6.26.2009


Good summer weekend, everyone. Wherever you may be.




:amalia chimera, salt rocks

6.23.2009

don't take my kodachrome away



As you probably know by now, the Eastman Kodak Company announced Monday that it's retiring its most senior film because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age. The world's first commercially successful color film, immortalized in song by Paul Simon, spent 74 years in Kodak's portfolio. 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.

Indeed, Kodachrome was favored by still and motion picture photographers for its rich but realistic tones, vibrant colors and durability. It was the basis not only for countless family slideshows on carousel projectors over the years but also for world-renowned images, including Abraham Zapruder's 8-mm reel of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

As a tribute to the film, Kodak has compiled on its website a gallery of iconic images, including Steve McCurry's Afghan girl and others from photographers Eric Meola and Peter Guttman.


Did you know? Unlike any other color film, Kodachrome is purely black and white when exposed. The three primary colors that mix to form the spectrum are added in three development steps rather than built into its layers. Because of the complexity in manufacturing, only Dwayne's Photo, in Parsons, Kansas, still processes Kodachrome film. The lab has agreed to continue through 2010, Kodak said.

Let the stockpiling begin.





:ylebiann via flickr; tribute to kodachrome

6.20.2009

you're not in kansas anymore



And neither am I, apparently.

Here's the thing. A few weeks back, I opened a swell new custom domain: swoond.
At that point, Blogger/Google was happily, stealthily redirecting my diana:muse visitors to the new site. I had plans to officially launch swoond in the weeks ahead, but Blogger botched that up pretty good. Last week, something untoward occurred in the Blogger/Google situation room. Many blogspot blogs - large, small and everything in betwixt - stopped redirecting visitors to custom domain sites. Mine was among the unfortunates (you'll see what this means if you try getting to diana:muse - it's a dead end). Ah, well. Que sera, sera.

All this to say, "I'm amazed that you found me! You're the top! You're the Coliseum. You're the top! You're the Louvre Museum. You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss. You're a Bendel bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet, you're Mickey Mouse." So there.

If you have the time and inclination, please update your diana:muse links and logs and all that to swoond dot com - the URL is http://www.swoond.com/. Here's hoping that the redirect function is up and running again at some future point. And be on the lookout for the official swoond opening - probably sometime in July. I'll be away for a while, but I plan to do some blogging from afar. Much love all 'round, my darlings.


And remember: There's no place like home. Wherever that may be.


* Update (6/23) from the The Great and Powerful Wizard of Blogger/Google: The redirect function is back ON. You can travel here via diana:muse or swoond. Yippity skip. Be seeing you real soon, my pretties.



:akurania via photobucket

6.02.2009

b e a u t i m u s e




Darlings. Do me the honor of visiting beautimuse, my new site for sharing über-sized images and designs of my making. I've been madly shooting photos for the past several weeks, strengthening bonds with my trusty little Nikon Coolpix (not kidding), my DianaF+ (of course) and my old Polaroids. Inspired as ever by all the gorgeousness that Jane and Lori offer (every. single. day. — they amaze me and I love them both), I loaded up on shots of some peonies (slay me) that I received on a recent special occasion, posing them against a black field and capturing them in various stages of bloomage and degeneration. As you know (well, I imagine that you know), I gots to have me lots of visual beauty if I hope to approximate a modicum of sanity. It's a process.




I'm so happy to share these with you. Let me know what you think. (I realize that many of you prefer the emailz for your communiqués. No worries. Find me at dianamusemail at gmail dot com or leave a комментарии just below.) Much love all 'round.








:dianamuse via beautimuse

6.01.2009



Wishing you a dreamy new week. Wherever you may be.




:rodney smith