Kodak Falls Victim To Own Creation: Digital Photography

Unable To Adapt, Kodak Calls It Quits (For Now)

Eastman Kodak Co., one of the most recognizable name brands of the 20^th century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Thursday after months of speculation about the company’s ability to stay afloat amid falling sales in an increasingly digital world. A vanguard brand in the world of photography, Kodak became a household name with products such as Instamatic cameras and Kodachrome photographic film (forever immortalized in the song by Paul Simon). But this former trailblazer has lost its glory now that film cameras and printed photos are on their way to becoming relics of the past. Digital photography, which actually originated decades ago at Kodak, has now made the film maker nearly obsolete. Although Kodak did try to compete in the digital camera business, it never had as strong a presence as camera hardware specialist such as Nikon and Canon, or consumer electronics giants such as Sony. Interestingly, the advent of digital photography has now cannibalized the digital camera business as well, because smartphone cameras have become so good and so ubiquitous that many casual users have ditched their point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Based out of Rochester, New York, Kodak has been exposed to heavy foreign competition in its primary business of film sales and processing, and has had a dwindling customer base over the last 15 years or so. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the news was “difficult and disappointing,” and that the city of Rochester owed much to the 132-year-old company. With the help of an 18-month, $950-million credit facility from Citigroup, Kodak continue operating through the restructuring. Kodak’s CEO Antonio M. Perez said that filing for bankruptcy was “a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak.” In the last nine years, Kodak has closed13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, laying off 47,000 workers in the process.

Widespread film digitization, which of course has contributed to Kodak’s woes, may eventually be the key to future profitability. Last year, the company’s digital and printing technologies accounted for 75% of its revenue. Many analysts believe that film digitization wasn’t Kodak’s main problem. Instead, the trouble lay in the fact that Kodak didn’t listen its own innovators – the ones who invented digital photography – when they predicted that digitization would one day make the film business obsolete. Back then, the film industry was Kodak’s main moneymaker, and the company wasn’t prepared for widespread sea change. Just ten years ago, Kodak stock was trading at $20 or more. Last Thursday, it was down 35% from the day before – at 36 cents per share.

Book Shows Concept Art Behind Film’s Influential Aesthetic

Digital Scans Available Free Online, 30 Years After Book’s Publication

Based on Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, the seminal science fiction film “Blade Runner” forever changed the way we envision the future. Since its release in 1982, “Blade Runner” has helped define our goals and fears for a future society, and has lent a sense of concreteness to our conceptions of what the future may look like. In popular film, very few movies (1989’s Back to the Future Part II comes to mind) have made so lasting impression on our idea of what the future may hold in terms of technology and social constructs. Stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young were memorable in their portrayals of their characters, but it was the setting of a post-modern apocalyptic Los Angeles of 2019 that gave the film such staggering impact.

In the film, genetically engineered organic robots called replicants, which are sentient and look just like humans, serve various purposes on Earth’s off-world colonies but are banned on the planet itself. Replicants who ignore the ban are hunted and destroyed by “Blade Runners,” a team of special ops policemen. Expert Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is ready for retirement, but agrees to one final assignment in hunting down a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding out in Los Angeles.

The film’s visuals were created by a team of visionaries, including director Ridley Scott, designer Syd Mead, and effects specialist Douglas Trumbull. The influence of the aesthetic they created was so profound that many elements of the film’s visuals still pop up in movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, and more. This elaborate creation included cyberpunks, flying cars, and a crumbling urban backdrop that now has both retro and futuristic sensibilities. When the film was released, a limited edition Blade Runner Sketchbook was published to document the entire visual concept of the movie. This rare book can occasionally be found online, selling for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But now the entire book has been scanned to digital and published online, allowing the whole world to see how the aesthetic of “Blade Runner” was created 30 years ago. Best of all, the digital scans of the book can be accessed for free, courtesy of a leading digital publishing platform called Issuu.

Photojournalist Eve Arnold Was Known For Candid Images Of People

Arnold Captured Celebrities And Unknowns All Over The World

Pioneering photojournalist Eve Arnold, renowned for her exceptional photographs of people both famous and unknown, has died at the age of 99. Perhaps best known for her candid shots of Hollywood celebrities in both formal and informal settings, Arnold was one of the first woman photojournalists to join the prestigious Magnum Photography Agency in the 1950s. Magnum announced that Arnold died Wednesday, January 4^th, at a London nursing home. The photo above, which was scanned to digital by Magnum, shows Arnold at work in 1963.

Arnold began her long and celebrated career with Magnum on a freelance basis in 1951, when woman journalists were very uncommon. She later became a full member of the group in 1957. She traveled the world for her work, navigating distant countries and cultures from Dubai to Mongolia. She photographed horse trainers, factory workers, harem women – anyone and everyone became fascinating subjects through her lens. Arnold’s photo essays were compiled into many books, though most were first published in feature news magazines.

Los Angeles gallery owner Stephen White said that Eve was more than just “a very good photographer.” She was also “socially significant,” said White, “as one of a group of women photographers who emerged after World War II.” Arnold was one of only two female photographers to join the Magnum Photography Agency during that period; the other was Inge Morath, who joined Magnum as a full member in 1955. “Magnum was a macho culture when Eve started there,” said Mary Panzer, former curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. “She had the determination to stay.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, considered the greatest reportage photographers of the time, were two of the agency’s founding members. In her momoir, “Eve Arnold: In Retrospect” (1995), Arnold recalls studying Cartier-Bresson’s images to learn how to tell a story in a single photograph, and pouring over the work of others to learn how each photographer approached an assignment. “I began to haunt the files at Magnum,” she wrote.

In the mid 1950s, Arnold began to specialize in photographing Hollywood stars, such as Marilyn Monroe, using a raw photojournalistic approach rather than one of polished poses, fake settings, and fabricated moments. “Marilyn liked my photographs,” said Arnold in an interview for “Film Journal” magazine, “and was canny enough to realize that they were a fresh approach for presenting her – a looser, more intimate look than the posed studio portraits she was used to in Hollywood.” Arnold also photographed stars Joan Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as important historical figures such as Malcolm X.

Arnold is survived by her son Francis and three grandchildren.

To see a collection of Eve Arnold’s photos that have been scanned to digital by Magnum, visit Magnum Photos.

USC Digital Library Represents Collaboration Among Historical Societies,

Newspapers, And More

Organizations Work Together For Preservation And Accessibility

The photo seen here was taken at the 1951 tree lighting ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and scanned to digital for inclusion in the University of Southern California’s vast Digital Library. The USC library system has set out to “select, collect, preserve, and make accessible” an enormous collection of unique materials, including high resolution digital photographs, oral histories and sound recordings, moving images, maps, documents, physical objects, and more. This wealth of media is organized within the USC Digital Library, which includes metadata to support research. The digital collection helps fulfill the university’s mission to provide an online gateway to research resources about Los Angeles and Southern California.

Some of the high quality digital images accessible from the USC Digital Library website are “on loan” from collaborating institutions that have agreed to share their collections. Together these institutions have contributed to the creation of the largest and most valuable archival collection of digital media related to the history and culture of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. The USC Digital Library provides a powerful infrastructure to create the host environment for these collaborators, all of which benefit from working toward the common goals of preservation and accessibility. The digital collections comprise a host of materials from the USC Libraries, as well as from various historical societies, other libraries, newspapers, and other organizations with rich collections of historical artifacts relating to the Southern California, the Western United States, and the Pacific Rim. Particular emphasis has been placed on artifacts from these regions, though the collections are by no means limited to this part of the country.

The USC Digital Library spans a wide range of media, including audio and video recordings, but visual media compose the bulk of the collection. The digital archive includes thousands of photographs, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, posters, prints, maps, rare illustrated books, and more – all scanned to digital at high resolution to capture every detail. The USC Digital Library continues to grow as navigation is enhanced and the collections evolve.

Visit the USC Digital Library to explore this amazing collection.

CameraTrace by GadgetTrak Lets You Search The Web For

Images Taken On Your Digital Camera

Benefits From The Digital Age Yet Again

Last summer, photographer John Heller made headlines when he recovered his stolen camera and lenses using a new technology from GadgetTrak, a company based in Portland, Oregon that specializes in theft recovery and data protection solutions for mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones. While on assignment for Getty Images, Heller had lost his prized Nikon D3 digital camera and several lenses (valued at over $9,000) to a thief at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Using GadgetTrak’s new CameraTrace service, then in a beta testing phase called Camera Serial Search, Heller searched the web for images embedded with a digital serial number that matched his stolen camera. He found several digital images that had been recently posted to the online photo-sharing site Flickr, and gave this information to the police. The police tracked the images via Facebook, to another professional photographer who had unwittingly purchased the stolen gear. The gear had actually been sold twice, first on Craigslist and later on e-Bay.

GadgetTrak has recently announced that CameraTrace is now available to consumers who want to safeguard their digital cameras. The service uses the meta-data attached to digital images to tag the photos with the camera’s serial number. By creating a digital “identity” for your camera, CameraTrace allows you to search the worldwide Web for any image captured on the device. If your camera has been stolen, you can even use the system to file a police report. The GadgetTrak service even includes individual help throughout the process of finding and reclaiming your equipment. The company will even speak with local law enforcement to plead your case and explain the use of its technology.

CameraTrace users pay a one-time fee of $10 per camera for registration in the service. All Web searches and subsequent services are free, including an image-monitoring service which scans photos Facebook, Flickr, etc. to see if anyone is using your copyrighted images without permission. For serious photographers, this added bonus might easily be worth the price of admission for CameraTrace. But even if your camera cost only a few hundred dollars, CameraTrace may be a cost-effective form of insurance against loss and theft.

New Digital L.A. Times Photo Gallery Documents Over A Century In Pictures

Gallery Also Includes Historical Front Pages

The powerful and tragic photo seen here shows a Hermosa Beach couple in 1955, just moments after learning that their 19-month-old child had been swept out to sea. Los Angeles Times photographer Jack Gaunt won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for press photography for capturing this image, which the Pulitzer committee described as “poignant and profoundly moving.” Gaunt was at his beachfront home that morning, when a neighbor shouted “Something’s happening on the beach!” The photographer instinctively grabbed his Rolliflex camera and sprinted to the water’s edge, where he captured the haunting image even before knowing what was transpiring. The photo appeared on the front page of The Times on the following morning. In Gaunt’s 2007 Times Obituary, his daughter recalled that this image, which won Gaunt so much acclaim, was hard to bear for the famed photographer.

Gaunt was one of many notable photographers to work for the Los Angeles Times during its 130 years (and counting) in print. Other Pulitzer Prize winners include Clarence Williams (1998), Don Bartletti (2003), Carolyn Cole (2004), and Barbara Davidson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography this year. Although not present at the paper’s inception in 1881, photography quickly became an integral part of the Times experience. Now celebrating its 130^th anniversary, the Los Angeles Times is recognizing its rich history with a new gallery of historical photos which have been scanned to digital for all to enjoy on the Times website. The times notes that “the nature of news and photography has moved from the printing press and darkroom to the digital frontier,” and plans to join the two media to celebrate more than a century’s worth of images of significant events in the region’s history.

This digital gallery offers a glimpse of Southern California history as it developed, documenting “the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the rise of Hollywood, natural disasters, wars, the political careers of presidents and deaths of notable figures.” These images were captured by some of the most acclaimed photographers in the history of journalism. The gallery also includes some of the most memorable front pages in Times history, scanned to digital in high resolution. See how the world read about the sinking of the Titanic, the end of World War I and World War II, and other world-changing events.

To see this remarkable collection of images, visit LA Times.

We’re a pretty hard working bunch here at ScanDigital, but every year in late May and June you’ll catch a handful of us making sure we’re getting out of the office with plenty of time to make the NBA Finals – ESPECIALLY when the Lakers are playing in the finals.

We even had two employees take the day off to attend the championship parade.  So in honor of the 2009 NBA Champion LA Lakers, here are photos from each Finals they’ve ever won.  You’ll be scrolling down for a bit – there are 15 of them (16 if you count the championship they won before they moved into the NBA).

1948

1949

1950

1952

1953

1954

1980

1982

1985

1987

1988

2000

2001

2002

2009

We all have them somewhere…boxes and boxes full of old photos and home movies…simply sitting in a dark closet or attic, gathering dust, cluttering the room and, perhaps worst of all, not being enjoyed by everyone.  The beauty of the digital age is that old memories no longer need to be relegated to some messy box.  Converting the materials to digital is not only a space saver, but also ensures that those precious moments will be preserved for future generations!

Here are five reasons why you need help preserving those memories:

1. Goodbye Color, Hello Faded Memories – The longer photographic materials and home movies are sitting, the more the color is fading.  Unfortunately, the materials in their original state do not last forever, it is simply a natural part of the aging process- the color is bound to fade and shift with time.  Storing the materials in a dark place at a moderate temperature may slow this process, but won’t stop it.  Add some sunlight in the mix and the fading can occur even more dramatically. Your photos and home movies are deteriorating for a number of reasons and there’s only one thing you can do about it.  To guarantee your family’s archived memories are preserved, they need to be converted to a digital format.

2. Mother Nature Takes No Pity on Precious Memories – Your archive of photos and home movies may be seemingly safe in the shoeboxes in a closet or basement, but chances are they won’t be for long.  Accidents and unforeseeable things, such as floods, fires and other uncontrollable forces of Mother Nature, pose a threat to photos and home movies.  The originals of can never be replaced.  Once the original captured memory is lost, it’s gone forever.  I also encourage a duplicate backup of all digital photos and home movies. Unlike the physical material, digital copies do last forever.

3. Who Said Memories Need to Be So Bulky? – Digital photos and video take up no extra space or require any extra room. Their analog counterparts on the other hand create quite a cluttered mess.  All those old camcorder tapes occupy valuable closet space.  Stacks of photo albums can occupy entire shelves.  Old slides, negatives and film reels can be messy.  Compare that to digital images and movies which easily fit on discs or on compact hard drives – an instant space saver!

4. VCR? Slide Projector? – Unfortunately terms that were once part of our everyday language have gone to the technology graveyard.  Even if your materials are in pristine condition, there is a good chance that the machine used to view them is either already obsolete or will be in the next five years.  Digital conversion unlocks these memories and brings them into a format where they can easily be viewed.

5. Send, Share, Create! – Digital technologies have opened up so many new possibilities for our prized memories.  Digital photos can be turned into a canvas print or a photobook in a snap.  We can edit and upload our videos to YouTube in minutes.  Relatives from all over the world can access and share their favorite photos with friends.  Gone are the days of those photo albums with sticky plastic pages or the evening slideshow in the living room.  In this new digital age things are far more accessible.  There is no reason those old memories shouldn’t be enjoyed the same way!

‘MommyGoggles’ from the MomDot review team wrote a wonderful review of ScanDigital after trying our service. She described her experience using our service to convert her video tapes of her daughter’s childhood to digital format in detail. Check out what she had to say:

Preserve your VHS memories with ScanDigital

I think we all have those old video tapes stored away in boxes that we are telling ourselves “I swear I am going to have that VHS put on a DVD”, yet time passes and we don’t get it done. Why? Maybe money is an issue. Time? Who knows why we take so long to get something preserved that is so precious to us, but today is a whole new day. 

I had a very special opportunity to work with ScanDigital to have a VHS tape that I have of my 14 year old daughter, in to a DVD that will last a whole lot longer than a VHS tape can last. I have had this tape of “K” and have added on footage of her ultrasound from when I was pregnant with her, the day she was born, and so many years of precious memories that were captured on VHS. My process with ScanDigital was so fast, so easy and I am truly amazed by their customer service and speedy work! 

Here was my process: 

• I registered for an account on www.scandigital.com on 2/8/09
• I went in and told them that I had a VHS tape to transfer, clicked through super fast and printed a shipping label. 
• My VHS tape was shipped on 2/10/09
• ScanDigital received shipment on 2/13/09
• Order was completed on 2/18/09
• I received my finished product on 2/23/09

I received emails all throughout the entire process letting me know they received my shipment, that my order was complete, as well as that my products was shipped. I LOVE being updated that way! I was beyond excited when my finished product arrived! Not only did they send me a nice, keepsake case with the finished DVD in it, but they also customized the cover with screen shots of each chapter that is included in my DVD.

How much was this? To have a VHS put on a DVD was just $19.95! They also do pictures on DVD and so much more. If you have home movies laying around, get them to ScanDigital! You will not regret it!

The quality of my DVD is amazing! Honestly, it is better than the VHS tape was!

Thank you to MomDot Reviews and ScanDigital for a truly heartwarming opportunity!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time, but I wanted to share with everyone our experience from NYC at the end of October.  I spent a week in New York with Pamela Weiss our head of marketing/PR and Matt Stone our VP, Operations.  The original impetus for the trip was the PhotoPlus Expo trade show and then we extended the trip a bit to accomplish other meetings as well.

It was an exciting and fast paced trip, but we returned with new ideas, new customers and new connections.  We also had a ton of fun and enjoyed being in the city along the way.  Just an all around successful week.

We decided to take a red-eye in order to not lose a day with the West to East coast.  We had enjoyed a comfortable flight on the new VirginAmerica airline (I’d recommend giving them a try) and arrived in NYC’s JFK airport at 5:30 AM, grabbed our bags and headed off to our hotel.  After dropping off our bags, we went to the Javits Center to set up our booth for the show.  We completed set up by 8:30 AM and had about 3 hours to kill before we could access our hotel rooms.

Quick thinking, I decided we’d all go to my favorite breakfast spot from my NYC days, the Crooked Tree Creperie on St. Marks between 1st Avenue and Avenue A.  We arrived to learn they were closed which became a theme of the trip – three attempts, three strikes.

So we grabbed breakfast and a diner close by and headed back to the hotel.  Then we waited…and waited…and waited some more for our rooms to open up.

We were all pretty worn out, Matt and I decided to hang out in the lobby and Pamela decided to fight the drowsiness with caffeine.  Which resulted in a highly caffeinated Pamela snapping photos of an exhausted Matt and I in the lobby.  Here is some of her finer work:

Finally we checked in and settled in.  A great businessman once told me success is all about shoe leather, meaning you just have to get out and work those leather soles for revenues.  Matt and I agree, but only wanted to work the bottom leather if the top leather was looking great.  So we hit Grand Central Station for a shine:

With newly shined shoes, during the first evening in NYC, I had the pleasure of attending the Inc. Magazine reception for their 30 under 30 list, due to our July feature in their Start Up issue.  It was great to meet the Inc. team in person and I met so many great young entrepreneurs.

The next day we began the PhotoPlus Expo show.  Our booth turned out great and we had an opportunity to speak with a meet many existing customers and reach so many potential customers.  We always gain so much be being on the tradeshow floor speaking directly with our customers.  Running an online business, it is so easy to be trapped behind the computer, but so important to be out greeting customers and talking about our business.  The show lasted three days and was well attended.

Here is a great shot of our booth:

After our first day at the show, I wanted Matt and Pamela to experience Duke’s – a terrific BBQ restaurant on the east side.  It was a staple of my diet for more than two years in NYC and I was thrilled to return.  Matt didn’t hold back ordering their Sampler Platter, which basically was five kinds of meat on one plate.  Sides were served on a second plate and everything is washed down with the house beer – Pabst Blue Ribbon (which is elegantly served in a bucket).  This photo says it all:

After three days on our feet, we celebrated another successful ScanDigital tradeshow at my favorite restaurant – Blue Water Grill:

Pamela and I stayed in NYC for two more days after the show to meet with members of the press and tell the ScanDigital story.  The highlight for me was the afternoon we spent at the Hearst Tower.  The Tower was completed in 2005 after I had moved to Los Angeles, so I had never seen the building.  I must say it is now in my top 5 buildings in the world.  I was amazed and Pamela quickly was tired of hearing me rave about the buildings outstanding architecture.  The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster, was the first Gold LEED certified skyscraper in NYC.  I’ll let you read about it here if you’re interested, but one quick fact – using an exoskeloton design they saved the use of over 2,000 tons of steel…Amazing!

Overall it was a fun, exciting and successful NYC trip for the ScanDigital team!

Check out a 30 second slideshow here: