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Animals Two by Two (3)
Black and white horses...
There must be something about animals two by two because another subject I get asked to print from time to time - and which gives me much easier printing sessions in the darkroom - is this photo of black and white horses.
However, I sometimes wonder whether it’s something about images of animal pairs that attracts the eye, or a particular way in which the Leitz 400mm Telyt lens records tones and textures which, when printed, seduce the viewer into a state of “oohs” and “ahhs”. There are divided opinions on how sharp and contrasty these old Leica lenses are... my 400mm f/6.8 was first manufactured in 1970 (the faster f/5.6 version dates from 1966) and having only a single doublet of two cemented elements was of rather simple construction compared to, say, the 400mm f/2.8 Nikkor of 40 years later having 11 elements, including 3 Extra-Low Dispersion, arranged in 9 groups. As Erwin Puts says in his “Leica Lens Compendium”,
“At full aperture overall contrast is medium, vignetting is below half a stop and, as the theory has it, on-axis performance is much better than in the field. From image height of 6mm contrast drops rapidly and only quite coarse detail is rendered with good clarity. On axis fine detail is recorded crisply, but only until image height of 3mm. Stopping down from f/8 to f/16 improves overall contrast, extends the circle of good definition to 12mm, and increases the micro contrast of fine detail. Generally we have good quality only in the center part of the picture. The absence of larger color fringing gives this lens good clarity.”
Note Puts’ comment, ”Generally we have good quality only in the center part of the picture.” You would not think so looking at the images these old lenses produce... but of course he is being “technically” critical in his excellent handbook. The shortcomings of these lenses if any, beyond points on a graph plotted from lab measurements, are overcome by the Leica “feel” that a viewer experiences when holding a print, or standing in front of one on the wall, made from a negative taken using that German company’s products.
Like the photograph of the two swans on the first page, the one of the black and white horses was taken with a Leitz 400mm Telyt. Trish and I had been enjoying a picnic on the grass amongst the ruins of Donnington Castle, just outside Newbury in Berkshire... and the two horses just below us became interested in whatever pieces of tasty sandwich and fruit we had as leftovers. After some cajoling, sweet talk, patting of noses and promises, the two horses got their tasty apples... and I got my pictures.
But going back to animal pairings... it is undoubtedly in our make-up that we feel better to see two of anything living. From the Wikipedia...
”In biology, a pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some species between the male and female in a breeding pair. Pair-bonding, from 1940, is a term frequently used in socio-biology and evolutionary psychology circles and is typically meant to imply either a lifelong monogamous relationship or a stage of mating interaction in socially monogamous species. It is sometimes used in reference to human relationships.”
And I thought it was all down to Mr. and Mrs. Noah and the Ark!
...page 1 / page 2...
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