A couple of weekends back Charlotte and I wandered over to a lovely spot in the village we live and shot some portraits. The sky was fairly grey, but flowers were in bloom and it felt like SPRING! Here’s a few of my favourites. My thanks as ever to Charlotte for being a (largely) uncomplaining hottie who lets me take her photograph.

Afterwards, to celebrate (I’m not sure what we were celebrating), we had an ice-cream from a Mr Whippy van with a hilarious Italian National Anthem chime. Mmmm!

Ran into a real foxy client today.

I had it in my head that I wasn’t going to particularly like Fuji Reala. Not exactly sure where I got this idea, perhaps because it has less following and name recognition compared to Velvia and Kodak colour films. I was totally wrong as it’s bloomin’ lovely.

Back in December I spent a Sunday afternoon shooting portraits of some friends on my newly-acquired Hasselblad. I promised mince pies and mulled wine in exchange for some free time and the use of their luscious faces! I promptly reneged on this promise by completing forgetting about the MASSIVE stack of mince pies in the cupboard. Thankfully no one considered this a major slight and no warm grape juice was spilled. In all seriousness it was a really valuable experience. It gave me the chance to shoot a bunch of film, in similar conditions on a variety of stock. It helped me get familiar with the 500c/m’s working process, to improve my Hassy technique, to expose lots of rolls that I could then practice developing and to essentially ask, and then answer, a lot of questions about the process of using the camera to create portraits. As the day progressed I got a LOT quicker at changing film. At first it was a slow process, but practice makes perfect(ish) and things definitely sped up as we moved along.

I developed the majority of the b&w myself, in T-Max developer (1+9), while the colour was handled by the good folks over at 2020 Photographic in Farnborough. Everything, both b&w and colour was also scanned by Mark at 2020. These are a selection of my favourite. Thanks so much to everyone who came along and lent me their visages! I might look into doing something similar next year, perhaps in a rented studio somewhere. If you like these, badger me about it nearer Christmas 2012!

I’m absolutely loving my Hasselblad. Thanks very much to Dan for selling it to me! I’m beginning to figure out a workflow that makes sense and I’m learning something new with each roll I shoot. Here’s a small selection of images that I like from over Christmas. The colour images are Portra 800, while the black and white is Tri-X 400. If you took part in the Hasselblad sessions, fear not, those pictures are in the pipeline!

Last Friday I received my new Hasselblad 500C/M from my good friend and film camera demigod Dan Scott. This is my first foray into medium format film and it’s all rather exciting. Definitely a step away from my usual working method. As I am in possession of a new and rather spectacular camera I figured it might be fun to do some short sharp portraits for friends and family. The thinking is thus:

- You give me 15mins of your time.
- We spend that time shooting 12 square-format (6x6) frames of your good self. It is fun.
- I will endeavour to give you some cracking images of yourself.
- You have helped me familiarise myself with my new camera and it’s particular ‘working method’.

Sound like a plan?? If you think it does, then get in touch. This Sunday (18th Dec) - between 11am and 1pm - you are most welcome to join me at chez Hart for a short photographic gallivant followed by a mince pie and a tipple. It shan’t cost you a dime, and only a little of your time. Hey that rhymes.

If you’d like to come along, do give me a call or drop me an email and let me know your preferred time. I’m happy to carry only later if the demand is there, but I plan to be working in 15 min blocks. The first one will be 11.00-11.15 and then 11.15-11.30 etc etc. The sessions will all be shot in the studio (aka the garage) not pretty, not particularly well heated but very workable nonetheless. I considered renting my local studio, but sadly they are not open on weekends. The camera is best suited to individual portraits (particularly in the studio), but I can probably squeeze two people into the frame if needs must. I’d would however suggest individual portraits. The in-focus area with this format is quite narrow and therefore my initial experience is that it is well suited to single subject images.

Hasselblad, for those not familiar, is one of the most revered names in the camera industry. Hasselblad’s went to the moon with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong and are also more than capable of producing out of this world images while firmly planted on terra firma. Which is good. If Leica’s are the Aston Martin’s of the camera world, Hasselblad probably represents Rolls Royce. They’re best known for their medium format SLR cameras. Medium format basically refers to a much bigger bit of film than we’re generally used to. The film cameras we all had back in the 90’s were mostly ‘35mm’. This referred to the long edge of the film, which was roughly 35mm in length. The full area of the frame was specifically 36mm by 24mm. The square images the Hasselblad takes are 56mm by 56mm - much larger. This results in a more detailed image and being square, a different compositional ethic.

I’ve only shot one test roll on the camera so far (12 frames) but here are a couple that I quite liked.

I hope to hear from some of you in the next few days. It’d be AWESOME to have you round. You’re more than welcome to stick around till the end of the sessions if you want and we’ll have a sit-down and a chat. If you’d rather do a flyby, that’s totally fine. Drop in, have some pics, grab some christmas flavoured pastry and have a chit chat! See you Sunday.