Six Four Five

March 28, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

6×4.5cm – it’s the ‘middle child syndrome’ of the film world; stuck between 35mm and 6x7cm, it tends to get overlooked and somewhat neglected. I require the inherent image quality of medium format, but I also like the convenience and speed of 35mm, especially 35mm compacts, such as the Olympus MjuII. Basically, I’m lazy; so what I’ve always wanted/needed is a medium format point ‘n’ shoot camera – the GA645 is that camera. The GA645 was released in 1997, as […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 35mm, 35mm film, 645cm, analogue, film, Fuji GA645, I shoot film, medium format, Olympus mju II

The Welsh Streets

March 23, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

When Richard told me that we were doing a photo-shoot in the Welsh Streets, I got a wave of nostalgic excitement; I haven’t been to Wales for years. In the space of thirty seconds I had the entire trip planned in my head – leave Liverpool early, stop at for breakfast at the greasy-spoon food trailer on the A55, just south of Chester, for a full English breakfast in a bap and a pint of tea and then be in […]

Categories: film photography, Music, Photography • Tags: Daisy Gill, Fuji GA645, liverpool, music, nikon f4, Richard Plumley, They're coming to get to Barbara

The Circle

March 20, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

  Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Stephen Macartney, Peter McVeigh, Katie Richardson and Warren Attwell, four Irish musicians who form part of the Northern Irish Singer-Songwriters Circle. My good friend and music promoter, Jonno Gollow, brought the four over to my hometown of Peel, on the Isle of Man, to hold a songwriters workshop during the day and to a very well attended gig at the Peel Centenary Centre in the evening. Jonno is singlehandedly […]

Categories: Music, photojournalism • Tags: analogue, film, I shoot film, jonno gollow, jonno promotions, kodak ultramax, musicians, nikon f4

Maximum Exposure

March 18, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

A friend of mine bought a new sofa – it looks like leather, it feels like leather, and it even smells like leather – but it’s not. It’s plastic. Internationally-renowned photojournalist, Sebastião Salgado, up until a few years ago, shot all of his work on film; he’d carry two all manual Leica cameras, a couple of lenses and bag full of Kodak black and white film. Whenever he got the chance, the Brazilian would have his film developed and printed. […]

Categories: film photography, Photography, woman • Tags: film camera, film photography, I shoot film, kodak, kodak ultramax, negative, nikon, nikon f100, nikon f4, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM

Early finish

March 16, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

When it comes to spending twelve hours a day on a scallop dredger, I have two choices – either medicate myself with anti-nausea pills, which cause drowsiness, and spend half the day asleep in a bunk below deck. Or, don’t take the pills and spend most of the day, below deck, in a bunk trying not to vomit. For this, my third trip out on the Sarah Lena, I chose the former; at least that way I can still function […]

Categories: photojournalism • Tags: analogue, fishing boat, isle of man, kodak, nikon f4, scallops, sea

Nirvana

February 25, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my struggles with a recently purchased Hasselblad; I think a few people saw it as, “A bad workman blaming his tools”. It wasn’t; I was merely stating that I was finding the transition after years of shooting in a rectangular ratio to then seeing and shooting images as a square, demanding. The square thing isn’t new to me; I used and shot several successful projects and individual images a few years ago […]

Categories: film photography, model, Photography • Tags: 501cm, 6x6cm, black and white, delta 3200, hasselblad, ilford, kodak portra 400, square

A little bit X-TRA

February 23, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been having a bit of a photography documentary feast; have a search around Amazon Prime and Netflix, and you’ll find loads. Last night I watched, ‘Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film’; the movie documents the…well, the clue’s in the title. I don’t want to give away the plot, but it’s a bit like any movie about the Titanic – it always hits an iceberg and sinks at the end. Polaroid sails […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 35mm, colour, film, film camera, film photography, fuji film, fuji superia 400, personal project, portrait

Slight to Moderate

February 17, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

Shipping forecast for the North Irish Sea Valid for 24 Hours Issued on Friday, 17 February 2017 at 06:50am by Ronaldsway Met Office Warnings – Strong winds. State of sea – Slight or moderate, becoming mainly moderate tonight, except in the south-east of the area. Visibility – Good, falling moderate or poor in rain and drizzle. Since I started shooting this project, about three months ago, I’ve been asked on several occasions whether I could work on a scallop dredger, […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: fishing, iphone 6, irish sea, isle of man, ocean, scallops, sea, trawler, vsco cam, VSCO FILM

Two and a quarter square.

February 13, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

I have to confess; I came close to selling my Hasselblad last week. I got another batch of films back, and there were a lot of disappointingly mediocre shots, in my opinion. But then I looked again – I think to go from years of shooting in the rectangular ratio back to square has confused my compositional mind, and I’m just not used to seeing my images that way. So I’m going to persevere – I’ve set myself a challenge; […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 501cm, film camera, hasselblad, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, negative, personal project, portrait, square

10

February 2, 2017 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’m not sure what’s going on over in Japan at the Fuji factory, but they seemed to be putting all their efforts into the production and sale of Instax instant film. I’ve shot a lot of this emulsion, firstly with the wide, but most recently with the Mini version, which I actually prefer; the colours and tones are perfect for portraits, IMHO. When Fuji finally release the square instant film, which I’m guessing will be the same size as the […]

Categories: fashion, film photography, Photography • Tags: analogue, blonde, fuji, fuji instax mini, I shoot film, instant film, instant gratification, instax, Instax mini 90, model, polaroid