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We just produced this video about a girl who lost her smile, then found it again, through her memories captured with friends and family. I guess it really wasn't missing... it was there all along. (the music is a toe-tapper)
I thought the way the video was animated with the drawing of the girl was cool and I wanted to have some fun with it. So I got a copy of the drawing that was used and printed it to cut out and pose around the office.
Here she is searching for her smile amongst the ketchup and half drank bottles of waters in our office fridge.
She might think her smile is lost in the jungle but she is actually in our office pet plant (which could use some water).
I would love to see where else this girl might be looking for her lost smile. You can download her here, print her out and pose her around town for photos. Then upload your photos here to share!
I also created a Lost Smile poster. If you think there is a lack of smiles around you, you can download the poster here for printing and hanging. Hopefully it will bring a smile to someone's face.
The Opportunity - Like all interesting opportunities, it starts from the very beginning...I received a phone call one day from Steve Powell (pictured below) who chatted with me about the Kodak Challenge. He wanted to highlight Kodak's technology and innovative spirit to create something unique and special that would complement the Kodak Challenge Trophy being created by Tiffany. I accepted the "Challenge" and the Telek Skunkworks project was off and running.
(Steve Powell. Photo by Steve Kelly)
The Plan - Now it was time to turn Steve's thoughts and wishes into a magical reality....The plan started with an outstanding team, which included:
KEK Design - Jim Gresko, Pat Welborn and Paul Klock
Kodak Tech guys - Neal Eckhaus, Joe Lentz, Greg Kulzer
Kodak Photographers - Steve Kelly & Brian Wilder
Octagon - Brianne Ehrenkranz
Many special thanks to other Kodak'rs who without their help would never have made dream into a reality, including Esther Betancourt, Julie Kaiser, Mike Keenan, and Michele Kelly and Tina Clark (who worked with Tiffany on the trophy design).
Concepts - Our design partner (KEK) sketched a range of concepts and ideas for Steve and I to review . We narrowed down the concepts to 3 for further refinement. KEK then created several mock-ups and we made the final design decision...
(Concept rendering and final design - KEK)
Once we settled on a final design, it was clear to me that additional engineering skills were required to achieve our vision and design goal...So Neal Eckhaus helped bring in the big guns...Electrical Engineering and Power/Battery gurus...Greg Kulzer and Joe Lentz, respectively. Their expertise and knowledge helped turn this vision into a reality. Greg and Joe did a phenomenal job making this OLED Trophy stand "work". Who-HA!
From left to right: Pat Welborn (KEK), Jim Gresko (KEK), Joe Lentz, Greg Kulzer and Neal Eckhaus (Kodak)
Content - Now we needed to fill the OLED screens with some great content. Steve and I kicked around various ideas, I storyboarded a couple concepts, we reviewed these with Brianne (from Octagon) and made the final decision. I prototyped the user experience using some existing OLED displays to visualize the slideshow timing...amazingly enough, we used pictures from Kevin Streelman...as seen below:
Ready to Go - One more check before we box it up and "ship it". Yup, it works...
The Event - I was fortunate to have the opportunity to accompany the Kodak OLED Trophy stand to Florida and provide technical support for all video, photo shoots, media events and final presentation. We wanted to do a dry run to verify everything traveled well, so we unboxed the Kodak Trophy and OLED Trophy stand (at an undisclosed location) and snapped some photos (Go Tina).
(The OLED frames reflected in the Tiffany silver)
(Trophy and OLED stand unboxed in Disney parking lot)
The BIG Day - We started early in the morning with a video shoot of the Kodak Challenge trophy and the Kodak OLED trophy stand (they captured some awesome footage). I was VERY glad that we added the feature to customize the individual OLED screens via a custom remote touch panel (Thanks Greg) as we definitely "tweaked" the OLED user experiences. Kevin Streelman's birdie on the 17th clinked his victory of the inaugural Kodak Challenge, but for me...it was go time. Kodak was going to award the Kodak Challenge trophy to Kevin on the 18th hole. We needed to deliver and setup the trophy and the OLED stand from an undisclosed location. That's me under the covers doing one last check before the official unveiling...Yup, we're good to go.
(Photo by Steve Kelly)
Improv - Kevin Streelman would be here in five minutes...I'm good...but wait...Our Kodak photographers (Steve Kelly and Brian Wilder) provided me some "new" photos to load onto the OLED frames...So, I cranked open the laptop and went to work (see picture below); however, Steve Powell leans over to me and says...Kevin is here, he is coming...RIGHT NOW! But I wasn't ready...So...
(Brian Wilder helping Mike Telek find a "hero" picture of Kevin - Photo by Steve Kelly)
I quickly copied a couple winning pictures (from the 17th) onto an SD card, slid up behind the OLED Trophy Stand, swapped the SD cards last second (which was part of our user experience design), slideshow playing...Done!!!
The Kodak Challenge Trophy was unveiled and Kevin received the $1M check.
(Phil Faraci and Kevin Streelman look at slideshow of pictures from Kodak Challenge, Photo by Steve Kelly)
(Phil Faraci and Keving Streelman holding the Kodak Challenge trophy with the OLED trophy stand)
I wonder if Kevin knew that the Kodak Challenge Trophy is NOT attached to the OLED tropy stand... I was ready to leap out at any time to make a Johnny Damon shoestring catch!
Recently, my wife Mary and I visited our son at college during parent's weekend. Painful duty, checking up on your children. We were the only parents there. I suppose that's not all that surprising considering that he is an Architecture major studying in Florence, Italy. We were fortunate to be able to combine a vacation with a visit to see him.
Here are some pictures we took with Mary's new Kodak Z950 camera.
One of the Pantheon's massive doors is illuminated by the sunlight coming through the oculus at the peak of the massive concrete dome. Smart Capture picked a mode for this shot that allowed both the brightness of the light beam and the dark door to be visible.
The Temple of Antonius and Faustina is one of the many massive structures in the Roman Forum. The scale of what the Romans accomplished is amazing, but there are no memorials to the slaves responsible for much of it. We were there at the end of September, and it was still hot. I can't imagine how oppressive the heat must be in the month of Julius (July).
Mary used the pulled the camera out of her clutch purse and used the 10X zoom to capture these Quaker Parakeets feeding in the trees above the forum. Jim Adams identified the birds for me since my ornithological knowledge is limited to crows and turkeys.
Here is the bird cropped from the same image. A good lens, 12 Megapixels, 10X zoom, and Image Stabilization certainly don't hurt.
One more time !
She also took this shot of the very pretty Piazza Navona right after the unscheduled drop test of the Z950. I don't recommend you repeat the test, but the camera took a lickin' and kept on clickin'.
Southern Tuscany is a place of amazing natural beauty. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:
The constant haze separates the distances. The blazing sun and cool breezes aren't bad either. Predecessors to the Romans, the Etruscans lived in Tuscany. Who was smarter?
Sunset in San Casciano Val Di Pesa, which is on the highest hill just south of Florence. I'll admit that I set the camera on a ledge and used a manual setting to catch this image. Thankfully, the sun took its time going down while I tried a few different settings.
In Florence, one of my son's friends is staying in 4th floor walkup (cough...wheeze) near the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Here is some detail on Brunelleschi's Dome taken from a rooftop about 200 yards away. Or since this was taken in Italy, about 183 meters away. The Duomo is being cleaned, hence the scaffolding.
This picture of Giotto's Bell Tower was taken from the same rooftop. If you knew who the people were, you could identify them in the 12 Megapixel image the camera captured.
On our way north, we stopped in Pisa. By the way, you've been misled. Both the Tower and I are properly oriented. Everything else is leaning.
Our last stop was in Cinque Terre. These "Five Lands" are situated on the Italian Riviera in a National Park. Thriving on tourism these days, the residents once survived by fishing and farming the terraced hills that go well into the sky.
You can walk the 10km (6 miles) from Monterosso al Mare to Riomaggiore on trails that go well up into the hills. From Riomaggiore, what begins as an easy walk becomes a strenuous hike. It took us over 4 hours, and a good deal more coughing and wheezing.
After the hike, you can get refreshed with a dip in the Ligurian Sea.
That's our trip. A great time in Italy. And I almost forgot. We saw our son, too.
