Since tomorrow is the Fourth of July, I thought I would share some past Picture of the Day winners from July 4th.



July 4, 2003 - Eric Amistani




July 4, 2004 - Nicole de Brabant




July 4, 2005 - Bobbie Davis




July 4, 2006 - William Donnelly




July 4, 2007 - Michelle Lee Jenkins




July 4, 2008 - Tawna Callahan

As you make your Fourth of July plans for tomorrow, here are some tips for taking great fireworks photos.

I was required to travel to South Dakota to oversee a photo shoot at a printer customer facility for Kodak's B2B ad campaign.  I mentioned this trip to our CMO, Jeff Hayzlett, who is from S. Dakota, and he insisted that I visit Crazy Horse.  I, of course, said "sure", not truly knowing a thing about Crazy Horse.  I just know that I want to see Mt. Rushmore.

Our travel commences, and we get out to Rapid City and head straight to our sightseeing mission: Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.  Mt. Rushmore is quite a sight; we take pictures from the every vantage point and angle.


The monument is described as "a memorial to our four greatest presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt". It is an amazing sculpture indeed.



Then we went to see Crazy Horse. We were blown away!



First of all, the thing is HUGE. Although it is not completed, and will not be completed, likely, for a long, long time, the mountain carving is the world's largest sculpture standing at 563 feet high, 641 long and is three dimensional.



The heads of our four greatest presidents would fit in the hair of Crazy Horse.



Aside from its size, the story of Crazy Horse, and the Ziolkowski family, is amazing and extraordinarily inspirational. Korczak Ziolkowski, a prize winning sculptor, was invited by Lakota Chief Standing Bear, in 1947, to carve a mountain so that "the white man knows that the red man has great heroes, too".  Korczak, and eventually his entire family, took on this request and made it their lifework. The sculpture is only the beginning.  The Crazy Horse Memorial is a nonprofit education and cultural project created as a tribute to the North American Indians, all tribes. It will include a University, Medical Training Center, Indian Museum and, of course, the amazing sculpture.




In addition to the personal tour we got of the sculpture, we were honored by the company of Ruth (Mrs. Ziolkowski) and two of the daughters, Jadwiga and Monique.



They were the most delightful, selfless, down to earth bunch of people I've ever met. So, thank you Jeff, for insisting I go, I feel like a better human being for it.

For more info on Crazy Horse go to: www.crazyhorse.org

Photographer: Martin Voet
Country: United States



"The photo was taken at Machu Picchu high in the Peruvian mountains in the summer of 2006.  The llama, an area local, happened to wander into the frame and was the perfect accent to the awesome scene."

This photo is from today's Kodak Picture of the Day.  

This post is about recent activities within the OCTO (Office of the Chief Technology Officer) organization of Kodak to recognize and promote the Kodak Challenge.  The organization is made up of several hundred employees that work at various locations within Rochester, NY as well other locations around the world.  This post focuses on the Rochester employees.

The golf tournament planning team earlier this year decided to align with the Kodak Challenge and add more fun and excitement for employees.  The showing of a golf film earlier in the year kicked off the season and announced the golf tournament.  A recent Putting Challenge kicked off registration for the golf tournament - more information will be shared about the tournament after the event in August.

    
An event almost did not occur due to obstacles beyond the team's control. However, the team re-focused and with additional help was able to hold an extremely successful event.  Over 95 people participated during a lunch time event in a large room adjacent to the cafeteria.  Many of the participants never touched a golf club before. The event generated so much talk within the organization that an additional event is being planned for another location within Rochester.

A three-hole mini golf layout was available for each player participant's enjoyment.  Prizes were given out for high and low scores as well as many raffle prizes.

Everything had a Kodak Challenge theme from score cards to a scoring leader board, to rules, posters, and more.

Each participant received a score card like the one shown here.
 

The following is an example of the scoring leader board used during the event.  This leader board kept participant's interest about who was winning and who beat whom.
 


The following are some of the pictures from the recent Putting Challenge event...



Yes - there were water and sand hazards as well.  These added to the challenge and fun.  Two members of the organization enjoyed watching the players use the putting holes that they made based on a designs they found in an old issue of Popular Mechanics (June 1950).



Special thanks goes out to the event planning team including the golf hole architects and designers as well as all that is made it possible.  Stay tuned for information on our golf tournament which will feature "challenge" holes.
 

If you are a fan on the Kodak Facebook Page, you may have noticed some changes the past few days.

It has been transformed into a place that celebrates relationships and provides tips, videos and discussions on how to strengthen and deepen yours.

One of the first things posted is this study on the state of relationships. For instance, did you know although Facebook members report an average of 136 friends, they only count 6 people they trust enough to share their innermost feelings with. You can read more from the study here...



There are also some fun things like photo challenges - this week the challenge is photos of grads. If you have a favorite photo from graduation - new or old - share it on the Kodak Facebook wall and the funniest, most heartwarming and all around best shots will be included in the Kodak Grad Photo Album.

If you aren't a fan yet, take a moment and join in! It's time to smile!