Time to give the GEH a proper post. ; My wife and I meet up with Dave (ExploringWDW) and his girlfriend at the 900 East Avenue address of the founder of Kodak. ; Like other millionaires of the time (Ford, Edison, Carnegie), George Eastman built himself a beautiful mansion. ; But, unlike his peers, he remained a bachelor and the decor was far different than other historic homes I have visited. The home has 35,000 square feet of living space on three levels which originally included a stable, garage, barn, five greenhouses, and many vegetable and flower gardens on eight and one-half acres. The first room you enter from the museum part of the GEH complex is the lavish dining room. ; The table has monogrammed china place settings (I wish I could have picked one up to see if it was Syracuse China) near a large fireplace for warmth. I found the Tokina 11-16mm a big help in photographing the large interior spaces. From the dining room you walk out into the Conservatory. ; I will re-share the photo I posted earlier this week plus a couple of more. Again, this is a 9 exposure bracket. A profile of the big pachyderm hanging in the Conservatory. This is a fiberglass replica of the original African elephant. ; The animal George bagged had only one tusk which was mounted separately while two wooden "tusks" were used for the head. ; As a photographer, he had to have it balanced, right? The Billiard Room not only had a large billiards table but the latest techno-gadgets of the day: telephone record player and radio. With real animal throws on the furniture to keep people warm. Off the Billiard Room was the library with floor to ceiling book shelves, cozy chairs, a desk (covered with rhino hide) and a coal fireplace for warmth. The Entrance Hall is big and airy with large paintings hanging on the walls. The living room was about as large as the conservatory but with a much lower ceiling and big a-- chandelier. Here's a view from the main staircase looking towards the front entrance. ; You can see the three levels. ; Guests today can only wander through two levels. ; I did see photos of brides and grooms being photographed looking down from the third level through the oval opening. ; Be a great place to photograph a wedding.
Thanks for sharing Scott. ; It's kind of sad to think that the company he built would have such a successful run but has been unable to adapt to the changing times. ; (I did some research into Kodak for my own blog post recently too!)
Dave and I had planned this trip a couple of weeks ago. ; We had no idea we would be visiting there two days after Kodak declared Chapter 11. ; Some of the guest books had a lot to say about that fact, too.
What is also sad that one of their biggest and most used patents in most digital cameras today is about to become less relevant. ; The Bayer sensor pattern is already being replaced. Foveon/Sigma has their layered CMOS Fuji has their new Super-CCD Sony is working on a new pattern as well, and I think they just patented it....
Thom Hogan still thinks the other sensors can not compete with the Bayer...yet. ; Kodak could have been the Intel of camera sensors but they let that slip through their fingers. ; Not to mention they could have brought photo printing to the masses faster and better instead of keeping it as show pieces like at Disney parks.
