The Story Behind The Image; Friends On Bench With Bicycle And My Leica Minilux

(click to enlarge)

NEW! As of January 1st, I've started an Instagram feed. I'll be posting photos daily so please follow @dennisamook. Thank you. 

In the fall of 2001, I attended an international business conference in Toronto, Canada.  Since I enjoy riding trains, I chose to take Amtrak from my home in Virginia to Toronto, a 2-day journey.  The train would overnight in New York City and I had a friend there that would allow me to sleep at his place.  

Since I was riding a train and this was a business conference, my camera gear would have to be minimal.  Also, this was before I moved exclusively to digital and only owned a Canon G2, by today's standards, a primitive 4mp camera.  I chose to take my small Leica Minilux 35mm camera, which was my habit.  More about the camera below.

During one of the days I was in Toronto, I found myself with a bit of free time.  I had never been to the city before and wanted to explore my surroundings.  I chose to walk so as to immerse myself in the culture.  At one point in time, I encountered an underground mall, a couple of stories deep.  I explored what shops were different than what I normally found in the U.S., then headed up the escalator and outside.  When I reached the outdoors, I found it had rained.  The overcast had gotten heavy.  As I walked, by chance and with luck, I encountered this little scene.

These two men were sitting on the bench talking.  The bicycle was a very interesting element and I thought it nicely complimented the scene.  As I stood behind the men, I made one exposure with, I believe, Ektachrome 400.  However, the men were both looking straight ahead while talking.  I thought what would really complete the scene would be the men turning their heads and looking at each other.  I stood quietly and waited for a few minutes. As they finally turned their heads toward each other, I pushed the shutter button once again.  After that, they didn't turn to face each other again for the time I waited as I wanted to make another exposure.  I had the image I wanted but only one.  Remember, we didn't make lots of exposures with film as we do today with digital.  I walked on.

My Leica Minilux.  Still have it.  Still like new.  Kind of a brick but small enough for travel , very well built, versatile and with extremely high quality lens. (click to enlarge)

The Leica Minilux is a 35mm film camera with a 40mm f/2.4 Summarit lens, at that time, my favorite focal length.  The camera was a delight to use as it basically took a point-and-shoot Leica and added several types of controls so one could have real input on how an image was made (see images below).  Also, the lens was excellent!  I was almost exclusively using Kodachrome 64 and Ektachrome 100 and 400 at the time in that camera.  I can't be 100% sure (and I'm too lazy to go and find the original slide) but I believe I had the camera loaded with Ektachrome 400, which was my habit for travel, as an all around versatile film.  A 400 speed film has the characteristics of ISO 3200 in digital today!  What a difference time and technology make.

The camera allowed AF was well as MF in increments.  Also, the apertures could be set.  A combination of apertures
and focus distances could be set to create "zones" of depth of field so the photographer could preset the camera
 to "zone focus" which make photography quicker. (click to enlarge)

I had calculated the depth of field for each distance and aperture, then taped it to the back
of the camera for easy reference.  Also, I made a quick metric to English distance
conversion chart so I didn't have to spend any time converting distances in my head. All crutches,
hacks, cheats, etc., we as analog photographers created to raise our chances of success.
Also, notice there is still a roll of Ektachrome 100GX in the camera!  I should take it
it out and have it developed as it has been in there probably since 2002 or so. (click to enlarge)

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2018 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.