I have always been a big fan of National Geographic Magazine, so it was a big thrill for me when I was invited to speak last Tuesday week at an event commemorating the release of their latest book, National Geographic Image Collection.  This book is a magnificent collection of famous and never-before-released photos from the extensive photo archives of the National Geographic Society, which dates back over 100 years. This speaking event was billed as the "insider's look" at the making of the book.  I, of course, had nothing to do with the making of this book, but the other people also speaking certainly were.  They included the insightful Maura Mulvihill, who is the director of the Image Collection and helped select the images for the book from over 11 million possible images, plus a set of world famous photographers whose work appears in in its pages.  David Doubilet, Maria Stenzel, Chris Johns and William Allard all spoke about their work and what it means to them.  To top it off, Kodak CEO Antonio Perez started the evening off by sharing some of the common history that National Geographics and Kodak have together. He even held up a copy of the first advertisement that Kodak had in the magazine from the year 1909.



    The event was attended by several hundred photographers in their auditorium at the National Geographic's building on M street in Washington DC.  I was scheduled to be the last speaker of the evening and you might expect that I would have spent the evening nervously waiting my turn.  That was not the case however because all of the speakers before me had such interesting and compelling narratives about their photographs that I lost all sense of anticipation and got lost in their stories.  What wonderful photos of the mysterious polar ice cap, elephants sleeping on a moonlit African plain, and elusive snow leopards on rocky cliffs. There were stories of how to get a white shark to "pose" for that perfect shot (secret: don't get too close!) and the capturing of desert landscape scenes at dusk.



    My small part in all this was to talk about the invention of how I invented the digital camera here at Kodak and the contribution that digital imaging has made to photography. The real testimony, of course, is found in the pages of this book and the amazing images made possible by digital.

Common to all of the photographers who spoke was their passion for the medium and its power to express the wonders of our world.  It was a magical evening and I will not soon forget the stories I heard or the people I met. It was a great reminder that photography is really at its best when the art and science of the discipline come together in the hands of passionate storytellers. I hope everyone gets a chance to experience this wonderful collection of photos from National Geographic.

Why keep buying more expensive ink when you can replace the printer instead? Just in time for the ho-ho-ho-lidays, we're launching a new wave of advertising this weekend as part of our Inkjet Print and Prosper campaign. So far the campaign has been a huge success at driving awareness (and sales!) of our inkjet printer solution to Big Ink's trickery. We'll be online & on-air through the holidays, but check out a couple of new TV spots now.



This ad aims to get people to think ink, and switch to a Kodak printer.



This one calls out Big Ink's naughty practice of charging high prices for ink.

'Tis the season to stop overpaying for inkjet printer ink!  See how much you can save by visiting printandprosper.com.

More than 1,400 people participated in the Eyes on the Future 2009 annual economic development summit on Friday October 16 at St.John Fisher College, with Eastman Business Park the naming sponsor, and Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) the host of the event.

The purpose of the event was to promote collaboration and engagement among businesses, organizations and individuals in the Greater Rochester Region. The event also included a business and career event, EyesExpo, which preceded and followed the general session.

Fifty companies exhibited to include Eastman Business Park (EBP) which featured a large screen virtual model of available properties, and drew great interest from attendees.   In addition, several EBP key suppliers participated in the expo, along with a Kodak booth that featured our newest digital consumer products.
 








The summit highlighted a keynote address by Richard A. Bendis, president and CEO of InnovationAmerica, who emphasized how improving the economy requires a focus on an area's strengths, not its weaknesses.

The keynote highlighted the Greater Rochester Region's significant potential with 19 leading educational institutions, a skilled and talented workforce and a vibrant network of innovative businesses. He also called on business, political and community leaders to connect and work together on supporting entrepreneurial growth to further enable the nine-county area to successfully compete with the rest of the country.

GRE presented its Intellectual Density Quotient (IDQ), which provides a measure of the region's workforce in several areas.   IDQ includes the percentage of the population enrolled in college, patents issued per worker, the number of workers trained to excel in a knowledge-based economy and the number of companies ranked among the best places to work in the country.  Based on these criteria the nine-country Rochester Region outperforms communities five times its size.  For more information visit www.rochesterbiz.com.

It was a great event and another valuable opportunity for Eastman Business Park to share who we are and the outstanding features we have to offer.

To see something clearly, sometimes you need to change your perspective. Think out of the box. Turn the problem on its side. When you start to look at things differently, you sometimes start noticing things you couldn't see before.

A lot of times, the real challenge is figuring out just how to get that different perspective. It might be as simple as taking a walk and coming back to the problem when your mind is clear. But often, the best thing to do is to step back, look more broadly, and try to get a "big picture" view of the problem.

Satellites in orbit around the Earth do this all the time - they "step back" by hundreds of miles to provide a unique perspective on our planet. Today, a number of different commercial satellites are in operation around the Earth, each providing information used in applications as diverse as urban planning, mapping for natural resources, or evacuation planning and disaster response.

And that doesn't even count the really cool pictures you can call up on your computer in Google Maps - that really provides a different perspective on things.

Earlier this month, the latest of these commercial satellites - DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 - was successfully launched into Earth orbit. The capabilities of this satellite are pretty spectacular - from 770 km (about 500 miles) above the earth, it can capture images with a resolution of up to 50 cm (about 1.5 feet) over an area almost 1 million square km each day (which is a pretty big number, given that the entire surface of the earth is only around 150 million square km). Its orbit will also allow the satellite to revisit any location on the Earth's surface typically in just over 1 day, allowing for quick, high resolution updates of rapidly changing conditions on the surface.

As you might imagine, the entire process to design and launch a satellite is pretty complicated, involving sub-contractors who each specialize on different parts of the entire project. For the imaging system on WorldView-2 - the "eyes" of the entire satellite - DigitalGlobe worked with the Space Systems Division of ITT Corporation, who designed and built this key component. And when ITT needed custom CCD image sensors for this new imaging system, they came to Kodak.

This isn't the first time Kodak has worked with ITT to design and manufacture CCD image sensors for a commercial imaging satellite - we also worked with ITT on the sensors used in DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 and QuickBird satellites, as well as the IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites. But the CCD image sensors used in WorldView-2 give this satellite a unique set of imaging capabilities.

"Normal" color image sensors (like the one used in your digital camera, or in your phone) typically capture images in three different color ranges - red, green, and blue - and then use software to combine them into a single full color image. (Actually, this is very similar to how cone cells work in the retina of the eye.) The CCD image sensors in WorldView-2, however are different - instead of using three colors, they actually capture images across eight different wavelength regions, extending from the visible out into the IR. This extra color information can then be used to more accurately analyze vegetation on the ground, or generate more accurate "true-color" images from the satellite. In fact, this capability makes WorldView-2 unique, as it is the only commercial satellite that provides high resolution images across 8 different wavelength bands.

Less than two weeks after its launch, the first images from WorldView-2 have already been published by DigitalGlobe, as the satellite works through a 90-day initial calibration and check-out period. (If you're interested, you can even watch a replay of the satellite's launch.) After that, WorldView-2 should be fully on-line, providing new views of our planet from its orbit 500 miles above the Earth.

Not a bad place to gain some perspective.

Last week was the pdn PhotoPlus Expo in New York City. The show was well attended and the convention center filled with interested attendees.



Kodak had a great booth at the show.


Kodak's Dave Shelp was showing off the qualities of Kodak Professional Endura Metallic Paper. You have to see photos on this Metallic Paper to believe it. It is so dramatic and striking - it really has a metallic appearance -  it shimmers.



Jeff Heehs was talking to booth visitors about Kodak's Photo and Fine Art Papers like the Kodak Matte Canvas Paper. Photos printed on paper like the Matte Canvas look like works of art that should be hanging in a gallery.

Jeff talks about the paper in this video.





There was lots more at the booth... high speed scanning, kiosks, digital cameras, film and more.



And there were lots of smiling Kodakers ready to assist - pictured here are Tom Lesio, Lori Guarino and Bob Murawski.

So, it's October. What do you do in October? Carve jack-o'-lanterns, of course! But once the pumpkins are carved, you've got to light them. What's the best way to achieve that great spooky glow? Your first answer might be candles. But the engineer in me says, "That's so 19th century!" Fortunately, we just happened to have some extra OLED lighting panels lying around, so we were able to create the masterpieces you see below!



Kodak is a leader in OLED technology for lighting and displays. We have demonstrated efficacies >66 lm/W on OLED panels meeting the Energy Star specifications for color and color rendering.  That's more efficient than 90% of the luminaires available today!

The picture below shows three OLED lighting panels mounted on a glass fixture. The panels are thin, bright and do not produce much heat. They are perfect for lighting jack-o'-lanterns - or rooms, for that matter. Come see Kodak's OLED lighting panels at FPD International in Yokohama, Japan October 28-30, 2009!