The womb

December 10, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Once my sea sickness had disappeared, I found sleeping on a fishing boat to be very comfortable. A little bit too comfortable, in fact… ‘Tuesday 13th November 58°57.195N/6°59.510W Course – 228° Moderate-rough Rain 09:00 – The battery on my phone died – It’s taken me nearly half an hour to figure out whether it’s Monday, or still Tuesday… I’m not sure if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage, I suppose it depends on how you look at it? But sleeping […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, film, fishing boat, trawler, trawlermen

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

December 9, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

This journal entry was made halfway through my outing on the Reul na Mara; We’d come back to Scrabster harbour to shelter from the storm which had chased us all the way from Orkney, a maritime rollercoaster ride that lasted 10-hours. Ross’ approach and entry into a turbulent and blindingly dark Scrabster harbour was an impressive display of boat handling and a testament to his 36-years experience at sea – he made it look as easy as negotiating a shopping […]

Categories: photojournalism • Tags: 1600, 35mm, analogue, black and white, crewmen, fishermen, fishing boat, Ilford hp5 400, pushed film, scotland, trawlermen

Sleep when you can

December 7, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Some more meanderings from my recent trip with the crew on the fishing trawler, Reul na Mara, in the North Atlantic. ‘8th November 2018.  59°56.220N/6°44.813W Course 268°  Sea state – moderate to rough 00.20 – Trawler life is linear; there’s no set time of day when anything in particular happens, it’s merely, ‘Fish, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.’. Clock time is irrelevant, breakfast, lunch and supper are events rather than times of the day. Any sleep pattern I did have, we left […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism, Uncategorized • Tags: 35mm, analogue, scotland, trawler, trawlermen

Sea state – moderate

December 5, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

For two weeks in November, I joined the fishing vessel, Ruel na Mara and her crew, working about 100km northwest off the Outer Hebrides. I don’t wish to romanticise something that these men do for work, all year round, but for me, it was an incredible experience. “A proper adventure”, as a friend dubbed it – two weeks on a 24 metre, wooden-hulled trawler, with two Scotsmen and four Filipinos somewhere in North Atlantic, wearing the same underwear for days […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, 6x7, analogue, black and white, colour, film photography, fishermen, fuji pro 400H, I shoot film, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait, scotland, trawlermen

Go West…

November 16, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I’ve just returned from a two week trip with the Inverness  registered fishing boat, Reul na Mara. Most of the fortnight was spent in the North Atlantic, off the NW of the Outer Hebrides. I’ll be publishing photos as they are developed and scanned, and sharing diary entries of this, the first of a few trips in the project, over the next few months. I haven’t done a technical type article for a while, so I thought it would be […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, nikon f100, scotland, trawlermen

Ballagroove

October 26, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Gypo, sound engineer and owner of the Ballagroove Recording Studio, was uncharacteristically late, so we stood out in the rain and waited (I don’t know why we stood outside when we could have stayed in our dry cars?). I’d contacted Gypo the previous evening to confirm, he replied to say he was on the side of a hill, ‘slightly tipsy’, we assumed he’d been ‘slightly more than tipsy’ the night before and was still asleep. Or worse. He had, in […]

Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: analog, analogue, Ballagroove, Biskee Brisht, black and white, Ilford HP5, Matt Creer, music, nikon f100

Tales of the unexpected

October 6, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

I viewed the collapsible lens on the Leica with suspicion; how could something that you just pull out like that, with no positive ‘click stop’, be in any way accurate? So I just put my faith in one-hundred-odd years of precision German engineering and fired two rolls of film through the vintage rangefinder without so much as a glance at a YouTube tutorial. A week later, I got the scans back – pretty much all the images were out of […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: analog, analogue, leica

Navy Leather, Eng size 3C

September 20, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

A few weeks ago, my friend Ed Oldham contacted me; his dad, John Oldham, had sadly died, Ed was going through his things and asked if I’d be interested in some camera equipment… Sometime in October 1942, Tom Oldham went into J.J. Rothwell Photographic Dealers in Stockport, England and purchased a Leica model II with a 5cm Elmar 3.5 lens. I like to think that Tom had a specific reason for his purchase, because only a few months later, in […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, leica

Sophie

August 4, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

Model – Sophie Makeup – Jessica Coole and Kimberley Berridge Clothes – Claire Christian Couture and models own Sunglasses available from – Holmes & Davidson and Claire Christian Couture Assistant and logistics – Hannah Yeowell Agent – Bev Lawley Images shot on Pentax 67 and Nikon F100. Filmstock  – Fuji Pro 400H and Kodak Portra 400

Categories: fashion, film photography, woman • Tags: analog, analogue, film photography, fuji pro 400H, pentax 67

Positive Buoyancy

June 30, 2018 by Phil Kneen Photography

My recent exploration into underwater photography has rekindled a passion and interest in the medium that has been somewhat lacking over the past few months; thrown me out of the rut and into the sea. There’s a system, a ritual, almost, that goes with the process – methodically checking the cameras before entering the water, knowing that you only have 36 goes at getting it right before you need to get out, rinsing the cameras in fresh water… even the […]

Categories: film photography, Photography • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, isle of man, kodak, Nikonos III, nikons V, sea swimming