[Leica] It's 1951, and my parents got married

[joelct at singnet.com.sg (Joseph Low)]

            Dear Peter

            What sweet nostalgy!

            Joseph L / Singapore

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+joelct=singnet.com.sg@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+joelct=singnet.com.sg@leica-users.org]On Behalf Of Peter
Klein
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 2:02 PM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] It's 1951, and my parents got married

As far as family pictures go, I just hit the motherlode.  Or rather, I
scanned a load of pictures from my mother!  Here is a liberal selection of
the the original Kodachrome slides from my parent's wedding.  Have a look
here:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/EmMiltWedding

Apart from a little dust and a few scratches, they are not much the worse
for 54-odd years' wear.  Kodachrome is just plain amazing.  The pictures
were mass-scanned for family viewing and quickly batch-resized with
Irfanview, so they ain't fine art.  But just the hairstyles and clothing
are fascinating.  There are some more personal shots at the beginning and
end of the album, with the traditional wedding stuff in the middle.

The pictures might even be kinda sorta on-topic.  A friend of my mother's
shot the wedding.  She was going to use her Exakta, but it broke that
morning.  So the entire wedding was shot with my Mom's trusty Bolsey B-2
rangefinder, a favorite "alternate shooter" of our own Karen Nakamura.

The film was the original Kodachrome, ASA 10 (!),  and a big reflector
flash that was bigger than the camera and blinded each subject for several
minutes after each shot.  Probably the lens was nearly wide-open much of
the time, and the shutter at 1/25 or 1/50.  You can see the flash fall-off,
motion blur and the lens' less than stellar performance at the edges.  And
so what?

Don't let the women's dresses fool you--I don't come from a wealthy
family.  My "poppy" (maternal grandfather) was a patternmaker in the New
York garment district.  He dressed his daughters in rejected dresses and
leftover fabrics meant for society girls.  He designed and built my Mom's
wedding dress himself.

--Peter

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