So I had the chance to talk to a very well respected name in Ilfochrome that I can not reveal but he did write me this note:

“The declaration by the Swiss ILFORD division, at 1st reading looks like a dedicated group of artisans who just cannot afford the price of gold anymore with which to sculpt their precious little baubles for the masses. After much back and forth including a lengthy conversation with Christian Neumann (German rep), it all leaves me confused. It would appear that nothing is cast in stone. For sure there will be another run, which means coat a piece of ILFOCHROME the size of a football field and divvy it up. The rumor has it the 30% increase is not realistic and will be reduced to a smaller more workable figure. And any increase will only affect paper and film products not chemistry. Which is really good news because a bottle of fine Cognac is literally cheaper than ILFOCHROME chemistry.

My understanding is that possibly next week will provide a clearer picture (so to speak). The Swiss are notoriously detail oriented but they also move painfully slow in the logistics of change regardless of the direction. Change is not necessarily good!

I spoke with my XXXXXXX rep and there has been a run on the stock they have, which means someone must like ILFOCHROME, which means there actually is a demand for it. The down side is the XXXXXXX is out of most stock however there is a large delivery en route. Everything is shipped via container and boats just don’t go as fast as airplanes, as well as the distribution once it arrives can be tedious. The bottom line on this whole issue is it’s not over till the fat lady sings. And it is most definitely possible she might sing a different song than the one anticipated.”

So lets hope the song remains the same, not fat, not from a lady…

When Sarah and I got back into town, we went out to dinner and when we came out after dark and showed a friend our new sun catcher, it was showing 3.4 volts under a street light….that ought to do er….

Super Camper in the bay getting wiring prep…Ken splices MC-4 connectors onto existing wiring…Eric and Ken of Solar Panel Store and Colorado Solar stand by their work, literally…

So the upgrades are a new AC/DC 65 quart Dometic CR-1065 fridge and freezer, a lightweight 100 watt solar panel mounted on a custom slide out and removable rack that resides under the cabover of the camper. The panel produces 17% more output and is 5 pounds lighter and even smaller than the 85 watt one on the roof. Also purchased are a new Morningstar MPPT 15 charge controller with the RM-1 remote meter for detailed analysis of all aspects of charging. The charge controller has been moved to the inside of a dead space in a storage cabinet and the remote is on the panel along with the other instruments. The now 185 watt output feeds a new Sears Die Hard Group 31 deep cycle marine battery with a higher amp hour rating. There is a temperature sensor hooked to the battery that gives this information to the charge controller for optimum charging. Another upgrade are 4 40 pound capacity pneumatic springs, two on each end of the camper that greatly help with both lifting and lowering the roof. This is a great upgrade considering the weight of the 85 watt panel, storage rack, two electric fans and the occasional load of fresh snow on the roof.

So the fridge install, charge controller and remote meter install were a breeze, the fabrication of the slide out mechanism took some more time and certainly more thought. The fridge did require the additional purchase of the space saver flange, which gave it 2″ more space on the rear for clearance in our All Terrain Campers “Bobcat”. I thought of coming up with some form of tilt mechanism for the 100 watt panel, but simply removing the panel and using an extension of the commensurate gauge of wire seemed a better bet. I used connectors from this supplier, good price and great products. So the panel can be both slid out when parked or just removed completely and plugged in via a 12 foot extension cord. The 85 watt panel is always working as it is on the roof and the additional 100 watt panel comes into play when parked / camping. The panel is secured to the underside of the cab over via two 2″ x 48″ L shaped aluminum guides mounted with carriage bolts to the camper. Then the panel slides out on 1″ angle aluminum mounted to either side of the panel with a 1″ square brace across the back that has holes drilled for clevis pins that secure it in both extended and retracted positions. Two casters mounted upside down on the brace keep the panel sliding smooth. While driving, a piece of foam hose insulation is stuffed between the panel and camper underside to prevent it from bouncing on rough trails and crosswinds. To keep sticky fingers from walking off with the panel, a lock replaces the front pin and can be used in both travel and active modes.

So thus far, the new system is great, the fridge draws less than a third of the amps as the 3-way and provides the coldest temps of the old fridge at a setting of around 50%. The freezer is simply luxurious. When not holding ice and frozen meats not mention ice cream bars, it will easily hold 20+ rolls of film and a tray of ice cubes. We ran the fridge for nearly two weeks straight and the freezer was always perfect while the fridge temp never lost more than 2 degrees when opened in regular fashion. This would have saved tons of headaches in the last two years that I was shooting the Kodachrome Project. The AC provision on the fridge is a great thing to have when “Camped” in those friend’s drive ways, KOA Kampgrounds and for pre-cooling the fridge before departing. The off setting turns off the interior light but you can still check that the unit is getting power from the green LED that is always on as long as there is power. We also stopped by to visit our friends at All Terrain Campers to show them the upgrades and stock them up with Pepsi.

Here are some pics of the panel and fridge:

Another upgrade was the acquisition of the new Fuji X100 digital camera. As much as I would have loved to get an M9, the price to performance ratio just did not make any financial sense to me, especially given my Leica 35mm 1.4 Aspheric would exhibit troublesome focus shift and needed to be replaced with the ridiculously priced version-II. So for 1/10th the price, I got a camera that is smaller and lighter than the M9 and does even better in low light even though the lens is one stop slower than my Leica 35 at F/2. To top it all off, the shutter is dead silent, simply brilliant for shooting events like the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival. Even Leica fans Steven Huff and the controversial Ken Rockwell gives props to the X100 over the M9. Leica gear mattered a lot when shooting Kodachrome film, but far less so when shooting digital so since the photograph matters first to me, I punted the idea of a $12,000 35mm digital camera with a 35 1.4 that only does so so above ISO 1,600. For $2,100 less than the price of the new Leica 35mm 1.4, I got the X100 and Nikon’s new 35mm 1.4G which is simply outstanding, now that is responsible spending.

Sarah and I took the Fuji X100 along with my two Leica bodies loaded with Tri-X on our trip, part of it spent where we met last May, Yosemite. Life is good, my wife and I are planning our year anniversary wedding day and will celebrate 8 months of a wonderful partnership in just a week or so.

Now…I have to confess, even though I have some 35,000 photos shot on the film, I miss Kodachrome! I am starting to see more and more “Kodachrome Light” everyday, including this nice moody light at Tunnel view that I shot on the X100 while Sarah was cooking pan seared Sea bass with fresh veggies…in the parking lot..:-)

So speaking of which, as I had predicted, the prolific story of Kodachrome would exceed the film’s actual lifespan as stories and photographs emerge over time.  One of the more well thought out editorial pieces by New York Times writer, Arthur Sulzberger has recently been selected to be the basis of a screen play written by Jonathan Tropper for a yet untitled and unscheduled film by Shawn Levy in connection with DreamWorks Pictures.

The film will aim to embrace the well known pilgrimage of people who made their way to Dwayne’s Photo on the last day the lab was open to get their precious Kodachrome memories in on time to be developed. In these early reports, it would seem writers are setting the primary hook of the story by creating a character set of a Father and Son duo and and the narrative of their adventures while on the road to Parsons Kansas.

So you can’t really shoot the film anymore, but you can always enjoy the past, present and future stories that will emerge over time as people get creative in telling about the era that is Kodachrome…

So this is not over yet and the site will actually morph from being a project to a way of thinking in terms of creating tangible photography that gives honest narrative of the lives we will live beyond our dance with Kodachrome. I am also planning a possible annual photo workshop that surrounds the ideal of how to best achieve what a Kodachrome should be about in terms of honest photography…
What a Kodachrome should become now and from here on out is an ideal that no matter what medium you are using, if you see a great convergence of light, color and moment on the back of your digital camera or your iPhone, well, that is a Kodachrome, a little window of truth in that not only do you not have to do anything more than print or show it, you really ought not to.

Just let the moment and the way you chose to frame it simply be. That way, we continue to hand down through the generations to come an honest portrayal of the way we lived and what we really saw.

There has always been a place for honest narrative and artistic license in the same world, there is nothing wrong with that, it adds depth and variety to our expression as human beings.

But let us not lose the respect of the real moment as it happened. For no matter how great an artist any person can be, the totality of all life through the voice of life it self will never be topped by us in any form of art we may create.

There is art in the truth, lets carry it forward in the ideal that it lives in what a Kodachrome has been and always should  be….

The Last Frame you shoot can often be too close to the tape if you are spaced wrong or simply press your luck. I try not to go past #36 but sometimes momentum just carries you on past it as in the shot above of the Mardi Gras masks that has been cropped a tad from the right. Thankfully there a couple of nearly identical frames in the set if I decide I need them…

I took this and the other 5 images on this post out of some hastily looked through boxes of slides at the lab to be able to have some to show people while shooting Kodachrome film well past the 30th of December deadline for getting your film souped. These images posted represent the time frame of the last two weeks of last year, some 2,000 more would be made after the 30th and before Dwayne’s Photo would be done processing the enormous Kodachrome backlog that ensued…..I had more time and plenty of film.

At the close of business on the 30th, the last Kodachrome lab in the known universe would now have enough film to keep the processor churning until January 18th, 2011 when the last roll would go through. Dwayne Steinle would finish up shooting the last roll to go through the complex processor in the morning and I finished the last roll to ever be shot about 10 minutes later ….in less than two hours, our film would be done and Kodachrome would be brilliant pop-culture history put to rest.. .  .   .     .      .       .         .              .

From December 26th to 1:36 PM on the 18th, Dwayne’s Photo processed 20,564 rolls of 35mm, 3,565 of 8mm and 57,655 feet of 16mm Kodachrome motion and still picture film. The load was staggering, office Manager Krystal Smith Adams had replied to over 2800 emails since December 1st. But the film got done just like it always had until finally, the machine was shut down and then all went silent…..

After my film was turned in and ran with the very last batch and the the K-14 machine was shut down, I shot Tri-X as reversal destined for dr5 until I reached home in Aspen via the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, my next book project to be shot all in black and white slide and negative medium format film….there is no stopping the creative freight train at this point, so I decided to help it along…

The photographs below are:  my father who lives near Dallas, downtown Dallas with birds covering the wires, men working at Cowtown in Wichita, KS, blue gelled flash on my camper window in Grand Isle, LA on a rainy day, and finally a rose light painted using a small flashlight in a circle ( when you have a cold, you have to shoot something ) You can see the partial ring if you look closely at the water drops…

Kodachrome is done, but my work with it is not. In fact I think this “Kodachrome Project” might just become a life-long affair with what is left behind, the beautiful Stained Glass Windows of Truth that are Kodachrome movies and slides…

Me at work at an aircraft assembly line, photo by Junebug Clark, Cessna..