I finally did it. In August I threw out all of my photographic film. I consigned the little canisters of Ilfords, Fujichromes, and yes, even venerable Kodachrome to the kitchen trash can. A high three-digit dollar investment down the tubes.
Part of the reason I gave the rolls the heave-ho was because I basically stopped taking "artistic" pictures from 1993 onward, so about half of the rolls had expiry dates from that period and have been lying fallow in the freezer since. In the interim, I've been cranking out the odd family portrait and special occasion shot using colour print film in Betty's point-and-shoot, and most recently, using my 4 megapixel Canon.
In this age of CCDs, cheap memory and printers, I really saw no point in exposing and developing possibly spoiled and colour-shifted film and then having to pay for the prints or slides. I even tried to give some of it away, but to no avail.
Adieu, little green and yellow boxes. The shutter has closed one last time. You will never again see the light of day, in my camera or anybody else's. I've captured your downfall in the above digital shot. Oh, the shame.
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Note: Betty and I celebrated our anniversary last Saturday. I had a New York strip loin, and she a filet mignon. We married in 1993.
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Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away
-Kodachrome by Paul Simon
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The nature of conversation is that it's shapeless. If we knew exactly what was going to be said, we would be bored and wouldn't have the conversation.
-Paul Simon
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