EDIT: This of course was an April fool’s pun as well. Although, sadly, quite a realistic scenario …

After recently outlawing incandescent light bulbs for their high energy consumption, the EU has now decided to outlaw analog film emulsions as well as film development chemicals — reports Systemkamera Blog.

The reason for this decision are — again — environmental concerns. (Nobody does seem to be concerned about Plutonium in the EU, do they?) Black-and-white emulsions will be taken off the market first, as they contain high amounts of silver halides. Next will be colour emulsion, and finally the highly toxic developing chemicals. By the end of 2012, analogue film and film processing chemicals will seize to be available for purchase on European markets.

The editors of Systemkamera Blog recommend storing large amounts of film in your freezer, as well as using Caffenol for development once chemical developers aren’t readily available anymore. Or, you can just purchase from abroad.

Read an English translated version of the article here.

EDIT: This was of course my — admittedly slightly macabre — april fools joke for this year! And I sincerely apologize to all those who were actually worried about me — I promise to make up something more harmless next year

I’m writing this from the hospital, lying in a comfy hospital bed, glad that I haven’t been killed yesterday. But, what has been killed is my Leica M8 … oh, and our car. Well, here’s the story.

Yesterday, I decided to accompany my wife and son to the gym, where they go every thursday afternoon to meet with other parents and their children, and where the children can go wild just as they desire Due to the bad weather, we decided to take the car in order not to get wet. (Today I wish we’d walked …) It was really fun, Emil was enjoying all the toys and sports gear and we all had a great time. When it was time to leave, we packed our gear and headed out to the parking lot. We had parked our car a bit on the egde of one of the outmost parking spaces, because the lot had already been crammed full when we arrived. The rear door of our car slides backwards, which is neat in tight spaces, but the front doors will of course open conservatively to the outward. After I put Emil in his seat and slid the rear door close, I opened the front door in order to get into the car. In the right hand, I had my M8 with my new 28 Biogon on it, wich I had used to take some pictures of Emil in the gym. As I was about to step into the car (mind the door was wide open), some IDIOT who seems to have lost his F***ING glasses or was OUT OF HIS F***ING MIND in any way came down the lane between the parking spaces at FAR TOO F***ING HIGH A SPEED, directly towards us. I had ZERO time to react, and so the guy just SLAMMED into the door of our car, taking with him my M8. While trying to hold fast of my camera’s strap, I was pulled away from the car and fell hardly on the ground, breaking my right wrist.

When I came back to senses, of course my first though was with the Leica, which I saw lying a couple metres away, in pieces. You can’t imagine how I felt in that moment … The IMBECILE had stopped and had gotten out of his car to observe the damage, and my wife was already in the middle of shouting at him …

It turned out that not only was he in a hurry to pick up HIS wife and son from the gym, but he also had NO driver’s license AND he was drunk. Wow! What a combination! Well, to repair our car will be too expensive, so we’ll probably have to get a new one. My Leica is trashed, but I hope his insurance will cover that as well. My wrist is also smashed, but it’s gonna be okay. The doctor’s said it’s not a complicated fracture, and I’ll be back to normal in a couple weeks.

Now, remember what I said about the rear doors of our car? That they slide backwards? Well, I can’t begin to imagine what would’ve happen if we’d had a car with rear doors opening outwards … if the guy would’ve slammed in to the rear door as well … I’m only glad Emil is fine, because he was already sitting in his seat. I hope he’s going to be fine mentally as well — you never know how much of an impact such a event has on a child. He seemed okay this morning when wife and he came visiting me, so I guess he’ll be fine, too

So, no more pictures for some time, as I’m out of a camera, and out of a working hand to press the shutter button …

Oh, wait, or was that just what I dreamt tonight? Man, am I glad that today is April 1st!