The Last Days of Kodachrome and Christmas

For those who don't know, tomorrow 12/30/10 is the last day that Dwayne's photo in Kansas will be processing the legendary film Kodak's Kodachrome. It is a sad day, but it's also a sign of the times when immediacy is king to archival quality and unparalleled color. Honestly the way I think of the past is skewed in my head with the colors of Kodachrome. Incredibly unique, not exactly accurate, it's like looking at the world in rose colored glasses except more like cyan/magenta glasses.

Back in 2006, I stumbled upon the Kodachrome slides from my parents wedding taken by a number of different people. Also included were the slides from my parents honeymoon in Bermuda. One particular shot from that carousel was a sunset my father had taken... utterly stunning... I was so enamored that I decided for their anniversary that year I would blow it up and frame it. There it is still hanging above the front door at their house to see on your way out, it's like seeing a little slice of heaven each time you leave.

My wife Courtney and I decided before our wedding in May that we would have Kodachrome used at the wedding, we still had a professional photographer (an excellent one at that), but we would have a couple family members packing a combined 18 rolls of Kodachrome. We knew that most of the slides would come out imperfect, after all the venue was a little dark for ISO64 the flashes on the cameras were a bit underpowered to make up the difference. There was about 40-50 slides that were just great, exactly what we were aiming for... in fact we used one image for our christmas card.

 

The image when it came up in the slide projector immediately pulled Courtney's attention away from what she was doing, it was her favorite candid from the wedding. It shows us in our post ceremony just-married glow with big smiles that can only show a mix of elation and a little bit of relief that the nerve racking part was over (well at the time we still had our dance to perform). It's our favorite mostly because it captures what we felt at that exact moment, Kodachrome has that sparkle that muted color that makes the subject seem to emote.

By this fall we had roughly 8 rolls of Kodachrome left, by Christmas we had 5 rolls left. We knew we wanted to save those final rolls to capture our families Christmas'. We also knew that in order to get it to Kansas on time we would have to send it out by the 27th, the 28th at the absolute latest. We weren't anticipating the storm, we also didn't anticipate to be a little under the weather, and so our last couple rolls we scrambled to get some portraits,some shots of the glistening snow, the decorations. Then we sped off to the post office to get it in the mail on time... but unfortunately we couldn't guarantee it would get there by noon on the 30th... so at this point our last 5 rolls are not guaranteed to be developed.

The Kodachrome Going Express to Kansas

It would be sad if we lose those last rolls, but I am sure Dwayne's is expecting a surge of arrivals in the next day or two and those machine's will be running as much as they can before New Years. Come 2011 the world will be one where Kodachrome is a relic, in the spring there will be a documentary on the last roll of Kodachrome shot by Steve McCurry (the photographer most known for his portrait of the Afghan Girl refuge, as well as numerous other portraits shot on Kodachrome). However even Steve McCurry is doing his work on the Nikon Digital SLRs like the D3 and D700. My work is dependent on digital, even if I am willing to shoot with film, love the look of film... Digital Capture has the ability to capture images like never before, the colors are far more accurate the images crystal clear, and there is even software that can come close to the color pallete of Kodachrome (Alien Skin Exposure 3 does an excellent job with the original Kodachrome, Kodachrome II especially when comparing to my Kodachrome book... though their rendition of K25 and K64 are less accurate).

We love Kodachrome, Courtney made me Kodachrome ornaments for Christmas using old slides that were too underexposed. We will continue to put up the old Kodak Carousel and look at all the slides we have taken over the past couple years as well as our parent's slides, even our grandparent's slides. Our children perhaps will still have slides, we still have Ektachrome, EliteChrome, Fuji Velvia, Fuji Provia... but they won't see themselves in the colors of Kodachrome... perhaps I'm being sentimental but it's a chapter in our world that will be forever shut.

I hope everyone has a grand and peaceful holiday season. I leave with a few quick images from this past weekend, some from my iPhone, some from the Nikon:

Snow Drifts after the Storm

Mike and Megan's Wedding

Back in October I photographed Mike and Megan's wedding. When I was notified that the wedding would be at the Museum of Dance I had all sorts of visions in my head of how the images would look when all was said and done. What I wasn't expecting was a celebration that was as touching as it was fun. The look was elegant and modern, with many traditional details; some might say what you would expect from a loving couple in this century. However Megan and Mike are at heart musicians who tend to have a desire to please the gods of rock...

First I need to mention that this wedding had special significance; not just because two people were taking their vows but also because Megan's mother was gravely ill. When I first turned up to snap a couple images of Megan getting ready she was incredibly cool and collected for someone just about to be married... in fact I was impressed on how smoothly everything was going. I arrived at the museum, started to capture the details eventually seeing the note that Mike had written to guests regarding the sensitivity of the matter. I personally was unaware of the situation up to this point and once it dawned on me I couldn't help but be moved by Megan's courage. They setup a laptop in the first chair that was webcasting the ceremony to a computer by her mother's bedside. Her mother was able to witness her daughter's wedding before passing on that night.

The ceremony was beautiful and light-hearted, the reception was pure fun and turned into a full-fledged rock concert. How many photographers could say they captured a wedding where both the bride and the groom strapped on their guitars belting out "Barracuda" by Heart. The dichotomy between the traditional museum of dance with the progressive nature of the celebration was incredibly uplifting. I had just an amazing time darting around getting as many angles as possible trying to capture each incredible moment.

So without further ado, here are the images: