Once Every Three Years

This orchid only blooms once every three years. Two blooms this time - a first.

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Kodachrome

I don't often cross post between my politics and news blog and this site but this news story is an exception.
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Kodachrome

You give us those nice bright colors

You give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!

I got a Nikon cameraI

love to take a photograph

So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

Mama,
don't take my Kodachrome away

~Paul Simon - 1973

I have been a photographer for over 40 years. A few years ago I was forced to make the switch to digital. There are many advantages but it's just not the same. I have boxes of 35mm Kodachrome slides that for the most part look as good as they day I took them. Below is a slide I took at Grand Canyon is 1983 and just scanned today.



Well Kodachrome is soon to be a thing of the past - the end of an era.

Is the rich-hued Kodachrome era fading to black?

It is an elaborately crafted photographic film, extolled for its sharpness,
vivid colors and archival durability. Yet die-hard fan Alex Webb is convinced
the digital age soon will take his Kodachrome away. "Part of me feels like,
boy, if only I'd been born 20 years earlier," says the 56-year-old photographer,
whose work has appeared in National Geographic magazine. "I wish they would keep
making it forever. I still have a lot of pictures to take in my life."
Only one commercial lab in the world, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., still develops
Kodachrome, a once ubiquitous brand that has freeze-framed the world in rich but
authentic hues since it was introduced in the Great Depression.
[.....]
For decades, Kodachrome was the standard choice for professional color photography and avant-garde filmmaking. At its peak, a reverential Paul Simon crooned "Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away" in 1973.
It's the only film to have a state park named after it -- photogenic Kodachrome
Basin State Park in the red-rock canyons of southern Utah.
During its mass-market heyday in the 1960s and '70s, countless snapshooters put friendships in peril every time they hauled out a carousel projector and trays of slides to replay a family vacation.
But the landmark color-transparency created by Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes -- "God and Man" in photo research circles -- went into a tailspin a generation ago. It was eclipsed by video, easy-to-process color negative films and a tidal-wave preference for hand-sized prints.
Nowadays, Kodachrome is confined to a small global market of devotees
who wouldn't settle for anything else. And before long, industry watchers say,
Kodak might well stop serving that steadily shrinking niche as the 128-year-old
photography pioneer bets its future on electronic imaging.

Not as earth shaking as worldwide threats if war and economic collapse but a sad day for many never the less.

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Pastel Fuchsia

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Canna

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Another Tiger Flower

Tigridia pavonia: Tiger Flower, Mexican Shell Flower


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Aganpanthus

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Red Tiger Flower

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Sun Reflection in Chicken Creek

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Tiger Lily

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The Best of Oregon

I have had visitors for the last week and we have taken several day trips from Portland. One of them was a trip up the Columbia River Gorge and back around Mt Hood.
The is the Columbia River Gorge looking east from Crown Point.

In the Gorge you will find the second highest waterfall in the United States, Multnomah Falls.

This is Mount Hood from Timberline Lodge.

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White Iris

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More Iris

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Iris

If you have been here before you know I think the most photogenic flower is the Iris. I have a couple of new example for 2008.
This is a beautiful nearly white Iris.


I really like this one.

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Wild Flowers

After a week of below average temperatures we had a pleasant day in the low 70s on Saturday here in the Pacific Northwest. I took the opportunity to head to the woods and check out the wildflowers. The most exciting find was two rare Calypso Orchids also known as fairy slippers. The flowers themselves are about the size of a quarter.

Also in bloom was the Fawn Lily

and the Giant Trillium.

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Pastel Tulips

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Spring

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Mt Hood, March 3, 2008

Mt Hood from Tigard Oregon shortly after sunset and shortly before a storm arrives.


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Multi-Level History

I currently have the privilege to be working on some of the most incredible photographs I have ever seen. I digitally archive old photographs for a living. This current collection I am working on is a treasure of history and the history of early amateur photography. As an added benefit some are truly art. The early photographer may have left something to be desired technically but he was an artist.

This photo is an example of the history in this collection. The scene here is under water in back of the Dalles Dam on the Columbia River.


This is an example of the art.

I'll have more from this collection in the future.

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Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Jefferson, Oregon from McKenzie Pass.

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