Daily Archives: September 29, 2014

 

It was Fall of 1976, my daughter Catherine Anne was three months old and my father is holding her.  The shutter clicked and one of those images that defines your life as a photographer was exposed on a roll of Kodachrome!  For many years those yellow canisters filled the outside pocket of my camera bag.  Kodachrome was, for many years, the king of slide films.  As the T-shirt says; Paul sang about it. (Kodachrome  Paul Simon)  A state park was named after it, (Kodachrome Basin in Utah).  National Geographic shot their most famous photos on it.  With the advent of Fuji Film’s Velvia, then digital, and finally the EPA, it died.  Fuji became the rage, Kodak refused to understand that people wanted the brighter deeper colors, of course digital changed every thing for all films, and the Kodachrome process was highly toxic and the last straw was drawn when the Environmental Protection Agency said that Kodak could no longer run the film’s processing machines.

 

The image above is of  my daughter Catherine being held by my late father William Pelle Fortney, The image means a great deal to me, it was a tender moment of my father holding my daughter.  It is one of those images that endures in our hearts, our memories, and on film.  I’m glad I was shooting Kodachrome that day!  Seems funny but from time to time even shooting a digital camera when I’m in the thick of shooting and enjoying just the feeling of making images, I can hear Paul singing, “Kodachrome, you gives those nice bright colors, you give us the greens of summer, makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah, I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph, oh momma don’t take my Kodachrome away…..”  ……………. but they did!

 

 

Dwayne’s Photo developed the last roll of Kodachroime on December 30, 2010 for Steve McCurry of National Geographic.  For the images on that last roll see the link below:

 

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries/last-roll-kodachrome

 

If  you want the shirt, use the link below!

 

http://www.dwaynesphoto.com

 

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim