Well what can I say, it wasn’t my first choice for the #2 of the series but recent events have forced me to push it forward.

Kodachrome: A Eulogy.

Written by Matthew Joseph & Rhys Allen

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of a dear, dear old friend, a neighbour, a son, a brother, a father, a grandfather and a creepy uncle you only see at Christmas and who can’t look you in the eye any more. We mourn Kodachrome with few surviving relatives: nephew Portra, brother T-Max and “special” second cousin Elite Chrome. We mourn Kodachrome, “made by God and Man”.

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Damian Young has helpfully donated some words of wisdom on taking photos of people in bars, in case you’re looking to get a bit more variety in your portrait photography:

I was at a flickr meet yesterday, at a pub called the “Marquis of Lorne”. What a pub named after Lorne was doing in Fitzroy was a little confusing, but we had a great day over a few pints and cameras.

Another person commented on the preponderance of portraits of younger people at bars on my photo stream. “Bar Portraits” are my most popular images. The person said that they were now more confident about asking strangers for permission to photograph them since they started to apply the golden rules….so here they are for the masses.

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An article from Mike Le Fevre on the irony of two photos, with some musing in-between:

It’s funny how things change, a few years ago I generally had a low impression of artists- through the nature of them being embedded in various small minded cliques and scenes. But over time I’ve come to appreciate the idea of individual artistic expression, the individual pursuit of photographic satisfaction. Which comes down to us, when we press that shutter button after making choices and feeling motivation. The light/latent image at that moment is captured. Making art is action.

Like Mugs/Jes’ shot here:

daydream by mugley.

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Films come and go, unfortunately more films have been going than coming lately, some films even come back, though often, they are not quite the same as they used to be. These articles are about films that they never should have stopped making, though two of them only stopped because the company that made them folded.

The first film I want to talk about is Agfa Ultra 50, because, it was my favourite. Ultra 50 was possibly the best colour negative film ever produced, ever! It did for colour negative film what MSG did for Chinese food, it made it pop, but, it didn’t leave you wanting more 30 min later. Continue Reading »

Ross Holmberg has a few first impressions about Kodak’s new Ektar 100 film (released in 35mm in late 2008, with 120 following a month or two ago) :

“Ghost” by rosscova.

Kodak recently released its new Ektar 100 colour negative film, and a few people in the Silver Mine were very keen to get their hands on it. Its sales pitch basically says that Ektar 100 is good at everything but portraiture, in particular giving more vivid colours, and even offering an alternative to slide films when you want saturated colour. For the curious among you, here’s a quick first impression from the first roll I’ve shot with the new Ektar (in 120 size).

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