Kodak retires 'film that captured youth of Baby Boomers'

As the Paul Simon song goes, "Mamma don't take my Kodachrome away..." But Kodak is doing it anyway, retiring its iconic Kodachrome color film, effective immediately.

I shoot film. (Much to the shock and chagrin of friends and casual acquaintances and family members who see the receipts for processing.) And a few months ago, I was shopping for my favorite, Kodak Portra VC.

I went to photo lab after photo lab, finding only one roll of 100-speed film at a Wolf's Camera that was going out of business; and nothing at my regular haunt, Citizen's Photo. Are they retiring my film? I wondered, panicky.

Finally at a huge camera store I spied a totally empty film shelf, but for a five-pack of expired portrait film. Bingo! I rushed home to make sure it was still available at B&H Photo Video, the New York-based photo store of record. Thank the gods of photography, it was still being produced.