Kodachrome Film Retired

Based in Rochester New York, the company made the announcement Monday, saying it was a hard decision to retire the famous brand.

"KODACHROME Film is an iconic product and a testament to Kodak’s long and continuing leadership in imaging technology,” said Mary Jane Hellyar, the president of Kodak's film, photofinishing and entertainment division.

"It was certainly a difficult decision to retire it, given its rich history. However, the majority of today's photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology – both film and digital."

Introduced in 1935, Kodachrome became the first color film to score large-scale commercial success.

But as many photographers switch to digital, the groundbreaking Kodachrome accounts for only a fraction of a percent of the company's revenues from still-picture films.

Kodak, a pioneer in photography, has had more than its share of hiccups in adjusting to digital technology. Its stock has declined and the company went through waves of layoffs and plant closings well before the current recession took root.

Among the images captured with Kodachrome that have gone on to become cultural artifacts themselves, photographer Steve McCurry used the film to create his National Geographic cover photo of a young Afghan girl, which became an instantly recognizable symbol of that country's plight in 1985.

If images created with the film itself fail to cement it's place in history, Paul Simon immortalized it in his 1973 hit, singing of its "nice bright colors/They give us the greens of summers/Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah ... Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."

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I've always been a huge fan of Street Art and similar types of art.

Fun with a slow shutter speed

I took these while out walking in my neighborhood the other night.

Creating Photos with an oatmeal box

Using an ordinary shoebox, or an oatmeal box, a camera can be fashioned by placing a piece of photographic paper in the box under safelight conditions.

The box is then sealed with electrical tape.

The camera can then be taken outside and the paper exposed for one picture.

To expose the picture, insert a pin in the side of the box opposite the photographic paper.

The picture is taken by removing the pin and sealing the hole after a few seconds. The camera can be used over again by cutting a hole in the box and covering it with black electrical tape. The tape can be replaced after each use.

The paper can then be processed to produce a negative and contact printed for the positive. There is alot of stuff you can make a pinhole camera with. I seen a few made of a match box and as large as a large brown box to ship stuff in.

Jim Ward of Sparta

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