Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
Well, sometime in the late '50s my father took me along to do my first
wedding - a second marriage for a widow and widower, old family friends
with grown children, small family-only wedding, etc. (They knew he was
a photographer and asked him to take the pictures, and he agreed.) He
used his Rolleicord and gave me his Leica III with the Geiss flash sync
device, a cam that screwed on the shutter speed dial and tripped a
switch mounted in the shoe. New batteries in the flash, reflector
polished, fresh bulbs (yes bulbs) in the pocket and off we went. When
he developed the negatives, the Leica frames were about half black due
to some error in attaching or setting the sync device ("It's not my
fault"). When the couple got back from a short honeymoon we went and
took a few shots over (with the right flash settings) but the out of
town folks weren't there, and it just wasn't the same. Even though my
father was the one who had to call and tell them the pictures didn't
come out, I can still remember the sinking feeling when the negs came
out of the tank.
The lessons I learned from that day were:
1. Be real careful how you set up the flash sync device on a Leica III.
2. Don't use flash with a Leica III.
3. Don't do weddings.
I've managed to follow 1 and 2 ever since. I've violated 3 only once,
in 1971, and I didn't use flash.
Cheers,
Kip