All day the twitter messages have been flying — bye bye Kodachrome. The last Kodachrome processing lab closes today - Thursday, December 30, 2010. After 75 years, no more Kodachrome.

Good article in NY Times web site.

Last week, I got my final three rolls back from Dwayne's photo but couldn't go through them till last night. Something called Christmas got in the way.

I had spent a recent Sunday afternoon at Santa Monica Pier, above photo, shooting those three rolls with only a 50 mm lens. A good exercise in composing each image one frame at a time.

There were several good images, but many frames had a blue shift in shadows. I was bummed. I suspect it was a combination of underexposure and out-of-date film purchased on ebay. Oh well. I posted fifty frames to my Kodachome flickr set.

From 1935 till about 2000, nothing could beat Kodachrome. The entire World War Two and baby boom generations grew up using Kodachrome. Today I have several boxes full of my parents Kodachrome images.

Two good examples of how Kodachrome holds up are these Bob Hope images at photography and the mac.com

and this 16 mm Kodachrome movie footage of 1945 VJ day in Honolulu.

Dwayne's Photo is closing their Kodachrome processing line and selling T-shirts marking the event.

Today's later afternoon break in the weather resulted in another rainbow over Los Angeles City Hall. Los Angeles Times staff photographer Bob Chamberlin was taking photos - protected by a broken umbrella. Made a nice pic.

Yep, I'm back shooting some soccer. Several Newbury Park High School soccer parents twisted my arm - only took a little twist - and I'm back. I shot the boys against Saugus HS on Monday, December 6th, and vs Calabasas on the 13th. These are now posted. I also shot the girls this last Wednesday against Morrpark, but have not posted these yet.

Enjoy

Newbury Park High School Soccer website.

My soccer page for links to dotphoto albums.

Usually the fog burns off in the morning. Yesterday was different. The great weather on Sunday and Monday changed. Early in the morning I noticed some fog around the edges of Newbury Park. Then around 11am it was getting thicker. Bummer - bad weather coming.

I hiked up a hill off Wendy Drive at 11am Tuesday and took this snap of the fog rolling in over the Conejo Grade. I pushed the contrast with Topaz detail.

Last night's Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk featured the CMENOW (cimi'nau) collective painting project created by Alexandr Goretsky. Held in the Medallion Building at 4th and Main, close to my office, a group of artists were painting live in collective paint circles. Each artist takes turns working on a canvas, then moves to another canvas.

Now this was really fun to watch, real art being produced during Art Walk.

I posted nine photos to my flickr Art Walk set.

More info at the main Art Walk web site.

Photos: Above artist Matt Elson works on canvas during CMENOW project. Below, the main paint circle last night during Art Walk.

Those three rolls of Kodachrome kept shouting — use us or lose us!

Sunday looked bad — overcast and downright crummy weather. Then it hit me, no crowds at Santa Monica pier. Off I went for my own photo walk, armed only with one old Canon Rebel film camera and 50 mm lens.

Was fun, shot all three rolls. But I found two downsides. After shooting a frame, I kept looking at the back of the Rebel, but alias, no little video monitor. Boy am I hooked by digital cameras.

Second bummer, was writing a check to Dwayne's photo lab. Processing, mounting, scans onto cds and postage runs $50 for three roles of Kodachrome. And I have to wait two weeks to find out how my pics came out.

A few good reminders why I love digital.

Reminder: The last Kodachrome processing lab, Dwayne's Photo or Parsons, Kansas, closes its Kodachrome lab on December 30th.

Civil War 2010 is over, at least for me. There is always next year. I uploaded the last of 85 images last night to my Civil War 2010 - the antique versions flickr set.

Its time consuming, but I like the results. My basic steps this year:

1 - In Lightroom apply the sepia hint preset from the Redrex Presets Collection. I liked this preset that lightened and desaturated the original.

2 - Desaturated about 25% more in Lightroom or after moved to Photoshop.

3-Opened in Photoshop and applied Topaz Adjust (most images) or Topaz Detail. This increased local contrast, added detail and often gave a slight HDR look to the image.

4 - Applied a rough border.

Flickr Civil War 2010 - the antique version

Yep, its time to return to Pershing Square - the holiday lights and ice skating rink are up. Last year I enjoyed doing long exposures of the lights. The pic above is from last week.

Just to be outdone, co-worker Robert Lachman wrote up a blog post for the LA Times Framework on shooting holiday lights.
Here is the link.

Its worth checking out.