks at Exposure Film Lab push development two stops. Camera gear used:

• Nikon F3 / 85mm 1.4 / 50mm 1.4

• Pentax 67 / 105mm 2.5

We shot both of these looks in their cellar using a simple lighting set up involving one LED panel light and two small LED pads with some coloured cellophane for ‘gels’. Jony provided extra atmosphere by streaming the background music to Aliens during the Ripley shoot too!! ACE!

For inspiration I rewatched Aliens which is one of my favourite films paying particular attention to the lighting and colour pallete used in the film - I picked out blue/green and yellow as the main colours and then tried to replicate that multi million dollar budget movie with a few cheap LED lights and 99p worth of coloured Cellophane! You know what? I absolutley love the results!!

I searched out a suitably sci-fi looking rifle for ‘Ripley’ and Charlie did an absolutely stellar job creating the look with an awesome outfit, hair and make up - she really is one of the most creative souls I have had the pleasure to work with, she’s amazing! :)

Interestingly (well i think it’s interesting and it’s my blog, so get lost) for the Ripley images the 35mm frames look the best, they have a grainy/grittyness which is very appealing and truth be told I missed focus quite a bit on the Pentax 67 shots for Ripley and even those shots which I didn’t just don’t have the same feel as these 35mm shots.

Now we move on to a look inspired by Deckard from Bladerunner another of my all time fave movies!! For inspiration I watched both the original film and the recent 2049 movie and actually took my lighting inspiration from both films - I decided I wanted to combine the darker/noir feel of the original movie with some of the colour palette of the later film.

Jony did an awesome job not only with his outfit but also bringing that noir detective/bladerunner vibe - very very cool! I was so happy with how the lighting worked out giving a very dramatic effect.

Interestingly (yes! it IS interesting - now shush) the Pentax 67 shots look best on this look (if I do say so myself) I was shooting this handheld at 1/30 and wide open at 2.5 so Depth of Field is razor thin and there is a little bit of camera shake creeping in on one or two frames but I care not! Love these shots! Huge thank you to Jony for absolutely nailing the look here!

Props wise I bought a custom nerf gun and also some ‘neon bullets’ which are actual (empty) bullet casings but with a blue LED light inside! There really are some randomly specific/amazing things available in the internet aren’t there?! I think they look great on the shot - definitely add to the sci fi vibes.

In fact the whole Dark Future look is created by the lighting on this one as without the LED lights or the neon bullets then Jony’s look could be from any time period - this is one of the things I love about experimenting with coloured lighting, it really is transformative!

As if that wasn’t enough creativity for one shoot using the exact same location we then stepped it up a gear and brought Charlie and Jony together for a few final images. On these I really wanted to push the lighting to see what was achievable - and wow!! We created a set of promo images for an imaginary Sci-fi Cop show!

With Red light as the main lighting and blue just in the background and picking out little details and reflections - the high grain just adds to the lo-fi/low key appeal! An awesome end to an awesome shoot! It was a real pleasure to work with Charlie and Jony again, such lovely creative folk to work with :)

As for the lighting, I am really enjoying exploring the creative possibilites which coloured lighting brings to my photography. LED lights are a game changer for the film shooter because what you see is pretty much what you get which allows you to control and adjust your lighting by eye. I continue to be amazed at the flexibility of Kodak Portra 400 it really is wonderful stuff! I would urge anyone reading this to introduce some dramatic colour lighting into your film photography and push your creativity to the limits! It is such an enjoyable experience!

From the USSR with Love: Portrait shoot with Soviet lenses on 35mm film

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the process of preparing for a photo shoot almost as much as the shoot itself! The anticipation of all those endless creative possibilities to come, the excitement tinged with a nervousness that naturally accompanies these thoughts: Will everything work? Am I up to the task? Will it piss it down with rain like it has done all day today....

Film photography invites you to make creative decisions up front (not all of course as development, processing and printing are large factors too) but your choice of film, camera and lens are important considerations. Perhaps more so on film than digital as each film has different characteristics and vintage lenses have their own unique qualities that they bring to the table.

My main 35mm set up is an all Nikon affair but I also have a thing for Soviet lenses, there is just something about them that I am drawn to which allows for some interesting creative possibilities (or maybe it’s because they’re cheap)! While I love Soviet glass I’ve found that Soviet cameras on the other hand can leave a lot to be desired - in my experience they aren’t that reliable and since (annoyingly) M42 lenses won’t easily adapt to Nikon mount cameras I have added a couple of Pentax Spotmatic bodies to my collection which I use for my M42 shenanigans, I’m not going to go into a big review of the Spotmatic F because I’ve already done that HERE suffice it to say that it is a very very fine camera indeed and an absolute joy to shoot with.

So let’s talk lenses then, we’ll start with the Helios 44-2 which you can see at the top left of the image below - it is renowned for it’s ability to do swirly bokeh. But this is no one trick pony and it’s certainly not a novelty or toy lens. It is absolutely sharp (the caveat being that sharpness as a concept is MASSIVELY over stated) it has lovely contrast, tone and detail too and the bokeh is wonderfully smooth as well having some good swirly patterning. The best part? Mine cost me £10! I bought it attached to a broken Zenit camera for £25 - kept the lens and sold the zenit body for £15 :)

There are loads of versions of the Helios 44, I’ve had several later versions all of which had really stiff focussing rings, I tried out this earlier 44-2 version and it’s my fav so far. The build quality is very good, focus is smooth and it has a preset aperture control so you choose which aperture you want using a ring on the front of edge of the lens, you can then adjust the aperture manually so you focus while it’s wide open and then stop it down to shoot (it takes longer to explain than it does to actually do it) this works well for me as I have a Spotmatic F which won’t mount non Pentax lenses with auto aperture pins (note to anyone reading this wanting to use a spotmatic for Soviet glass - if you have a Spotmatic F then stick with preset lenses or if you’re looking to buy just get an older Spotmatic).

The Lens attached to the Spotmatic in the image above is the lovely Jupiter 9, it’s an 85mm f2 lens - this focal length is one of my faves to shoot, especially portraiture. Slightly more rare than the Helios (but that’s only because they made literally a kabillion Helios lenese) the Jupiter 9 is a very very lovely bit of glass indeed - build quality is excellent, focussing is lovely and smooth. I bought mine via evilbay from a seller in Russia for £70. There were several versions of this lens, this is the single coated version dating from the mid 80’s i think - later multicoated ones seem to be at a premium far above any real world advantage you might expect. One of the most impressive things about the Jupiter 9 is it’s size- it’s almost the same size as the Helios!! It looks like a 50mm prime lens which is amazing! It makes for a very compact and portable portrait combination.

A few words about the shoot itself and then I’ll let the images do the rest of the talking: I chose ilford HP5 for this shoot because it was kind of overcast and we were shooting under tree cover so I wanted something flexible enough to handle any situation, I shot it at 800 and I love the results! HP5 absolutely sings when it’s pushed and I think these have a lovely tone and feel to them. A huge thank you to model Danni AKA Pandora Belle - she absolutely nailed it on this shoot, Danni is a very talented model and it was really great to work her on this shoot.

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Jupiter 9

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Helios 44-2

Once again my thanks to Danni for being such an amazing model and also to Exposure Film Lab who develop and scan all my portfolio work - they’re the best!

To say that I am over the moon with the results would be an understatement! First run out with the Helios 44-2 and the Jupiter 9 and I am so happy with how the images came out - in fact I think they make a good pairing, they have similar characteristics. The Helios has a little more swirl in the Bokeh where as the Jupiter 9 is buttery smooth but they both have excellent sharpness, contrast and detail but then you already know that as you’ve just seen the images right?! I’ll certainly be using this set up again in the near future and putting and I’ve really enjoyed shooting black and white portraits for a change, i use colour a lot in my portraiture so I wanted to mix it up a little, for me casual/day to day and personal work I’ve found Ilford HP5 to be such a versatile film, but I’ve never shot portaits with it - I love the results!

Dark Future: A shoot on Kodak Portra at 1600

It’s almost November 2019 and that can mean only one thing: we are now living at the time that the original blade runner movie was set!! While there’s certainly no denying that at times it can feel like we’re already living in a dystopian Dark Future, as with all things the reality is often less stylistically pleasing than our celluloid fantasies would suggest – to rectify this, my latest shoot was a Dark Future/Neon Noir/Blade Runner inspired look with the very awesome Charlie Hex 

This shoot presented me with a number of new creative challenges – first and foremost amongst these was lighting. Having scouted out a suitable location (and a huge shout out at this point goes to The Arcade Club in Leeds for hosting us) I also wanted to have some control over the lighting too, but given that we were shooting in a public space and the fact that I also have two cameras to lug around I needed something fairly compact – enter the LED light pad! I then used a couple of sheets of cellophane to create my own lighting gels and voila! 

Ignore the F90X in this pic - I changed my mind at the last minute and went for the F2 instead :)

In the run up to this shoot I rewatched the original Bladerunner movie which has been a firm favourite of mine for as long as I can remember, I also re-watched the sequel Bladerunner 2049 (a film which I went to the cinema to watch when it came out and honestly thought it was a bit rubbish) what was interesting was to re-watch both movies but specifically to pay attention to the lighting and how it is used to enhance the narrative of the story – as it turned out I actually really enjoyed 2049 the second time around and one thing I took from the film as a major inspiration was the amazing colour palettes – in particular the strong use of orange lighting, obviously the creative lighting budget for both of these films far exceeds any resources I was able to throw at this project (my orange lighting gel is just two pieces of cellophane, one yellow and one red laid over each other) but as you can see here with a little thought and a cheap LED light, creative possibilities abound!

 A Dark Future inspired look has been on my wish list for a long time and I was delighted when Charlie got in touch after a casting I posted on FB. The images speak for themselves of course but it’s still worth stating that Charlie absolutely smashed it on this shoot!! I shared a few mood boards with Charlie and she came back with the makeup and outfit looks you can see in these images, this combined with her being super confident in front of camera really helped to realise the vision, a proper creative collaboration! Big thanks too to Charlie’s boyfriend Jony who did a sterling job as human light stand by holding the LED light for me :)

 During the shoot itself we were in the midst of a very busy Arcade location, mixed and changing lighting and I didn’t have chance to visit the space ahead of the shoot (something I had planned on doing) armed with my trusty light meter, Pentax 67 and Nikon F2 I felt confident I could handle things but as always with film you don’t know until you get the films developed how things really turned out.

Looks like my P67 still has a bit of an issue with the frame spacing with this accidental double exposure - fortunately in this case, I flipping love it!

 I was also using a brand new (to me) lens the amazing Nikkor H C 85mm 1.8 and wow has this lens blown me away!! It’s perfect for lowlight shooting – most of these images were shot around f2 or f2.8 and for the Pentax 67 I was mostly wide open at f2.4

The Nikon F2 and the amazing Nikkor H C 85mm 1.8

As it’s turned out I think most of my fave shots are with the F2 and the 85mm lens, given the low light and relatively slow shutter speeds (all around 1/60) I am very pleased with how they came out.

Now let’s talk about film stocks -  I used Kodak Portra 400 for both 35mm and 120 formats and again, wow! I am blown away at how awesome it looks! I rated the film at 1600 and asked the lovely people at Exposure Film Lab who do all my colour developing to develop the film at 1600 (push it two stops) the results speak for themselves – colour balance is spot on and to my eye they just look RIGHT!

This is the beginning of a wider Dark Future project I’ll be exploring on future shoots mainly cos I’m a Sci Fi geek and have always loved that Neon Noir vibe ranging from Bladerunner to Akira and beyond - I Can’t wait to add some more retro futurist looks to my portfolio and to explore some more creative lighting techniques!

High Fashion in the High Peaks - Portrait Shoot with Chanel Joan Elkayam

Welcome to the latest in my series of creative collaborations which have the express purpose of helping me to grow my photography portfolio as well as grow connections, grow confidence and grow creatively - basically it’s all about growth!

On my travels through this universe I have had the pleasure of meeting some really cool, talented and interesting people - on very special occasions I sometimes have the opportunity to work with them and for that I am supremely grateful! My latest (and perhaps greatest) collaboration so far has been with the very wonderfully talented Chanel Joan Elkayam!

The background to this shoot is that I met Chanel a few years ago when I was 2nd shooting for my friend Ruth, ever since then it has been wonderful to see how Chanel has grown into her amazing success as an Industry recognised Fashion Designer, Chanel is the youngest person to have showcased at all 4 of the major fashion shows London, Paris, New York and Milan and she achieved all of this by the age of 18 - basically she’s the real deal! As you can tell I am full of admiration for Chanel’s achievements and I can’t wait to see where her journey takes her next! you can see more of her work HERE.

For this shoot we wanted to showcase some of Chanel’s fashion designs in a natural setting, we chose Dovestones as our location in part because it’s really local for us both and also because it’s amazingly beautiful too! The weather even behaved itself and gave us lots of lovely sunlight to play with too.

I relied on my now favourite combination of the Pentax 67 as primary camera and Nikon F2 as a second body - this set up gives me tip top quality lenses in both medium format and 35mm and I just really like working with them both. Filmwise it was again an all Kodak affair with Portra 400 loaded in the P67 and a couple of rolls of Portra 800 and a cheeky roll of Kodak Pro image 100 for the F2.

It was so much fun working with Chanel on this shoot, and also a huge thank you to Chanel’s mum too who joined us - it was really lovely to meet her and a big thank you for taking the behind the scenes photos you can see at the start of this blog too! :)

We managed to shoot 4 different looks over the course of a few hours on a sunny afternoon at Dovestones, I really feel like these are some of my best images to date and of course a major part of this is down to Chanel and her amazing designs as well as her talent in front of the lens too, Chanel was lots of fun to work with and made my job easy!

Enough talk!! Here’s some of my fave shots…

So there we go! We got so many great shots together!! I really enjoyed this shoot and loved working with Chanel and her amazing designs. On the technical side of things once again Portra 400 has proven itself to be utterly dependable in mixed lighting situations and every time it renders beautiful tones, contrast and colours - for this shoot I rated it all at 400. Also once again Kodak Pro Image is proving to be another wonderful addition to the line up and some of my fave 35mm shots were from this film :)

The Pentax 67 continues to astound me with the image quality it’s capable of and it’s just so flipping enjoyable to shoot with - here’s to many more creative collaborations to come!

Kodak Pro image 100 & Portra 160 review - Portrait shoot out

Now that I have FINALLY settled on some camera kit that I’ll be keeping around for the long term I can focus my energies on exploring different film stocks - not that I wasn’t doing that anyway but I was finding flitting from one camera to the next a bit of a distraction, for the record the cameras which have won my heart are the Nikon F2 and Pentax 67 - today’s blog features a portrait shoot on the F2 shooting with a shiny new portrait lens and using two different film stocks Kodak Pro Image 100 (a new film to me) and Kodak Portra 160 (a film I have used a few times before)

Whilst the main focus of the conversation will be on looking at the two film stocks first up I’ll take a moment to show you the kit I used on this shoot, I’ll then take you through the shoot itself.

I have just bought the very wonderful Nikkor 105mm 2.5 a lens which has a HUGE reputation as an amazing portrait lens, when i bought it the focus ring was quite stiff so I sent it off for repair to a chap called Miles Whitehead who did a great job of fixing it and it now has silky smooth focus action - I would highly recomment Miles if you have some camera kit in need of some TLC check his site out HERE. In fact as I write this I am reminded that Miles also serviced my F2 when I bought it so double thanks!! :)

I was originally going to include a few thoughts on the 105mm lens in todays blog but I loved using it so much that I think I’ll reserve that for a dedicated blog all of it’s own - suffice it to say that it’s reputation is very well earned, an amazing piece of glass!

Ideal for portrait, weddings and social events dontcha know…..

I think most people will be familiar with Kodak Portra 160 which is a mainstay of Kodak’s professional line up, but what’s this Pro Image 100 all about? I’ve been shooting a lot of Portra 400 and 160 recently and whilst I love both film stocks I am always interested in trying new things and the results I’d seen from Pro Image appealed to me - the other great thing about Pro Image is the price! I got this for £25.95 for 5 rolls!

This film stock has only recently come to the UK/European market - despite being around since the mid 90’s, the stock was only sold in warmer climates, big thanks to the good folks at Nik & Trick for being instrumental in making the case to Kodak for getting this film available in Europe :)

Ok so I have a lovely film camera - check, a great portrait lens - check, a shiny new colour film - check, a beautiful location to shoot in….check! What’s next? I need someone to photograph! Fortunately I’m part of a great facebook group for photographers and models to network and arrange shoots - Danni is someone I met through this group and we’ve shot together before when i was testing out my Pentax 645, you can see those images HERE.

Also worth mentioning at this point that i had my films processed and scanned by the good folks at Exposure Film Lab who I must thank again for their brilliant work, I use them for all my colour films these days because I just love the results I get from them - check them out HERE

The vibe for this shoot was a really natural summer look to make the most of the bright sunshine, we had a beautiful location filled with light, flowers, tall grass and trees - let’s GO!

First up i loaded Kodak Pro Image 100…

Ok then at this stage in the proceedings the word at the forefront in my mind is wow! Danni is a very talented Model which makes my job much easier and the Pro Image film is just lovely :) Let’s move on to the Portra 160 which I loaded up next and we’ll do a bit of a comparsion at the end, here’s the Portra shots…

The entire shoot lasted about an hour (if that) we went for a stroll through some lovely scenery and together we created some properly beautiful portraits full of light and life! Danni is a great model she did a brilliant job on this shoot, she puts lots of character into her work and is just a natural in front of camera, this really shines through the images - we’ve worked together before which I think always helps so we’re relaxed and comfortable working together and meant we were able to just get right into it and enjoy the shoot. I’m over the moon with the photos we created together - thank you Danni :) Check out her portfolio HERE.

In summary then both film stocks are clearly capable of wonderfully sharp, textured images with great skin tones, colour balance, contrast and detail - I therefore love them both! They each have their own look so whilst they’re comparable I think there are some differences to take into consideration. This was never intended as a ‘one film versus the other’ contest in which we have a winner and a loser but rather an opportunity to look at how these two film stocks worked under the same conditions - to that end I simply invite you to make your own mind up which you like best - or maybe like me, you like them both?!

Here’s a few of my thoughts on each stock:

Pro Image 100 - it has a wonderful grain structure, punchy contrast and I love how it handles the greens and yellows, shadows perhaps not holding as much detail as portra, it has a classic film ‘look’

Portra 160 - minimal grain as you’d expect from portra, slightly muted colour palette although in these images it produced stronger contrast than I’d expected, Portra definitely holds on to more shadow detail and also perhaps slightly sharper.

What does all this show us then? Well they’re very close actually, much closer than I’d have thought! One aspect which does create an opportunity for comparison is the price with a five pack of Portra 160 retailing at around £35.99 and a five pack of Pro Image around £25.95 then clearly if budget is the deal breaker then Pro Image is your winner, if you absolutely must squeeze every bit of detail out of the shot then perhaps Portra is the one to choose - ultimately we’re all winners here as we in the UK now have access to the lovely Pro Image and I’ve got 4 more rolls sat waiting to go! I can’t wait to shoot it again.

Postcard from Berlin Pt1 - Travel Photography on Rollei Retro 80S

Recently I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Berlin! I was there working for my other job (yes that’s right I have yet to find a way to make waffling on about film photography pay for my lifestyle - yet….) I made some extra time to visit my super cool cousin in law(is cousin in law a thing)?? anyway we’re family and I was really excited to explore Berlin, I’ll just get this out of the way right now… the place is amazing!! I was struck by how laid back and chilled it was especially for a big Capital City - I mean yeah the place was buzzing but just a proper friendly vibe about it, I really loved my time spent there.

Having finished my work I hit the street armed with my trusty NIkon FE2, Nikkor 50mm f2 (a new lens) and some Rollei Retro 80S film - one of my faves film stocks and fitting to shoot the German capital on some German film :)

This isn’t really a camera review type blog but I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t spare a word or two about my kit for this expedition - so first up the camera body; the Nikon FE2. A wonderful camera, I wrote a blog about it’s older sibling the FE HERE a fine camera itself, but I have long since replaced it with the marvellous FE2. On the surface it looks like a fairly standard 1980’s era SLR but it has a trick up it’s sleeve which makes it a standout - a 1/4000 second top shutter speed :) it is very solidly built and although mine has a few scars gathered during the course of it’s life it works perfectly!

Attached to the camera you can see the Nikkor 50mm f2 - as you’ll see in the images that follow this lens is very capable!! I picked it up on ebay attached to a Nikkormat FT2 which cost me £40 - I sold the FT2 for £30 so this lens basically cost me £10!! This makes it a perfect travel lens as I’m not carrying around some big expensive piece of kit - but the key here is that there is no compromise on image quality, this thing is amazing!

The 50mm f2 is also very solidly built, the focus ring is lovely and smooth and even though the lens looks like it’s been booted down the road (and probably has a few times during it’s life) it can create beautifully rendered images with great contrast. It is also an enjoyable challenge to just take a simple 50mm lens with you - no more fretting about which focal length to use, no lugging about loads of lenses which you probably wont use anyway. I enjoy the creative possibilities that working within limitations brings and choosing one lens does this effectively, anyway - enough gear talk!! (for now)

Two key things to note - Firstly you can see some Adox Silvermax and Agfa APX films pictured here that i purchased whilst in Berlin but the images that follow were shot on Rollei Retro 80S which was loaded in the camera at the time of the ‘look at me and my camera, film and booze’ lifestyle type tomfoolery and Secondly, yes the beer was a very good accompaniment to the proceedings.

So, without further ado - willkommen in Berlin!!

The images are presented in roughly chronological order of when I shot them, first up is this interesting monument in ‘Invaliden Park’ and was just round the corner from my Hotel - I’m a fan of brutalist architecture so obviously this really ticked that box for me!

It was a bright, swelteringly hot day - cloudless blue sky, these sunny conditions worked well with the Rollei film which has a good deal of contrast and lovely tones.

There is LOADS of graffiti in Berlin, I mean LOOOOAAADS! and stickers too! everything is either covered in graffiti or stickers - I love it!!

Remember what I said about Graffiti? Well there’s loads of street art too! This piece really captured my attention - the building is an abandoned Art School which was either in the process of being knocked down or possibly renovated (or something in between) The building high mural makes the bold statement ‘How Long is Now’ (note no question mark) the blank face, the staring eyes - dark portals keeping watch over the machines at their work.

The City is alive with the sound of construction work - cranes, diggers, the whole shebang - there was a palpable sense of ‘growth’ about the place

The Berliner Dom sits right next to the River Spree, most of this side of the building was in shade but a patch of shimmering light reflected from the River illuminated the middle row of windows. And below the dome of the building - really love the contrast in these images, a combination of the light in the scene, the film and the lens all coming together!

From the lofty heights of the splendid Cathedral to the minute details of human life - these are ‘love locks’ left by couples seeking to declare their undying love to the universe by placing the lock and casting the keys into the nearest water course, hence there are often to be found on or near bridges.

Maybe it’s a natural impulse to give physical form to such an intangiable emotion, warding off future relationship woes by locking that loved up feeling in place, space and time… or maybe it’s just a daft tourist fad… whatever their intent, whoever and wherever they are now - I wish them well :)

Neptune sits atop the fountain - again wonderful tones and dynamic range with this film, shot in mid afternoon bright sunshine but the camera meter, the film and developer all working to produce an image which captures the detail in these carved statues, the water stains rendered in white adding a layer of depth to the carved features.

The Alexanderplatz TV tower dominates the skyline of the City - if someone asked me to design a TV tower, it would definitely look something like this! I have no idea what purpose the huge disco ball serves (in fact we have a huge TV tower near home which seems to function perfectly well without one) but if the choice is “do you want the huge massive disco ball or not” then the answer has to be yes! Good work people of Berlin!

Overhead Tram lines make for some interesting compositions…

Details at street level - Rollei Retor 80S is such a lovely film, it sings in bright sunlight and can also render wonderfully contrasty tones too, the front of the image was awash with light - it made the bicylce wheel really stand out from the background which has translated onto the film as a difference of tone and contrast, the lens is showing off it’s sharpness here too.

I am a sucker for leading lines, come on - who isn’t? whether it’s a run down, poster covered side street or a neo classical collonade the effect is always the same; a visual invitation… step right this way!

Neo classical architecture abounds…..

….none more so than the Reichstag!! I wasn’t quite prepared for just how HUGE the building is! such a wonderful piece of architecture and rich in history.

Just visible in the background is the huge glass dome which surmounts the building (it’s a shame i didn’t have more time to go and visit properly but it gets very busy and you have to book)

The final stop on our mini tour of Berlin is the Brandenburg Gate - a beautiful neoclassical monument and famous landmark of the city, during my visit it was closed off in preparation for a concert so I couldn’t get a full length photo of the columns, but it prompted me to work the angles and I quite like how these compositions came out.

The final shot from this roll of film is taken looking up as I walked alongside the Brandenburg gate; I love the gradation of light to shade on the right hand side and also the contrast of the neo classical and the clean, straight lined modern building next door.

It’s worth noting at this point that I developed the film in Kodak HC110 dilution H as per the Massive Development Chart for Rollei Retro 80S, this is one of my fave film and developer combinations especially for work in bright sunlight.

Berlin is a city with a rich history - one that it wears on it’s sleeve; it’s such an eclectic and vibrant mix which I hope I have conveyed in some small way here! This is Part 1 of my postcard from Berlin - next time I’ll share some images that I took with some film bought locally from the good people at Fotoimpex, in the meantime thanks for joining me on this trip!

Portraits on film - Night shoot with Cinestill 800T and Lomography 800 Colour

Sharing details of another portrait shoot, this is part of a major ongoing series I’ll be working on as a I rebuild my portfolio - it gives me an opportunity to share some insights on the cameras/films I’m using, the story behind the shoot itself as well as a place to share those photos which might not make it into my main portfolio.

Having made the switch to full time film only and also recently adopting the very wonderful Pentax 67 as my main camera I have been keen as mustard to rebuild my portfolio, to explore the creative possibilities (and challenges) that shooting with film offers and basically have a shed load of fun along the way :) To that end I have been seeking out opportunities to collaborate with some of the very creative souls I am fortunate enough to know - hence this series of blogs! :)

This shoot was for my mate Paul who is a Music Producer under the pseudonym ‘Gamma Prime’ he’s been working on some new material and wanted a set of publicity images to help promote the new work.

The idea was to shoot at night and make use of available artificial lighting to add some creativity to the portraits, this assignment called for some special film stocks - Cinestill 800T and Lomography 800 and I also used a roll of Kodak Portra 400 too. I’ll give you a bit of an overview of these film stocks along the way and some thoughts on their particular qualities in use. I hadn’t used either the Cinestill of Lomo films before so I was excited to try them out - Cinestill is an expensive option and Lomo is more of a budget offering so we’ll see how they stacked up against each other.

First thing to consider when shooting in low light/night time is to take account of sunset! Golden hour light is there for the taking either side of the actual sunset so before I broke out the Cinestill and Lomo films I used a roll of Kodak Portra 400 to snag some of that golden hour light.

Kodak Portra 400

Shooting with the Pentax 67 you only get 10 frames per roll of film so you really have to make each frame count! As the light fell I loaded the roll of Lomography 800 and since we were still in golden hour I used the first few frames here. At this point it’s worth stating that in a stand up contest Portra 400 vs Lomo 800 there’s really not a huge amount in it, they’re both great films although I think Portra has the edge - crisp grain structure as you’d expect from portra and shadows hold up well with lots of detail. That being said the Lomo film is no slouch and it has a very definite character and feel all it’s own.

Lomography 800

We drove into town for the night shots and took a walk through the University Campus to take advantage of the artificial lighting and interesting architectural features. These first couple of frames are still on Lomo 800 and I really like how they came out - a very definite grain charachter which I like very much, shadows don’t hang on to too much detail but in this artificial lighting I think it adds to the effect.

Lomography 800

The images below are all shot on Cinestill 800T - this film stock is repackaged motion picture film, the stuff they use to make Hollywood movies! I was very excited to try it out and it did not dissapoint! the letter ‘T’ in it’s name designates that it’s a Tungsten balanced film so it was designed to be shot under artificial lighting - as you can see the tonality and detail are really great here.

Cinestill 800T

Note my iphone acting as a fill light here! Focussing was getting a little difficult as it got darker so this helped - I’m thinking of getting a little LED light to help in future

Cinestill 800T has been processed to remove the Anti Halation layer which in some conditions gives lighting a strange glow, it also appears quite prone to light leaks as you can see on the left side of the above image - although in this case I kind of like the effect!

This shoot was planned as a portrait shoot for a friend to create some promotional images for his work as a Music Prodcuer - you can check out Paul’s music HERE :)

I hadn’t planned to compare and contrast these film stocks but the differences between the final images and the way I shot them presented the opportunity to reflect on the different charachters of each stock, overall I like all of these films and very happy with how they came out - here’s my thoughts on each in turn:

Portra 400 - what is there to say about this film which hasn’t been said already? It’s a classic for a reason and is one of my firm faves - clean grain, great details and rich colours. I’m tempted to explore how flexible this film stock is maybe pushing it to 800 and beyond in lower light to see how it coped. Portra is my go to film, a quality product capable of wonderful results.

Lomo 800 - this was a bit of a wildcard choice and it’s a very solid performer, espeically when you consider the price for a pack of three rolls of 120 is about £18. I shot it in good light and in low light in both situations it doesn’t hold up shadow detail as well as the other two stocks but this shouldn’t put you off, the grain structure is more prominent than either Kodak or Cinestill but this is also not bad news - it gives the film a look all it’s own which is good.

Cinestill 800T - this film blows me away - I love the colours, contrast and tones but more importantly for these shots it’s how the film handles shadows with details holding up really clearly even in very low light, it’s expensive stuff that’s for sure but it’s definitely worth a shot in the right conditions. It’s proneness to light leaking could be annoying if you have ‘THE’ killer shot and some random leaks could spoil your hard work - on the other hand it could just add something to the image!

It’s worth stating at this point that I was really pleased with how the Pentax 67 worked on this shoot, I was able to achieve useable images down to 1/30 of a second in low light which pleases me very much! The 105mm 2.4 lens continues to impress me with it’s ability to create 3D like images with pristime sharpness and beautiful bokeh too.

I have some more creative portrait shoots lining up over the next few months so I’ll be continuing the portraits shot on film series and looking forward to exploring more wonderful film stocks!

Nikon F2 review

Having owned the F2 for 6 months now I can confidently say it has become a firm favourite (yes I know i say that about all my cameras)! The F2 has a big reputation for being a seriously kick ass camera and I can heartily confirm that this reputation is well deserved! The Nikon F2 is an absolute joy to shoot with - I’ve used it on portrait shoots, taken it hiking and shot landscapes with it, used it for street photography and candid portraits of my little boy running about and playing at home - in every situation the F2 is the right tool for the job.

Often when we think of professional spec cameras we assume that these are complex esoteric beasts which require some form of initiation rite to operate and only the enlightened few can master it - and while that may ring true in some cases, not so for the F2! It is a VERY simple camera with an intuitive set of controls laid out in a such a way that it allows the F2 to do what all great cameras do - it gets out of your way and allows you to concentrate on your subject, lovely.

I’ve already introduced you to the F2 on this blog HERE but it’s such a great camera that I feel it deserves it’s very own blog review! I’ll give a run through of the features and operations of the camera and then we’ll get down to the business of sharing photos taken with it on various shoots and thoughts on using the F2 in practice.

The F2 is a modular design and when it was originally released back in 1971 it was a major selling feature that you could choose from a range of different focussing screens, in later years different prism heads were released which were interchangeable with any F2 body made at any time during it’s production run - this allowed you to decide on which kind of metering system (or no meter at all) worked best for you/a particular situation - my F2 is an F2A which means that it has a metered prism head that uses a needle meter readout, I much prefer this form of read over LED’s but if you like an LED readout then you can check out the F2AS head, or if you don’t want a meter at all you can get a plain prism - lovely! These days the interchangeable nature of the F2 is probably less of a selling point although it will be nice to experiment with some alternative viewfinders at some point in the future.

OK so we get it, its a nice camera - so what? how’s it different to all the other bloody cameras you have…. great question! I’m glad you asked! let me explain:

Form factor: it’s a big camera! bigger than your standard 35mm camera, I like this! fits in my hand comfortably, the F2 is perhaps the most ergonomic camera I have had the pleasure to shoot with so far!

100% viewfinder: What you see is what you get! the viewfinder shows the whole of the frame (not always a given on some cameras) it’s big, it’s bright, it’s beautiful!

Mechanical: The body requires no batteries to operate, it’s powered by springs and gears - I like this very much! (obviously the meter needs a battery)

Build quality: The F2 was hand built to a very high specification for professional shooters, in an age when things were built to last, its like a Swiss watch that you can also use as a hammer from to time (or just maybe, make photographs with it)!

Looks: yes I am shallow enough for this to be a ‘thing’ in my choice of camera, but flipping heck look at it! Industrial Design at it’s finest - an exercise in form following function if ever there was one.

I enjoy shooting with the F2 so much and I am such a big fan of the amazing Nikkor lenses that I’ve decided to concentrate my 35mm kit around two Nikon F2’s (I just bought a second one) and an FE2 which I already own (and who knows what other Nikon F mount bodies I’ll take a shine to in future) in part because these are simply amazing pieces of equipment and also because running several different lines of camera (Olympus, Pentax, Canon and Nikon) at the same time gets a bit expensive!

I’d much rather own several bodies which can all utilise the same lenses - giving me more capacity to get some killer glass and shoot it across any camera body that takes my fance. Obviously for Medium Format shenanigans the indomnitable Pentax 67 will be a fixed feature and for just the sheer lunacy of it a Holga 120N is also firmly on my ‘keeper’ list of cameras!

I want to share some of the images I’ve taken with the F2, to date I’ve used it on several portrait shoots and also a few hikes into the wilderness to shoot landscapes, I’ll start with some of the portrait images which I took on a shoot with my friend Arya Ravenswood you can see the full shoot HERE these were all shot on Portra 400 on the F2 with the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AI lens.

And now a few images from out and about in the moors around my home, the following images were taken on the same day at two different locations - first three are from Dovestones Reservoir and the rest are from West Nab, all shot on Fomapan 200 on the F2 with the Nikkor 24mm 2.8 AI lens and an orange filter (the observant will notice this is also the same time that I took the header shots for this blog - planning ahead you see, I don’t just throw these things together you know)!

So there we have it - another blog during which I heap praise upon a particular camera, stating something like ‘so this is the only camera I’ll ever need’ or whatever, clearly I’ve established that I am prone to bouts of enthusiasm when it comes to this kind of thing but this time it’s different… as a result of how much I enjoy working with the F2 I’ve sold off pretty much all my other cameras now, I‘m a photographer not a collector so my ultimate aim here is to shoot not to have loads of cameras just sitting on the shelf - the F2 is a shooters camera, a pro series camera from a time when being a pro photographer was a badge of honour. I make no claims to that badge myself and certainly just owning a decent camera will not make you a better photographer, but owning something as well made with such attention to detail and design is a joy in and of itself - to use it as intended to create work that you are proud of is a whole other level of joy. I can’t guarantee that I won’t buy some other random cameras in future but what i can say is that for me the F2 is the ultimate 35mm film camera.