New images of Oxford

We visited friends in Gloucester at the end of November and nipped across to Oxford for a few hours.

It was a good day for photos, although parts of Oxford were flooded after recent heavy rain. Nice skies.

I took 9 rolls of Ilford FP4+ 120, my first shots of Oxford. I have lots of photos of Cambridge as that's where I did my PhD and needed some of Oxford for a bit of balance in my new book, City Light, due out early March. Don't want to be accused of favouritism!

Here are a few examples, more on the web site Recent Gallery or follow the Oxford permanent links:

All Souls College and Radcliffe Camera

from St Mary's Church Tower

Christ Church College Puddle Reflections

Bridge of Sighs and Hertford College

Flooded Christ Church Meadow and Trees

Radcliffe Camera from St Mary's Church Tower

Frozen Peak District, No Snow

We are back from our recent photo travels to Oxford and Rome; home late afternoon yesterday.

Today I walked across the hills for a day in the Gallery in the Gardens in Buxton Pavilion Gardens. It was a very heavy frost last night and temperature still below zero. Lots of ice everywhere but no snow, could see across to Kinderscout, highest land in Derbyshire, and couldn't even see any there.

Really nice day today. I should be out taking photographs!

Rome Photo Trip Day 3

Today was the best weather-wise on our photo trip to Rome; clear blue sky and no clouds all day. Cold breeze kept it cool too. I probably took some better shots yesterday when the clouds were good but at least I knew I could shoot all day today.

We revisited some previous locations as well as new ones like the Pantheon.

Used drugs and heated back support to ease my bad back. Also had a break for a lie down before dusk/night session; that helped lots.

Sorry no images on mobile today so nothing to add to text.

Home tomorrow; early flight and even earlier taxi. Not looking forward to that bit!

I took 31 rolls of Ilford FP4 120 over 2 full days plus the evening we arrived. That makes 40 rolls in total with the 9 that I took in Oxford on Thursday before we came to Rome.

That's a few too many for me to easily process as it would take me about 8 hours to work through them. I will send them to Ilford Lab Direct, at the Ilford factory in Cheshire, who use the same chemistry as me (Ilfotec DDX/DD) and a gentle dip and dunk processing machine, so no roller damage - ever! They also look after me very well with excellent fast service every time.

Looking forward to seeing the negs and doing the contract prints so that I can see exactly what I took. With the daytime shots I pretty much know what I have but the nightime ones are less certain as the exposure is guessed (my Sekonic spot meters don't measure anything longer than 15 seconds at f5.6).

I will try and add some to my website before Christmas but it could be the New Year before I get to it. Can't leave much later than that as I need shots from both Rome and Oxford for my new City Light book, published March 2013.

Rome Photo Trip Day 2

We were busy today, walked miles, as the weather was good from mid-morning until the evening.

We started in the Popolo area with some fountains before moving on to the Umberto bridge; one of the best viewpoints for the Vatican St Peters. Great clouds here made for some good shots.

Next came the Castel Sant Angelo beside the next bridge along the river. From here we headed south to the busy Piazza Navona and impressive fountains. Then on to the Isolo Tiberan island, surrounded by some pretty wild water as the river was in full spate.

The Circo Massimo was next then the busy Colosseum as the sky clouded over.

My back was painful so we returned to the hotel to rest it for an hour or so before heading back to the Umberto Bridge for some dusk shots of the Vatican.

We followed the river, adding a few shots along the way until we reached the Vatican. Lots of building work going on here so not as good as I'd hoped for. Surprised to find a fun fair in St Peters Square.

From here it was back to Popolo and on to the Spanish Steps. These were overrun with people so no chance of taking the shots I wanted so we went for a meal instead.

By the time we came out heavy rain had cleared the streets and we returned for the Steps shot.

Last stop of the day was the Trevi Fountain. I managed a few shots then the heavens opened with heavy rain. I waited several minutes hoping it would clear but just got heavier. We called it a day!

Tomorrow the forecast is for good weather all day. Fingers crossed that's right!

Rome Photo Trip Day 1

We arrived in Rome today 2 hours late because of fog at Heathrow. This meant it was too late for any daytime shots; it was getting dark as we reached our hotel in the old town.

We did some night shots around the Colosseum though, in between rain showers. I ran off 3 rolls of Ilford FP4 120 film. Had the full moon in some of them as the clouds thinned.

I did take some on my mobile phone but even turning up the ISO to maximum didn't give me a fast enough shutter speed to avoid blurring of the image. You will have to wait until tomorrow to see the sort of shots I'm taking with my Mamiya 7 cameras and Gitzo tripod! All the ones I will be posting during the trip will be mobile versions of my film shots.