Kodachrome

A couple of recent Kodachrome shots, August 2007.


Onion Island, Hattie's Cove, Pukaskwa National Park, Lake Superior. The focus was on the distant tree line with the foreground purposely left soft. I was pleased with the results ... it seems very Group of Seven to me.


My Ruch cedar strip/canvas canoe, Hattie's Cove.

Kodachrome "retired"

I will write more on Kodachrome later. I am currently working away from home on an extended assignment, so don't have access to all my image files.

Steven Schaub has an interesting take in the form of an audio file: http://figitalrevolution.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ds300938.mp3

Along with three other influential photographers from the online community, he visited Kodak recently for a "secret meeting", to be briefed on Kodak's discontinuing Kodachrome, and the future of film.

I do not have complete trust in Kodak's committment to film. This is born of the experience corporate behaviour. A company's "word" on something seems to be as trustworthy for as long as the ink is drying on a corporate quarterly statement. With a new CEO, you have yet another new "committment to our customers".

Sorry for sounding negative, but I have not yet had my morning zazen.

Performing on the World Stage

I've often thought that of the attractions of the Internet is that it gives anyone with access the possibility of finally getting their 15 minutes of fame on a world stage. Of course, world personalities and leaders have way more than 15 minutes. Too bad W chooses to always screw it up. Sheesh ... a perfect example of someone acting out their true beliefs under the guise of "humour" ... I'm sure he'd say "I was just joshin' ya." Right.

Bikes

Over on Decrepit Old Fool, My friend George recently posted a fabulous article on how to tell a good bike from junk, and how to select a bike for purchase.

Those who know me personally might be surprised that yes, I can ride a bike (even my wife was surprised by that when I mentioned it recently; we've been married nearly 6 years now ... surprise, sweetie!), .... While it was my good ole Dad who taught me how to ride a two-wheeler, it was George who helped me understand what a quality bike is. At one point he rebuilt a bike that I purchased for $10 from a garage sale, essentially just using the frame which, while of high quality, wasn't particularly light. It was much more enjoyable to ride than anything I'd had. My Dad had bought a good bike to get me started (a Raleigh from the era when a decent Raleigh didn't cost a week's (or more) salary,) but DOF got me interested in riding better.

After the bike rebuild, I frequented a local bike shop a few times and did the test rides, although not to the extent that George recommends. It was a revelation when I got on a Fuji bike that was made for smaller folks like me. As I recall, the front wheel was about 2" smaller than the rear. This bike fit me like a glove, was easy to propel, and was smooooooth. (Smooooooth is a highly technical term that I use when I need to impress you with my grasp of physics and mechanics.)

I'm not really in the market for a bike right now, but out of curiosity, I have visited the Fuji Bikes website to see if I could find a contemporary incarnation of that model. Sadly, their website is a mess ... driven obviously by marketing types who use (oxymoron alert!) "lifestyle" design principles rather than common sense. Another reason to seek out a good dealer.

"Practically Infinity Ants"

Last evening my wife was out front watering the bed of portulaca & peppers (hot), when the 6-year-old neighbour boy from two houses down came by. He showed her a very active ant den, declaring it was a lot of ants ... "Practically infinity ants!"

The world can be pretty amazing when you're six.

Waking Up is Hard to Do

I don't wake up easily. It takes me a long time to become functional, with some sort of hot beverage (tea, coffee) required. Until I'm fully awake, I am prone to making mistakes ... my balance isn't good, my perception seems off, and I tend to clumsy moves.

So this morning, as I went to scoop coffee beans into the grinder, I dropped the container in which I store beans, and I had some sweeping to do. Luckily, the container was nearly empty and I had more beans I'd purchased from Boulder Coffee.

The blend I'd spilled? Boulder's Crash and Burn. Of course.

What Do We Value?

Watching the CBC National broadcast from 5/14/08, the feature segment was on the world food shortage. The entire segment is highly informative, but the most provocative thing to me was Francis Moore Lappé's (author of Diet for a Small Planet) analysis of the current situation. Her incisive statement is about 7:20 into the segment. Basically, she cites a deficit of democracy, as symbolized by ADM, largest or 2nd largest grain trader, increasing their profit by 65% last year, while rising food prices will push approximately 100 million more people into poverty and hunger or starvation.

I know that statistics can be slippery things; ADM may have increased their profit dramatically through cost-cutting, maybe the gain is measured against miserable results the previous year, etc. Somehow I don't think so.

But this is not about singling out ADM as a corporate villain, though they aren't on my list for a Nobel prize.

What is really at stake is a system that uses even the most basic of human needs -- food -- to concentrate wealth and power in corporate structures that answer only to the mantra of unending and unbridled growth. As Brian Stewart says in the CBC piece, all the signs of the impending shortage were there, but very few were paying attention.

There is some small sliver of hope that enough people will wake up to what real democracy is all about, and that we can avoid food and resource wars and the catastrophe that would be. Real democracy protects its citizens not only from crime and military attack, but also from trauma by institutionalized greed.