Celebrating 20 years in photography, join me for an open studio showcasing travel and street photography from Walthamstow to Japan, with a sprinkling of Australia and some USA. Browse some of my analogue work, then step into my Pop-up Portrait Studio for a traditional 4×5 black and white portrait. I’ll happily explain how it all works – old-school film, real chemistry, pay what you can for a digital version which I’ll email to you after the event.

** Hot off the presses **

I’ll also be selling my new photo zine “AMBLE In the Forest. Vol. 1“ which pulls together a collection of photographs created using various film cameras of the local woodlands – Walthamstow Forest, Hollow Pond and Gilbert Slade. I bet some people never even knew there was such a place as Walthamstow Forest!!

Loads of prints available to buy too. I’ll be offering some Walthamstow Art Trail special offers. #Supportartists

Opening Hours:

Sat 6th June – 11am – 5pm

Sun 7th June – 11am – 4pm (* please note I’m closing a bit earlier than advertised in the printed map.)

Sat 13th June – 11am – 5pm

Sun 14th June – 11am – 5pm

10 days with 165 participating artists and events going on across Walthamstow check out the Walthamstow Art Trail Website, plan your events, follow on social media @walthamstowarttrail

The film arrived and on first impression the packaging has to be some of the cutest I’ve ever seen. The attention to detail is wonderful – and I’m not even a cat person. But enough of all that… what is it actually like? 

I popped a roll into a Samsung Vega 140s point and shoot camera from the 90s. With family visiting from America we did an afternoon wander through Spitalfields and on to Brick Lane, London. It felt like the right film and camera combo to choose. The last few frames were then finished off on a walk through the local woods and churchyard.

I home developed the roll in Bellini Euro HC (a Kodak HC 110 clone) using dilution B, which is 1+31 for about 8.5mins. This time was decided using the Massive Dev Chart. On opening the Kiki Pan box. I actually discovered their suggested dev time for HC 110 was 10 mins. Opps. However, when I took the reel out and saw the emulsion I was surprised at just how dark the base was. Did I over develop? Did I mess up the fixing? I didn’t think so, and on hearing other peoples impressions it seems this is a natural trait of the film.

Here is a comparison with Kodak TMax and Ilford HP5. If you look closely at the rebate edges you can really see how much darker the film base is.

But I had images that seemed to contain a range of tones even though it all seemed a bit dense. Over to scanning – I used a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i using Silverfast with the ‘other, other standard, option in NegaFix.

Here are some of the results:

First Impressions

GRAIN!! I’ve not encountered grain like that since my days of using Rodinal 1+25 and Kodak Tri-X 400. Pass me the salt and pepper… Not quite golf ball size, thankfully, but now that I know this I’ll take a different approach on developing the next roll. Maybe a higher dilution and a little less agitation. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what method worked well for developing. 

That said – I do actually love grain in my pictures and these have worked well for the grittier street scenes.     

I was pleased with the range of tones and contrast. I didn’t have to do any major editing on the scans. Take the Mercedes car picture, that is straight out of the scanner. I’ve applied a little sharpening and that’s it. Sometimes that’s what you want out of a film, other times maybe you want more flexibility to dodge and burn. I feel like I’ve still got plenty to play with here but it’s probably not going to be as flexible as say Ilford HP5+. 

You’ll notice that the first few frames suffered with a deep scratch. Was that a bit of grit in my camera? Did it happen when I was loading onto the developing reel? Or is it a manufacturing fault? I’m not sure, it happens from time to time, that’s the joy of film.  

Will I use it again?

Well, I’ve got two more rolls to play with so definitely yes!! Will I purchase it in the future? Based on this first roll, yes I believe I would. But I would use it for subjects where I want that added ‘grit’, to create some moody ‘noir’ rather than my holiday snap shots.

What do you think of the results? Did you use Kiki Pan 320 yet? Let me know your experiences. It’s all good learning for new to me film emulsions.

Again – HUGE thanks to Dan K over on Bluesky, and to the good people of Camera Film Photo who distribute film supplies Worldwide. Check out their website – lots on offer. I’ve used their Colour Motion Films before with excellent results.

Final note: YES that is a cat being walked through Spitalfields Market on a busy Saturday afternoon….

Back in 2014, my then-neighbour, Guy King, and I would often chat over the back fence — usually while hanging out the washing. Guy happens to be a documentary filmmaker, and me being a stills photographer, we’d often find ourselves talking about our latest projects.

I remember one particular conversation about portrait photography. I was telling Guy how fascinating it was that people would open up to me so quickly during a portrait session — sharing surprisingly intimate details about their lives, things you wouldn’t normally reveal to someone you’d just met five minutes ago. I loved that about portraiture, but I was also a little frustrated that my still images couldn’t fully capture those personal stories and emotions, unless I had some long winded caption. Filmmaking, on the other hand, seemed the perfect medium to do just that.

And that’s where the idea was born.

As if by fate, a small pot of community development funding became available to create short films that would premiere at the soon-to-open Scene cinema development in Walthamstow, London. We quickly put our heads together, drafted an application, and were thrilled to be among the successful applicants.

A couple of months later, our five day Pop-Up “Pound A Portrait” Studio was up and running — me taking the portraits, and Guy filming the process.

Here’s what we created… click below:

Why Share This Now?

Well, it’s been 11 years since we made that film and it first aired. Recently, we were invited to show it again as part of the Made in Walthamstow film screenings at the Trades Hall — an event celebrating films by and about Walthamstow and its filmmakers. What an honour to be asked! I was so excited (and a little nervous) to see it again, this time with an audience.

It had been a long time since I last watched the film, and I wondered: had it dated? Would the portraits still hold up? Would I cringe at any technical flaws or see things I could have done better? (You know what us ‘artists’ be like!)

But honestly, I didn’t feel any of that. It’s still a marvellous film — just as relevant now as it was then. People are people, and we’ll always be human: the laughter, the sadness, the love…

Watching it brought all the emotions flooding back as if it were yesterday. I’m so grateful — and proud — to have been part of such a wonderful project documenting the people of Walthamstow, my birthplace and my home.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who stepped in front of my camera and to Guy for helping bring those stories to life on film.

I’d also like to thank:

• @E17Films – go check them out. Supporting creatives and emerging talents.
• Walthamstow Trades Hall, where the film was shown, and one of the great entertainment spaces we have in this part of London.
• Liza Fletcher and the Trades events team, who reached out to ask if we would show this again and made it happen.

Projects like this remind me why I fell in love with portrait photography in the first place — the chance to connect, to listen, and to capture something true about the person in front of me. If you’d like a portrait that tells your story, I’d be honoured to create it with you.

 Book a portrait session — let’s create something special together.

When I looked over my gear before heading out, I knew it had to be film. Specifically, 35mm. And it had to be the Leica MP rangefinder camera with classic 35mm Summicron lens like so many of my documentary heroes carried.

Shooting film at events like this is a joy. There’s no “chimping” at the back screen, no fluttering bursts of 20 frames per second leaving you with thousands of images to sift through. Instead, you slow down. You breathe. You watch. You choose carefully. You’re present — documenting not just what you see, but how you feel. Witnessing people’s right to protest peacefully becomes not only a subject but an experience.

In the end, I shot 188 frames across five rolls: three in colour (Kodak Vision3 500T and 250D) and two in black & white (Kentmere 100, plus Kodak TMax 400 both pushed to 800). Back home, I developed the rolls myself — Bellini C41 for colour, and 510 Pyro (semi-stand 1+200) for black and white. I scanned them with a Plustek OpticFilm using Silverfast 8.

Here are some of my favourite images from the day.

Some Takeaways

• Protests are excellent practice grounds for street photography. Most people expect to be photographed, and those carrying costumes, placards, or homemade banners often welcome the attention.
• Photographers everywhere. At times it felt like there were nearly as many cameras as protesters — but this creates a vibrant energy and a sense of camaraderie as we try to document the event.
• Getting close matters. The real impact often comes from stepping into the action and working up-close, where emotions and interactions feel most raw and authentic.
• Leica’s draw their own attention. I was actually approached by a photographer who asked if he could take my picture because I was using a Leica camera. That’s something that has never happened before and made me laugh. I said sure… but I do wonder where that might end up?!
• Colour or Black & White? Did I make the right choice? Starting out I figured colour would be the way to go given that protests are usually colourful affairs. Certainly the images benefited from the rich ‘reds’ and ‘oranges’. Unfortunately, the weather turned dark and gloomy and I wasn’t prepared with faster film stocks. I went with 800 iso for the black and white in the end and I wish I’d pushed it further to 1600. That said I got away with slower shutter speed hand holding and it’s a lesson for next time.
• Bring earplugs. I’m so out of practice at covering these sorts of events that I forgot to bring ear plugs! When the whistles start blowing and the drums start banging… Oh dear. Still, first world problems compared to other stuff going on in the world.

So would you have taken a film camera? And would you have used colour or black and white?

Thanks for reading.

Cameras & Film for the Day

For this walk, I packed my Olympus Pen EES half frame camera and, perhaps a little controversially, a Holga 120n with the 645 insert. Technically it produces a negative that’s half the width of a 6×9 frame — so I’m counting it as half frame!

I loaded the Holga with a roll of expired Lomography Redscale film, while the Pen EES got some Kodak Vision 3 250D. The mix gave me a fun balance between experimental unpredictability and reliable colour rendering.

Exploring King’s Cross with Film Cameras

We started at Mornington Crescent tube station and wandered through the backstreets around King’s Cross, London. One of the joys of these walks is stumbling across corners of London I’ve never really explored before.

I didn’t set out with a strict project in mind, but I was hoping to capture some diptychs and triptychs along the way – just letting the day unfold through the lens.

When Expired Film Fights Back

Of course, film photography comes with its surprises. My roll of Lomography Redscale turned out to be a total failure. The film was clearly very expired and produced fogged, mottled frames with barely a usable image. A shame, as I’d pointed the Holga at some interesting subjects. Still, it’s an important reminder: don’t trust mystery rolls for moments you can’t photograph again.

Development Troubles

As if that wasn’t enough, something went wrong during home processing. All four rolls I developed came out with strange, crusty deposits across the negatives. My best guess is a stabiliser issue, though oddly some frames were more affected than others.

Normally I’d spend time spot-cleaning after scanning, but this time I decided life is way too short and so have left the flaws in. After all, film photography is as much about embracing imperfection as it is about chasing perfection. Plus serendipity added some magic with two of the Holga frames, there is something pretty atmospheric about these.

The Results

So, despite the setbacks, here are some of the results from my World Wide Half Frame Photography Day in London. They may not be flawless, but they’re a record of a really enjoyable day celebrating the half frame camera format. Huge thanks to Yant for setting it up.

If you made it to the bottom, thanks so much for following along! Have you ever tried the half frame format? What’s your experience?

Check out many more adventures from photographers across the world at the Worldwide Half Frame Photography Day website and Instagram.

The postman knocked the other morning with a mystery box I wasn’t expecting. Inside, wrapped up safe and sound, was a little surprise: an APS camera, a roll of film, and a lovely note from my friend Peggy (cameragocamera.com). She’d already shot the film, rewound it, and now it was my turn to layer my images over hers for a double exposure film swap.

The Mystery Box & the Plan

Peggy and I had done a film swap earlier in the year with great results, so I was game for another round. She told me she’d taken “random things—background stuff like before.”

That got me thinking: if she’d done scenery and foliage, I’d go for the opposite—a gritty urban environment. Graffiti, buildings, docked Santander bikes. I had no idea how our worlds would collide on the same frame, and that’s the magic of it.

The Joy of Serendipity

Results in! It never ceases to amaze me the serendipity of it all. I mean who could have known how well the docked Santander bikes would line up with the sand ripples, or how the Pac-Man sign would align with the Holy Cross. 

It’s like those 3D Magic Eye puzzles—you have to really look. At first, you see one image. Then another emerges. The longer you study, the more your brain stitches the two worlds together.

First Time with APS Cameras

The other surprise? APS cameras. I’d never used one before this year. Back in the day, I dismissed them—why settle for 25 smaller frames when I already had 36 on 35mm?

But I’ve got to admit: this Chinon AP700s is a lovely little point-and-shoot. Plastic, yes, but solid in hand. I love how the lens and flash pop into action with a single click. Controls are minimal—just a few flash modes, a self-timer, and the ability to switch picture formats, including panoramic.

The film was Fujifilm Nexia A200, long expired. Development and scanning were done by the Burnley based Photo Hippo Lab. First time using this lab and I’m very pleased with the results. Thanks guys.

Why You Should Try a Film Swap

If you’ve never tried a film swap before, I can’t recommend it enough. Double exposure photography is fun when you do it yourself, but letting someone else shoot half the roll takes the surprise to another level.

Even better, swapping with someone from a different part of the country makes the results fascinating—two environments, two perspectives, colliding in unexpected ways.

So grab a roll, find a friend, and try it. Who knows what masterpiece you’ll create?

Thanks again to Peggy for inspiring this swap. I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Here’s a few more examples why it’s worth it—unexpected masterpieces await. Results from our first swap. These were taken on a Canon ixus L1 on long expired Truprint APS film and again developed by Photo Hippo Lab.

Wise words. Thanks for reading.

I brought my Instax Square and took a few shots, but honestly, I wasn’t really feeling it. So I switched things up and loaded my Olympus Pen EES half-frame camera instead. To make things interesting, I set myself a challenge: create diptychs.

Given the searing heat I decided to wander around The Barbican which would provide some welcome shade and offer interesting opportunities for my aim of seeing things in pairs.

I don’t usually see the world this way. I’m often focused on capturing single moments and standalone compositions. But this exercise turned out to be a lot of fun—and once I got into the rhythm, I surprised myself with how quickly I rattled through the roll of Lomography Metropolis 35mm film. That slightly muted, cinematic palette worked beautifully for the mood of the day.

Camera ISO was set at 200, that’s the highest for this camera. Development was done at home using Bellini’s C41 kit. The negatives were scanned using a Plustek Opticfilm scanner. This is frustrating because the negative holder doesn’t quite show the two half frames completely, especially if the spacing is a little bit wider than it should be.

Here are my results, bar one or two that were either ‘one-offs’, or where the OM Pen EES exposure was completely off! Hey cut the old girl some slack (the camera not me!!) She’s from the early 60s so I’m grateful that she still runs as well and I get such sharp images.

Some thoughts

So, there you have it—the good, the bad, and the ugly. My favourite shot? The Barbican stairwell. I loved how the light filtered through, catching the patterns and textures in what was otherwise a dark, dingy spot. There was something beautifully stark about it.

I’m also pretty taken with the first frame: a man smoking a spliff right next to a group of women sipping their Costa coffees. The contrast made me smile—it felt like such a perfectly unfiltered ‘summer in the city‘ London moment.

This diptych approach is definitely something I’ll continue exploring with the half-frame camera. I’m not sure how much story I managed to tell in these pairings, but I could clearly see myself being drawn to patterns and shapes.

Maybe next time, I’ll try telling a full story in just two frames. Or take the next step and give ‘triptychs’ a go!

‘Thanks for reading. And if you are interested in Half-Frame photography World Wide Half-Frame Photograpahy Day is coming up this September. Check it out and connect via the socials.

Learn more about Lomography Metropolis 35mm film here at Analogue Wonderland or direct from Lomography

And if you do choose to order anything from Analogue Wonderland use this link to get a FREE 35mm 36 exposure roll of Kentmere 400.

For more information about upcoming Photowalks check out the excellent Photowalk.me site… I’ll be hosting one myself at some point!

These images were captured during a photowalk from Woolwich to Greenwich, organised by Yant Martin-Keyte via the PhotoWalk.Me website. I shot with my trusty Pentax MX, alternating between 50mm and 28mm lenses, rating the film at ISO 100. Development was done at home using Cinestill’s C41 kit. The negatives came out clean and easy to scan using a Plustek Opticfilm scanner, with the telltale warm hues already visible even before digital post.

Scroll down to see the results—and a few thoughts on where this film might fit into my analogue toolkit.

First Impressions

This film definitely has a look. Think warm, rich reds, oranges, and burnt yellows—classic redscale aesthetics, but with a bit more consistency and control than some other DIY or niche options I’ve tried in the past.

• In bright light, the reds become dominant – Planet Mars vibes for sure.
• In shadows and overcast conditions, things shift – gritty, moody, cinematic, but shadows fall off quickly so give this LOTS of exposure if that is important to you.
• The grain is noticeable but not intrusive, with a texture that suits the film’s personality.

Will I Use It Again?

Honestly, yes—but with intention. This isn’t an everyday stock for me, but I can see Phoenix Red 125 being a great choice for certain creative projects. Street scenes, abstract shots, urban decay—it’s perfect when you’re looking to shake things up or inject a new energy into your work.

Final Thoughts

I may not be a redscale regular, but Harman’s Phoenix Red 125 is fun, expressive, and well worth a try if you’re after something different. It’s also exciting to see a respected name in film photography continuing to innovate and keep the analogue scene alive. Harman – I do love you.

What do you think of these results? Have you used Harman’s Phoenix Red yet?

A big shout out to Peggy for gifting me this roll before I could get hold of it myself. Read Peggy’s impressions here: https://cameragocamera.com/2025/05/29/photo-post-harman-redscale/

Learn more about Harman Photo’s Red 35mm film here. And as always, if you got this far, thanks for reading.

At first thought this might not sound unusual. Us film photographers have become quite use to new brands hitting the market, but when you realise this is not just a respooled existing film stock or an ‘its in development maybe you’ll see it, but mostly you won’t…’ Harman Phoenix is actually a BRAND NEW, experimental, made from scratch colour emulsion and its on the shelves worldwide right now! Pretty mind blowing and definitely Christmas come early in my house.

Plenty has been said about Harman Phoenix’s creation and characteristics (see the video here) and it seems just about everyone and their uncle, who happens to be a film photography youtuber has had advance sample roll/s to play with. Sadly not me… maybe I should start a YouTube channel. Still, I’ve happily let these first test bunnies have a go and have reaped the reward of seeing their early results to influence how I’ve taken my first roll.

So, let me share my results here, warts and all, every image from the 36 exposure roll – with a couple of bonus frames which I usually get with the Leica. I’ll add some personal thoughts about Harman Phoenix at the end.

Loading up my ‘best’ camera – a Leica MP with 35mm Summicron f2 lens. I set my cameras build in meter to ISO 100, even though its a 200 speed, I’d seen plenty of examples of poor shadow detail and people saying “…next time I’d shoot it over exposed”.

The first half of the roll started off on a family day out in Covent Garden, London. It started out as a cloudy dull day but brightened up at dusk. I figured the Christmas themed lights would be interesting and I was keen to see the halo effect from different light sources. The second half of the roll was taken on a full on winter sunshine day wandering my local neighbourhood. I was interested to see how it would cope with the extremes in bright and dark and give me a better idea on how to meter for the next couple of rolls I have waiting for me.

I developed the film at home using Bellini Foto C41 and then scanned using a Plustek Opticfilm 8200i and SilverFast SE 8 software using the negafix setting set to – vendor – other; film – other; ISO/ASA – standard.

Images were edited in Lightroom and I did some very minor adjustments, mostly in the deep shadows where I had to close the gap down on the black end of the histogram. One of the images (my daughter next to the telephone box) I made a very slight adjustment to the colour temperature. But what you see is what I got.

So, there we have it. What do you think? Obviously, not going to burn up the world with the subject material, but that wasn’t the point. I wanted to see for myself what this film could do with different exposure situations and typical environments I find myself in.

My first impressions of Harman Phoenix

I really enjoyed the results. The colours are delightful – punchy with strong contrast. Rich reds, deep blues, vibrant greens. It handled the dynamic range of many of the scenes much better than I expected. Maybe because I did rate it at iso 100, I got lots of detail in the shadows and room to play with the exposures without the image being destroyed. In a few cases, where the highlights are really bright and I metered for the shadows, I have lost a bit too much. The doorway female figurehead is all but blown out. So too is the balcony windows and satellite dish on the image with the blue shed doors. Even in this last tree photo the highlights on the roots are gone. This is a bit of a shock to the system, as that rarely happens to me over-exposuring C41 film. But hey, on the up, all the detail in the dark shrub area I could reveal with a tweak of the shadow slider in Lightroom. It’s useful to know this going forward, as I will pay more attention to what I don’t want to lose in a picture when metering in extreme lighting conditions.

On to the much discussed love it or hate it halation, the red ‘halo-ing’ effect around bright light sources. I’m on the fence! I really like it when its on things you expect – like street lights, neon shop signs, sun flare etc. I enjoy it less on things like trees, railings and my daughters eye lids. Ok, I know the portrait is slightly overexposed and she’s facing bright fairy lights…but come on, weird right?!

As a film grain fan I found the grain here to be lovely. Sure, it is a surprise to see so much of it in a 200 box speed film, but I could live with it. It adds a retro filmic quality I enjoy and part of why I’d continue to use film cameras over just digital. On the downside one element I noticed was the sharpness (acutance) wasn’t quite as good as I’m use to with other colour films. Maybe, that’s down to my own developing and scanning technique or the wider apertures I had to use for some of the lower light conditions but it did make me wonder if that’s an element of the current film characteristic, and something that will be a priority for improvement in the future.

I think by now, if you’ve made it this far, you can probably tell I’m delighted with my results from Harman Phoenix!!

Well done Harman Photo. Yes, it is a film in the early stages of development, but I love you even more for just going for it and delivering something that is already so useable, and for being upfront about its imperfections and the investment you need to continue the journey towards improving a new colour film stock for the future. I’m definitely jumping on the bus ride and I can’t wait to see where you take it next… different speeds, larger formats. Woo hooo – lets do this and keep film alive!!

Find out more about Harman Phoenix 200 here: HARMAN Phoenix (harmanphoto.co.uk) and certainly a search on Youtube will reveal a ton of user reviews.

As always, if you have any questions for me about using this film please drop me a line. Comments welcome below. Thanks for reading.

‘Yes, absolutely you can’, is always my reply. Though we may not have quite as much choice these days, film is still very much alive and living in the UK there are still a good number of shops and online suppliers around. A quick google search will usually reveal what’s closest to you.

Retailers I regularly use include:

Analogue Wonderland

Ilford Photo

Silverprint

Firstcall Photographic

There are many more. If you are in London you can also visit:

Parallax Photographic Coop

The Photographers Gallery

Process Supplies

And many camera shops stock film Aperture, Wex, Park Cameras, Cameraworld, London Camera Exchange… Hey, you can even pick up the odd roll from Boots the Chemists.