June Twenty Twee

Well, at long last, I’m back from my fantastic trip, and actually starting to edit my photos! This may be a personal record for me considering that it is 2 years since my trip to Europe and 8 months since my trip to Africa and I still haven’t made a real dent in editing or posting any pictures. We’ll see how long it takes me to get through the Ireland and England bunch. Check out some fisheyes of my lomo

Anyway, truly excellent trip!!!! Which I really needed. Apparently I’ve been so stressed out that my body decided that having shingles would be an excellent way to do a trip (I’ve certainly had worse on my travels). Luckily I had it for over a week before we left, so I got through the painful stuff at home.

In Ireland we had some really great experiences, saw much of the country (which really is as beautiful as everyone has made you think it its), had sunny gorgeous “adventure perfect” weather, drank a lot of Murphy’s and Guinness, and drank A LOT of Jameson. We also sang that song that goes, “My baby takes the morning train/ he works from 9 to 5 and then/ he takes the train back home again/ to find me waiting for him” by Sheena Easton. I don’t know why, but Chris got it stuck in all of our heads. There was also a plethora of Lady Gaga, Shania Twain, and Lily Allen. Someday soon Taylore will complete a movie of our trip and I’ll post it here somehow - it will give a much better account of our hooligan-ish antics than I can here.

England, likewise, was fantastic. The conference was amazing! The English Riviera is beautiful. It was really great to see my UK friends again, especially Holly, Jo, Kathy, Tony, Andy, and Mark as well as the Brasilian girls and Robynn from South Africa. I learned some new stuff (which is always good) and did some networking and work for Shape. After the conference I tagged along with my Mom, Karen, and Jackson for a lovely weekend in London (where I’ve decided I need to move to) and then two more days in Dublin before heading home.

It has been busy since I’ve been back, with family visiting and starting a new job sub contracting with an engineering firm here in San Diego, all the meanwhile catching up with friends, family, and applying for all sorts of jobs. There has been loads going on in the almost two weeks I’ve been back, and I’ll catch up on that at a later date.

Taking the KodaChrome out of Kodak

As some of you may have heard today, Kodak is stopping production of their Kodachrome film. Considering the difficult developing process (only one lab in the world processes it), the expense of manufacturing the film, and that it makes up some miniscule portion of their product market, Kodak has made the economically sound decision to stop production.

Economically sound it may be, but I think it also signals something all of us who are into photography or other types of print media or art are constantly aware of - the end of an era. Don’t get me wrong, I am a digital photographer and a fan of digital art work, but there is something to be said for the beauty of a photograph taken on a roll of film and processed in a dark room.

There are definite bonuses on either side of the print vs. digital argument, and my friends can spin very heated circles around the issue, so I don’t really feel like getting into it here. However, having recently purchased a Lomo Fisheye, I’ve rediscovered the joy of getting back my film, the time it takes to get through a roll, and making every shot count. It reminds me of growing up and using the first camera that I could call my very own, or borrowing my Mom’s SLR to take to Alaska.

Nowadays I use digital cameras, so I make sure I increase my chances of getting a good shot (incredibly useful when your subjects are critters, as mine often are), but I am trying hard now to apply the film paradigm of shooting to my digital photo taking. Except of course, as some will tell you, when I travel ;)