The Pushmi-Pullyu

Two ended.

The Pushmi-Pullyu is a two headed unicorn-gazelle cross, one head at either end. It features in Hugh Lofting’s ‘Doctor Dolittle’ children’s books from the 1920s. In the Rex Harrison movie of 1967 it becomes a llama, but the design is much the same.

I was reminded of this when snapping these giraffes in London Zoo in November, 1972


Leica M3, Visoflex II, 280mm Telyt. TriX.

That hardware was a real pig to use but it worked fine with giraffes!


The Leica M3 with the Visoflex II and a 200mm Telyt. TriX.

The long Telyt lenses had manual pre-set diaphragms, weighing a ton, and the mirror attachment (adding further tonnage) required that the mirror be re-cocked/lowered manually after each exposure. A Nikon F would have been a better idea.