I came across this display in a curio shop we discovered on a day trip about a year ago. I was carrying the Leicaflex SLmot camera from the 1960s with an old version of the 50mm Summicron mounted on the front. It was a cloudy and dim day, and I had a cheap, fast black and white film loaded up. The SLmot sure is one heavy old camera, and I was not quite able to hold still enough when I made this exposure. The motion blur bugged me quite a bit at time I developed the negatives, but I also thought the blurriness suited the creepy subject matter. It was just a question of finding the best treatment in post production -- I had to live with the image a while, I guess. I'm happy enough with this version of the image. There is something about old dolls with their porcelain complexions and black holes for eyes -- very creepy stuff. Right up there with merry-go-round ponies and ventriloquist dummies on the horror scale. Anyway, I like the way the store owner arranged the disembodied legs below the head. The SLmot is quite a lot of fun to shoot, actually, and given its weight, you get a nice calorie burn as well. I've never used it with the motor drive, which would really up the intensity of the workout. The motor drive version of the Leica R cameras have the self timers deleted, which makes them look especially cool, in my view. According to my research, the SLmot is the rarest of all of the Leica R cameras, with only a few thousand having been made.
