"TRANSPARENCY"

I'm really getting tired of the newest buzzword in politics, "transparency". I’m not going to get all political here. This is not that kind of blog…… yet. Maybe as I keep trying to digress from cameras and photography I’ll get there someday. But for now I’ll leave political commentary to the likes of Charles Krauthammer and to be fair, Maureen Dowd and many others.

The camera – photography thing does seem to becoming a kind of spring board for other topics, which I kind of like. But, to me, transparency meant color slide film or color slides such as Kodachrome and it's under appreciated kid brother, Ektachrome. (Why couldn’t someone write a song about a Canon camera and Ektachrome?) I always had a greater fondness for Ektachrome. As Kodak itself suggested, Ektachrome had stronger blues and greens and was therefore more suited for landscape and outdoor photography, which is what I like. I still refer to crystal clear blue sky, bright white puffy cloud, green grass kind of days as “Ektachrome days”. The kind of day you want to keep in a jar or, on a roll of film and save it forever. Taking pictures is like keeping a moment in a bottle. Besides, Ektachrome could be developed at home almost as easily as black and white, my other film of choice, Tri-X, to be exact. I remember getting quite a thrill seeing color positive film coming out of the stainless steel Kindermann tank for the first time. It was as magical as seeing a black and white print emerge from the Dektol waters beneath the deep red light of the dark room! Although, Kodachrome is no longer in production, Ektachrome still survives under the alias of “Elite Chrome”. Elite Chrome uses the same E-6 developing process as Ektachrome.

“If your not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”. I suppose like a lot of shutter bugs I’m partly to blame for the demise of Kodachrome. It began way back in the 1970’s long before anyone ever heard of digital photography, actually it hadn’t really even existed yet. I used to experiment with different slide films such as the also now defunct Dynachrome and Agfachrome. But one of the films that kind of stuck with me as a good substitute for Kodachrome was Fujichrome. It was very much like Kodachrome but had a faster speed of 100 ASA (yes, it used to be ASA before it was changed to ISO) instead of 64 ASA and it was probably a little cheaper. Later, like everyone else I shot more digital pictures, which are actually very similar to slides or transparencies especially when viewed on a computer screen. I always liked the idea of a large backlit transparency (which is the term usually used when referring to “chromes” larger than 35mm slides) as opposed to a projected image on a screen. I used to think it would be neat, albeit extremely expensive, to make 11”x14” transparencies and mount them in light box frames! That is essentially what we have now with iPhoto and many other viewing programs for looking at digital pictures on a computer monitor. For something more portable, the iPod has made the photo album all but obsolete.

Everything is becoming obsolete. Here’s another quote from the 60s: “The times they are a’ changin’”. Frankly, I was much more upset at the loss of Nabisco Royal Lunch Milk Crackers than the demise of Kodachrome. There is simply no replacement for the Nabisco Milk Cracker. It is sorely missed, especially at breakfast time! Another favorite of mine that has gone by the wayside is Aspergum.

Aspirin and gum combined – what a concept! I swear, it could kill a cold! So much for living in the past. For now I’ll just have to shoot digital with ISO settings, eat Graham Crackers, before they’re gone and chew raw aspirin!.......well, maybe vitamin C anyway.