Kodak’s Kodachrome (slide) film is dead; long live Kodachrome.

Kodak announced in June of 2009 that the production of Kodachrome would be ceasing.

Now, this month (August of 2010), photographer Steve McCurry was given the very last production 36 roll of Kodachrome to shoot:

(AP) What should a photographer shoot when he is entrusted with the very last roll of Kodachrome?

Steve McCurry took aim at the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal and a few human icons, too. Paul Simon, the crooner synonymous with the fabled film’s richly saturated colors, shied away. But Robert De Niro stood in for the world of filmmaking.

Kodachrome enjoyed its mass-market heyday in the 1960s and ’70s before being eclipsed by video and easy-to-process color negative films, the kind that prints are made from. It garnered its share of spectacular images, none more iconic than Abraham Zapruder’s reel of President John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

But Mama Time is taking Kodachrome away, and McCurry feels the tug of nostalgia even as he loads Eastman Kodak Co.’s last manufactured roll into his Nikon F6, just as he’s done “so many tens of thousands of times.”

Those of us who shot analog film for many years may or may not shed a tear at the demise of Kodachrome. For those unfamiliar, a “chrome” ending meant a slide film, and a “color” ending to a film’s name meant a print film. Kodak films came in, first, metal canisters and then plastic. You could purchase 12, 24 or 36-frame rolls. When you were done you had to first rewind the film back into its canister and then open the camera back for extraction. Heavy sigh. Remember?

I started shooting 35mm film in the early 70s, with my very first camera being a Nikormat and a single 35mm lens which I used for everything — including my “normal” lens. From there my 35mm kit expanded to a Nikon F2 Photomic, another two F2 bodies, a fleet of fixed lenses, an F3, more lenses, two Olympus OM-2s and its concomitant fleet of lenses, and an aging Speed Graphic. I learned to absolutely adore Fuji Velvia film for its wonderful saturation. [Shhh. Don’t tell anyone but I’m color blind (don’t ask how I passed the color blindness test for copdom) and really like my colors vivid and blazing. My sight isn’t good, my hearing isn’t good, my sense of smell and taste are awful. I suppose you could say my senses predominantly suck, which is why I like things, in terms of senses, that are way over the top.]

I made some good money in the analog 35mm film business, I should add. I had a small production photography company at one time where I shot commercially, plus I was a photo stringer for a McClatchy Newspaper for a while — just my photo bag and a scanner. Which might be, oddly enough, how I came to know so many cops.

But once I discovered digital and could dismantle my darkroom, the gloves were off. I haven’t picked up any of my F2s in years. My DSLR now is a Sony A300, along with four more other digital cameras (including my newest superzoom Nikon Coolpix P100, which is remarkably convenient).

Still and all, it’s the end of an era; I feel a bit melancholy. Another bit of my past bites the dust.

BZ

P.S.
I know, it’s way past too obvious, but I simply had to include this video as well:

This is the second visit the Obamas have made to Martha’s Vineyard; the first occurred in the summer of 2009.

How are T-shirt sales at the Vineyard? Glad you asked:

One barometer of the plunge in excitement has been the sale of Obama-themed T-shirts, which designers had been banking on after the craze of last year. Clothing labeled with the president’s name sold by the thousands, helping to salvage a tough economic year for the island.

But this year’s T-shirt sales are much less brisk, merchants say.

“Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year,’’ said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 “I vacationed with Obama’’ T-shirts last year. But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, “Miss me yet?’’

This is the sixth holiday the Obamas have enjoyed this year.

How many vacations have you enjoyed this year? One, perhaps, if that? On the assumption, of course, that you have a job and can still provide for a family vacation.

Mr Obama spent 26 days on vacation last year. Did you get a month’s vacation last year, during a recession?

In the meantime, only 1 in 4 people approve of his handling of the economy;

Jobless claims are at their highest level in nine months;

Twenty-two additional states believes Arizona’s immigration bill was proper and are advocating their own versions;

The rather conservative CBO indicates the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.342 trillion this year, 9.1% of the GDP;

18% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim. I tend to disagree. If he is a true Muslim, he is the most efficient “stealth Muslim” extant; bound to pray to Mecca five times daily, I doubt mandates such as that could escape media lenses. Devout extremist Muslims wouldn’t have him; I believe that, instead, it is his philosophies which sympathize with Islam. On the other hand, Muslims will take advantage of sympathy and inroads wherever they may be found, at the expense or ignorance of our president and our nation. And our president is massively ignorant;

Yet, even the New York Times, on May 12th of 2008, wrote:

But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

Mr Obama is not in keeping with national thought; he is resolutely tone deaf on the Ground Zero mosque (which now AP journalist are forbidden to label as such – instead to call it the “NYC mosque”). According to a new TIME poll, 61% of respondents oppose the construction of the Park51/Cordoba House project, compared with 26% who support it;

Home values continue to fall;

And yet, it’s time for another vacation during a recession.

I mean, we certainly wouldn’t want our dear Mr Obama to be taxed, uncomfortable, or stressed on any level, would we?

BZ

This advertisement was released recently. It can be found on Hugh Hewitt.com. Please play and see if you believe the message is heinous and objectionable. The site sponsoring the ad is at KeepAmericaSafe.com.

This is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the people who produced that advertisement should be investigated. But not just “investigated” — she wants to hold Congressional hearings into who is funding the people behind the opposition:

KCBS Pelosi audio here.

Fox News take:

Perhaps some inconvenient facts getting in the way: In a CNN poll, 68% of registered voters are against the Ground Zero mosque.

Most people in New York City object to the mosque being built.

Mr Obama continues to be completely tone deaf on the topic of the Ground Zero mosque — as he is on a great number of topics directly affecting concerned Americans.

If I might be so bold: could I possibly suggest that if YOU wish to be one of the persons “likely to be investigated” for daring to support the opposition of the Ground Zero mosque, you could contribute to KeepAmericaSafe.com and place a few dollars where your thoughts might be.

I just did. $50.

More and more, I am willing to place some buckage where my thoughts and philosophies lie.

Finally: Isn’t it odd how any — ANY — opposition to the current administration is defined and delineated as either ignorant, racist, sexist, anti-Islamic or uneducated, stupid or dangerous?

Come on, admit it: didn’t the word “Nazi” and the name “Joe McCarthy” pass through your brain — in application to Nancy Pelosi — at least once whilst reading this post?

BZ

This post has been, literally, years in the making.

Let me start with this (though Islam’s numerous attacks against the US clearly pre-date our singular 9-11 event):

Let me then follow up with a sign in the Sacramento area directly adjacent Highway 99 near Sheldon Road — indicating that Islam is indeed recruiting around our nation — and in your community:

Further, let me portray the following series of photographs, allowed by the NYPD, for the yearly Muslim Day Parade — in which major portions of the city are shut down in order to accomodate followers of Islam (Snopes verifies this):

When in fact we cannot seem to accommodate Christmas decorations or any major references to religion during the Christmas season — nativity scenes, trees, decorations — yet few people seem to object when they acquire various Christmas days off.

Imagine that. A double standard.

Perhaps I might suggest that pagans or atheists give their own days off to Christians or those who observe Christmas. That would be the proper thing to do, would it not? I mean, if you don’t believe in a given holiday you shouldn’t partake or benefit from that holiday, should you?

Additionally, let me reproduce here the recent Time magazine cover of an 18-year-old Afghani woman whose nose and ears were slashed off by her husband as punishment for her attempt to flee her cruel in-laws.

She was held down by her brother-in-law whilst her husband slashed at her with a knife. Nose: gone. Ears: gone. Only hidden by her hair. What are her chances for a renowned Beverly Hills plastic surgeon to correct this hideous wrong? Well yes, that would be: zero.

What does Shariah law have in store for women in America? And are American judges taking Islamic Shariah law into consideration? Why, that would be yes. See my prior post on this.

Does our very president seem to embrace Islam and — by extension, embrace Shariah law? That would be yes as well:

Isn’t it true that “Islam IS as Islam DOES”?

I cannot be more blunt and consise than that.

Wouldn’t it be true, for example, with Christianity or Catholocism if it were even remotely as violent as Islam?