Harman Photo cryptic announcement/teaser

[MattKing]

Can you describe these “influencers “? I’ve never met one and it seems nobody here is one.

They're younger YouTubers that other young people follow religiously and look up to.

Nothing wrong at all with any of these folks, I'm just familiar with the kind of photography they do and the kind of gear they use and make videos about, so anything past 35mm was very quickly ruled out for me.

Generally speaking, you are right.
But there are older YouTubers that have a specialized following, and sort of fit the definition.
Our Andrew O'Neill fits within that definition.
As does the "Naked Photographer".
More generally, they are people who are end-users, who people look to as much or more than people actually in the industry.

 

[BrianShaw]

Sorry… doesn’t seem complete. I primarily use color film and don’t influence a thing or anyone. At all. There must be more, like under 30, unemployed and making money by making social media posts/videos, freeloaders always asking for handouts, comps, and free stuff, etc. I’m really perplexed by this “influencer “ thing. Who cares what they say? Who’s really being influenced?

Well I guess I showed my hyper-skeptical side. A neighbor kid considers herself to be a social media influencer and I’ve seen her record a couple of videos. She’s young and beautiful yet has nothing to say. What she shows will definitely get views, though. I have no idea what she’s influencing or attempting to influence. Other than the self-satisfaction of her teen and old codger viewers, perhaps. Right now she says she’s making a good living but soon her body will change and I suspect she’ll become just another single welfare mom. She’s nice but has no skills other than her looks. And she’s well aware of that. It’s sad.

 

[analogwisdom]

Generally speaking, you are right.
But there are older YouTubers that have a specialized following, and sort of fit the definition.
Our Andrew O'Neill fits within that definition.
As does the "Naked Photographer".
More generally, they are people who are end-users, who people look to as much or more than people actually in the industry.

The Naked Photographer is great. Did he get a postcard from Harman?

I was thinking more of the people I've seen on Instagram share stories with it, and the types they're inviting to the event in California. I'm not familiar with all of them, but I believe they're all of the 30-or-under Millennial or Gen Z crowd. I am fond of some of the content a few of them have made. At the end of the day, I'm all for whatever gets my generation interested in film. The more people shooting it, the better.

I do wish more people my age would RTFM or look to places like Photrio for answers to questions they're asking, that someone already made a thread about and answered 15 years ago, lol.

 

[cerber0s]

Sorry… doesn’t seem complete. I primarily use color film and don’t influence a thing or anyone. At all. There must be more, like under 30, unemployed and making money by making social media posts/videos, freeloaders always asking for handouts, comps, and free stuff, etc. I’m really perplexed by this “influencer “ thing. Who cares what they say? Who’s really being influenced?

Simply using color film won’t make you an influencer/youtuber/social media profile. You have to actually produce some social media content that appeals to enough people to get you a following. Have you ever tried influencing someone?

What’s wrong with being under 30? I wish I was.

I have actually looked at some of the stuff produced by the afforementioned people. Some of them do the youtube thing as a hobby. Some are professional photographers that use social media as a platform, some are professional, self employed youtubers. I’d imagine they all pay their taxes (I could be wrong of course, they are under 30 after all) and contribute to whatever society they call home. They do provide a sort of service that has gained enough popularity to make it interesting for companies to promote their products through it.

Calling them freeloaders is hardly fair. In fact, if it wasn’t for the 18-30 crowd, social media, and the afforementioned youtubers, film would still be on a rapid decline towards a permanent death. Unless that’s your end goal you should probably thank those people rather than bash them.

 

[MattKing]

Well I guess I showed my hyper-skeptical side. A neighbor kid considers herself to be a social media influencer and I’ve seen her record a couple of videos. She’s young and beautiful yet has nothing to say. What she shows will definitely get views, though. I have no idea what she’s influencing. Right now she says she’s making a good living but soon her body will change and I suspect she’ll become just another single welfare mom. She’s nice but has no skills other than her looks. It’s sad.

Successful influencers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Of course most make little or no money.
"Influencer" scores very high on surveys when teenagers are asked about their career aspirations.
I'm afraid Brian, we are not the target audience of the marketers who use influencers to sell their wares.

 

[BrianShaw]

Simply using color film won’t make you an influencer/youtuber/social media profile. You have to actually produce some social media content that appeals to enough people to get you a following. Have you ever tried influencing someone?

What’s wrong with being under 30? I wish I was.

I have actually looked at some of the stuff produced by the afforementioned people. Some of them do the youtube thing as a hobby. Some are professional photographers that use social media as a platform, some are professional, self employed youtubers. I’d imagine they all pay their taxes (I could be wrong of course, they are under 30 after all) and contribute to whatever society they call home. They do provide a sort of service that has gained enough popularity to make it interesting for companies to promote their products through it.

Calling them freeloaders is hardly fair. In fact, if it wasn’t for the 18-30 crowd, social media, and the afforementioned youtubers, film would still be on a rapid decline towards a permanent death. Unless that’s your end goal you should probably thank those people rather than bash them.

See post 828. We were typing simultaneously.

I’ve spent my entire adult life practicing “influence leadership”… demonstrating talents and traits that professional colleagues and my kids should embrace. But never on the internet. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being under 30.

I watch a couple if different genres on influencers on YouTube. A few actually have useful content and have decent production value to their videos. The vast majority, though, I end up scrubbing through or exiting within the first minute.

 

[Laurent]

My guess is the relaunch of Ilformar in 6 grades and three textures.

this would be great. Simon told me I should spare my kidney when I said I could sell one for the relaunch of this paper...

 

[cerber0s]

See post 828. We were typing simultaneously.

Yeah, I noticed

 

[cerber0s]

See post 828. We were typing simultaneously.

I’ve spent my entire adult life practicing “influence leadership”… demonstrating talents and traits that professional colleagues and my kids should embrace. But never on the internet. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being under 30.

I watch a couple if different genres on influencers on YouTube. A few actually have useful content and have decent production value to their videos. The vast majority, though, I end up scrubbing through or exiting within the first minute.

Doing that on the internet would probably work too. Maybe even to an extent where it could be done full time for a living.

You could probably do a full blown research study (perhaps it has been done already) on the influencer phenomenon. I’m guessing most, at least in the beginning, started as a hobby. Very few of the early channels probably started with the intention of making enough money for it to be a full time job. I also imagine that has changed now. I have a lot of respect for the time and dedication that goes into creating “content” (I really hate the use of that word in this context) with high enough quality to stand out.

 

[cerber0s]

I watch a couple if different genres on influencers on YouTube. A few actually have useful content and have decent production value to their videos. The vast majority, though, I end up scrubbing through or exiting within the first minute.

Typing simultaneously again

Yes, I agree, although I have a few I return to.

 

[BrianShaw]

Well I’m waiting with bated breath to find out what the San Clemente influencers will get me to buy next!

 

[Sirius Glass]

So it's film. How does the Phoenix then fit into the picture?

One should be able to use the new product in Phoenix in the rest of Arizona and even New Mexico.

 

[snusmumriken]

Well I guess I showed my hyper-skeptical side. A neighbor kid considers herself to be a social media influencer and I’ve seen her record a couple of videos. She’s young and beautiful yet has nothing to say. What she shows will definitely get views, though. I have no idea what she’s influencing or attempting to influence. Other than the self-satisfaction of her teen and old codger viewers, perhaps. Right now she says she’s making a good living but soon her body will change and I suspect she’ll become just another single welfare mom. She’s nice but has no skills other than her looks. And she’s well aware of that. It’s sad.

My face is my fortune, sir, she said, sir, she said, sir, she said….

 

[Caleb Hauge]

Well, now that someone has said it, I'm finally inspired to post in this ridiculous thread.

Keith Swan moved his lab (Swan Photo Labs, which is the real entity behind his marketing initiatives "The Darkroom" and "Ilford Lab US / Harman Lab US") to San Clemente from northern California in 1993, 15 years after I moved here. There's no way anything like an original, central Kodachrome processing facility could ever exist at Swan. There were, however, K-Labs, small self-contained Kodachrome processing units, near the end of that film's existence:

https://www.diareportages.org/00Pictures/films/K14lab.pdf

It's conceivable, but extraordinarily unlikely, that one of those, or something like them, might be brought on line at Swan. If that were the case, and HARMAN coated compatible film, and people with a lot more money than smarts surfaced to purchase what would be an outrageously expensive product/service, the absurd speculation here might have a chance of proving accurate. However, I probably have an equal probability of winning a Powerball jackpot, and I don't buy tickets.

Do they still have the machines, or have those been sold/scrapped?

 

[koraks]

freeloaders always asking for handouts, comps, and free stuff, etc.

soon her body will change and I suspect she’ll become just another single welfare mom. She’s nice but has no skills other than her looks.

Those aren't very nice things to say, if I'm honest.

I hope we don't continue down this road when it comes to addressing lines of work or walks of life that are alien or new to us.

 

[MattKing]

Moderator hat on:
Yes - please refrain from descending to labelling others who don't share our circumstances or aspirations or experiences. Discussions about the realities of modern day marketing of photographic products and services are on point.
Moderator hat off.

My wife, who worked as a career counsellor and in management with organizations that assisted young people who wanted help with careers, had a fun example to share about "influencers".
It was a story about two parents who were really concerned about their two 20 something daughters, who were still living at home, and seemed to spend all their time on the internet, shopping and going out in the evening.
So they sat the daughters down and expressed their concern. The daughters were surprised, but rather than simply explain they told their parents to book time to get together for dinner a day or so later.
When it came time for dinner, there was an additional guest - the daughters' financial advisor, who pursuant to instructions from his clients, shared with the parents the details of the daughters' income tax filings. Those showed six figure incomes from influencer earnings.
The daughters apparently worked really hard and put in long hours creating content about clothes and trends and styles and makeup and all sorts of things where influencers have big affects on the marketplace. And they were very successful at what they did.
One might assume there were subsequent conversations about how much rent their parents were charging them
Apparently many young people today see "influencer" as a viable career option.

 

[BobUK]

It's obviously going to be new Cibachrome. The new image is clearly a developing tank on a motor base. Like the ones they used to make for Cibachrome.

The picture also reminded of a paper or film tank on a roller stand.

If Cibachrome paper and chemicals are to be revived, it will have to be a lot less stinkier than the stuff I used in the good old days.
To small a demand nowadays for transparencies.
The days of boring relatives and friends with a slide show of holiday snaps has gone. Replaced by people boring you with tiny images displayed on smart phones, with a constant swiping up. down across, enlarge etc.. We have all met them I am sure.

 

[mshchem]

Those aren't very nice things to say, if I'm honest.

I hope we don't continue down this road when it comes to addressing lines of work or walks of life that are alien or new to us.

Yes, let's keep this from being locked again! Peace

 

[BrianShaw]

Those aren't very nice things to say, if I'm honest.

I hope we don't continue down this road when it comes to addressing lines of work or walks of life that are alien or new to us.

Sorry. Just speaking my truth. I’m not very good at candy-coating some things. Won’t continue on that topic.

 

[pentaxuser]

Generally speaking, you are right.
But there are older YouTubers that have a specialized following, and sort of fit the definition.
Our Andrew O'Neill fits within that definition.
As does the "Naked Photographer".
More generally, they are people who are end-users, who people look to as much or more than people actually in the industry.

I wonder if the Naked Photographer or Andrew O'Neill would be happy with sort of meeting the definition of influencer

Neither come anywhere close to what I understand to be an influencer in the social media sense of the word They produce videos on practical matters on analogue photography that are designed to enhance their viewer's knowledge

Is that influencing? Not in my opinion but I suppose it depends on your definition

pentaxuser

 

[logan2z]

Can you describe these “influencers “? I’ve never met one and it seems nobody here is one.

A big part of being an 'influencer' is having a large following.

One of the invitees to the launch event in San Clemente is Jason Kummerfeldt who runs the 'grainydays' channel on YouTube. This channel currently has 225K subscribers. His videos typically get around 100K-200K views. He's had some in the 500K-700K range. Someone mentioned The Naked Photographer'. His channel currently has 21K subscribers and his videos typically get around 2K views. Some of the older ones have managed to accumulate 30-40K views over several years., but still far fewer than 'grainydays'. Based on this data, 'The Naked Photographer' seems to have a much smaller following than 'grainydays' and, therefore, has less influence. I'm guessing he didn't get a black card in the mail

Andrew O'Neil's channel was also mentioned in this thread. Andrew's channel currently has just over 1K subscribers. His videos get around 100-300 views. I like Andrew's channel and think his videos are informative and entertaining. But, given the numbers above, I would say he is not an 'influencer' since his audience is fairly small.

There's a reason YouTubers are always asking their viewers to 'Like and Subscribe'. Besides proving that the channel has 'influence', these numbers also influence the YouTube algorithm which will cause the channel to be more frequently recommended and will increase the channel's advertising revenue.

 

[BrianShaw]

Thanks @logan2z … I like and understand metrics!

 

[cmacd123]

Interesting find!

Just been doing a bit of browsing and looking at the Filmotec website,
• Willingness to travel (production in Great Britain, Germany, etc.)


*EDIT* The date for this appointment is 2022.

that would have been beofre filmotec was "Reorganized" One source did speculate that it one time filmotec was using several suppliers to coat their film, from an emuslion kit designed by filmotec.... Of course now they have been forcibly merged with inovisicoate

 

[Craig]

Do they still have the machines, or have those been sold/scrapped?

As far as I know, all the machines have been scrapped. The chemistry was complicated too, I gather the life of some of the colour developers was hours once mixed.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Do they still have the machines, or have those been sold/scrapped?

Swan never had a K-Lab. As far as I know, the last one in use was at Dwayne's Photo in Kansas. I don't keep track of the machines, but recall reading that most were scrapped. No reason to keep one, it seems, when the film disappeared. Although someone (in Oz?) did try processing the stuff, perhaps with a reconstituted one. Use the Google machine, with "site: photrio.com" (remove the space) in its search field, to find out more. Knock yourself out! I only brought it up because someone finally "went there" about Kodachrome, and there didn't seem to be anything else worth commenting on in this "ultimate speculation" thread.