At Kodak "A Nice Day for a Revolution"

After this weekend, two more Kodak buildings will no longer be standing, reducing Kodak Park from 212 to just 104 by year end.

Today, a few minutes past 8:00 AM (EDT), Building 9 was imploded. Building 9 was the home for manufacturing photographic paper at Kodak for decades.

As shown in the first picture, the 700,000+ square foot Building 9 was also visible from my 12th floor office window from the nearby Research complex.

By the time I return to the office on Thursday, both the dust and remaining debris left from the implosion will be gone. Gone also are thousands of Kodak workers who were part of the traditional photographic business that George Eastman founded. What will not be gone, however, is the incredible spirit of those Kodak employees who are left to continue the evolution of Kodak to a digital company.


The implosion was carried live on RNews, a local television news station. During the coverage, Kodak's Inkjet Public Relations Director, Barbara Pierce told listeners:

“Not only about an evolution of the company, but also a revolution that Kodak continues to provide to consumers. You know, Eastman established low cost and easy photography for the masses and Kodak continues to provide that through our digital cameras and also through our new inkjet systems."

Kodak easily illustrated the move to the future at the popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES), being awarded three CES Innovations Awards and also receiving prestigious honors from Popular Science and PC Magazine. I certainly understand why the KODAK EASYSHARE V610 Dual Lens Digital Camera that I recently purchased was named “Best of Innovations 2007” award winner in the Digital Imaging category.

When it comes to printers, I cannot tell you how very pleased I am with my new Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One Printer. I grew up in a "Kodak Family" with my grandmother, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins working at Kodak at one time or another over the years. Now I am the last of the family working at Kodak.

With that background and family history, I did not think anything could be as good as Kodak 35mm prints for the consumer. The EasyShare printers with Kodak's Inkjet systems showed me how very wrong I was in this belief. Setting aside the low cost of the ink cartridges, the quality of photographic prints is absolutely awesome! Then consider that the color ink cartridge is only $14.99, black ink cartridge $9.99 or a package deal of $21.99 for both black and color ink cartridges!

The only problem is that the EasyShare printers are selling as quickly as they can be made. Beyond quality, perhaps compatibility with both Windows Vista and Mac has added to the popularity of the printer.

Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...