RIP Kodachrome, 1935-2010

The last rolls of Kodachrome, the most revered film for color slides for the past 75 years, are being developed today at Dwayne's Photo, a small family business in Parsons, Kansas. Then the last Kodachrome processing machine will be shut down and sold for scrap, rendered obsolete by digital technology.

[SEE PREVIOUS KOBRECHANNEL posts for related info, images and links:

* Last Roll of Kodachrome
* Mama, They Took Our Kodachrome Away]

Read the New York Times' on-location report,"For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas."

Eastman Kodak gave the last roll of Kodachrome to Steve McCurry, the noted National Geographic photojournalist. He shot the last three frames of that roll in Parsons before dropping it off at Dwayne’s, and you can see them on the Times' Lens blog, "A Color-Saturated Sun Sets on Kodachrome."

It's the end of an era, and judging from the myriad readers' comments, on the Times Website and elsewhere, many will miss the film's legendary rich colors ... while others happily prefer the relative ease and convenience (not to mention instant certainty) of digital shooting.

Don't miss the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's excellent short video, The Last Roll of Kodachrome, as featured on KobreGuide. In a story within a story, photographer Robert Cohen describes how he dug a final roll of expired Kodachrome 200 out of the back of his freezer, carefully and lovingly shot 36 frames at the colorful Missouri State Fair… and then drove the film hundreds of miles to Parsons, Kansas to have it developed. All the while he was not sure how, or if, any of the images would turn out – a reminder of life in pre-digital camera days. The story cleverly combines beautiful images and a folksy storyline complete with suspense and a climactic payoff.

[UPDATE: Here's the Los Angeles Times' elegy, "Goodbye Kodachrome," with a reproduction of a 1936 May Company ad that included the paper's first mention of the film. "A 100-foot roll of 16mm Kodachrome film, regular price of $9, was on sale for $6.98. After adjusting for inflation, the 1936 sales price would be $107 today." There's also a reprint of a 1938 "Camera Corner" column about the film, its first editorial mention in the paper.]

For those of you who have used Kodachrome, please share with us your thoughts about its demise. Nostalgic for "the greens of summer" -- or is all the world a sunny day with digital?

(Photo by Steve Hebert / New York Times)

Why Don't More News Websites Supersize Pictures?

Print newspapers no longer have the physical space to accomodate large images, but high-speed internet and cheaper bandwidth certainly enhance the feasibility of big pictures on Websites.

And yet we rarely see news organizations put big pictures to good use. (Frankly, even in the heyday of print newspapers, when space constraints were less of an issue, big pictures were a rarity, and narrative stories told with a series of pictures even rarer still.)

Gradually some news sites are indeed launching big-picture galleries -- but most focus on individual shots (e.g. "picture of the day") and not a series of images on a unified theme that are sequenced to tell a tale with a dramatic arc.

Storytelling with still pictures, a la Life Magazine, sometimes feels like a lost art form. True, the advent of Soundslides software enabled audio-slideshows -- but most of those are nothing more than photographers talking about their pictures, or pictures of people talking about themselves. Rarely is the medium's potential for dramatic narrative -- complete with you-are-there natural sounds -- fully realized.

But even media organizations that aren't yet willing to dive into multimedia are still puzzlingly standoffish about using large-format photography for narrative stories... even now that bandwidth is no longer an issue.

Glowing exceptions include the Boston Globe's Big Picture, the Chicago Tribune's Assignment Chicago, the New York Times' Lens blog, the Los Angeles Times' Framework blog.

Spokane's Spokesman Review is the latest to join the bigger-is-better club with its Picture Stories. (We can hardly call it "jumping on the bandwagon," since it's still a relatively rare phenomenon.) Their staff's visual journalism guru Colin Mulvany succeeded in badgering the powers that be long enough to finally make it happen. (Read Mulvany's account on his Mastering Multimedia blog.)

Because Mulvany spearheaded the paper's forays into videojournalism, their Web gallery features not just big pictures but big picture stories. So while raindrops shot with a 60-mm macro lens make great eye candy, from our perspective it's memorable stories that make supersizing their images a worthwhile endeavour . For example, Carissa’s Journey (pictured above) tracks an 18-year-old girl battling cancer through her senior year in high school -- including her prom and graduation ceremony. That's a big story, best told with lots of big pictures.

What stories should your newspaper be telling on its Website with big pictures?

L.A. Times Launches Visual Journalism Blog

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for its launch of the new Framework blog devoted to visual journalism.

At first glance, its style and format is clearly inspired by the New York Times' excellent Lens blog -- but we're not saying that's a bad thing (except for maybe the reverse white-on-black type, which ironically is hard on the eyes).

Its initial content is a mixed bag. They sent two staff videographers to tag along on a staff photographer's assignment -- a simple portrait of a DJ in his home studio. We were expecting that the video would provide an inside glimpse of the task of capturing a still image of this musician. We thought we'd see and hear about the aesthetic and journalistic choices involved in setting, lighting, posing, props and wardrobe. (The subject is seen with his turntable and pet cat.) But strangely the video is all about the DJ -- who we listen to as he's being photographed -- and very little about the act of photographing him.

The blog's self-described mission is to "celebrate the power and explore the craft of visual storytelling. The blog highlights the work of Times photojournalists who, frame by frame, document the drama, the emotion and sometimes the humor of life. Framework also aims to serve as a resource hub for photography, multimedia and video enthusiasts who share our passion. We will trade insights and discuss the tools and techniques of telling stories through images."

Curiously one of the meatier offerings about tools and techniques, however, is told not through images but with a humorous text article. In his essay, "Need Some Instructions on Those Instructions?", Robert Lachman bemoans the increasing intricacy of whiz-bang cameras, something all photojournalists and videojournalists can relate to.

It’s hard to believe how complicated cameras have become. My new Canon EOS 7D has so many bells and whistles that even I, a so-called pro, sometimes find myself befuddled. It’s part camera, part computer, not to mention that most of the functions can be controlled from various parts of the camera. Push this button down, hold that, turn this…

This got me wondering if there wasn’t a better way to understand my camera.

He started with the manual, but we all know where that leads... Eventually he corralled a shelf full of books and DVDs (pictured) to help him sort through all the confusion, and he offers his helpful recommendations.

Subsequent postings take us behind the scenes in first-person accounts by Jay L. Clendenin, who shot a celebrity portrait of Bono without his trademark sunglasses... and Boris Yaro, who captured the iconic image of Robert Kennedy on the floor of L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel just after he was gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan.

We look forward to watching Framework expand and improve as a valuable resource, and hope you'll join us in checking it out daily for fresh and inspiring material.

P.S. ... and of course, don't forget to check out KobreGuide's Los Angeles Times channel, for their best videojournalism. It was the Times' powerful Marlboro Marine video, by Luis Sinco, that launched KobreGuide two years ago!

NY Times Unveils 'Moment in Time'

At long last, the New York Times presents its interactive "Moment in Time," the ultimate "citizen photographer" project.

Readers of its Lens blog were invited to submit photos taken at precisely 15:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), Sunday, May 2, 2010. The thousands of submissions were diligently sorted, categorized, and affixed to a virtual globe, where, after many delays, they can now be viewed in all their universal glory.

It's clearly more a stunt than a work of art -- or journalism, for that matter -- but the bottom line is that the project was undertaken with diligence and sincerity, and the Times even went out of its way to own up to the process' inevitable shortcomings. (In fact, they're still working out a few bugs.) More importantly, it's fun to click through and look at. And be forewarned, that all those "moments" can add up to hours of viewing.

Read all about it here.

See it here.

Recommended Weekend Reading & Viewing

Some links worthy of your time and attention:

* Here is What Journalism Should Sound Like, by Michael Rosenblum

* The future of news belongs to those who ... kiss, by Adam Westbrook

* Student video journalist in trouble again (SFGate.com)

* One of Breitbart's hacks accuses Salon of hypocrisy on ambush reporting, by Gabriel Winant (Salon War Room)

* Salon Slams O'Reilly's 'Ambush Journalism,' by Jake Simpson (Atlantic Wire)

* 5 Reasons 3D TV Won't Take Off, by Daniel Frankel (The Wrap)

* Must See: And the Awards Go To... , by Kassie Bracken & Stefania Rousselle (Lens Blog / NYTimes.com)

Weekend Eye Candy: 'Sorry I'm Late'

Just for fun, treat yourself to this whimsical live stop-action animation, shot against a gymnasium floor.

It's written and directed by Tomas Mankovsky, but as you'll see from the minute-long credits roll (which is half the length of the two-minute video itself), it's got a crew of dozens.

The credits roll also shows you how the effects were accomplished, but for infinitely more detail, visit the 'Sorry I'm Late' Website, where there's an extensive behind-the-scenes "Making Of" section that reveals all.

A tip of the cyberhat to the New York Times' Lens blog's highly recommended weekly "Must See Video" feature.