The Sixty-Four
Fifteen frames from your session, hand-processed to the colors of the most famous film ever made. Shot the way we always shoot — on a Leica M9, built around the last CCD sensor Kodak ever designed for Leica.
Kodachrome ran for seventy-five years and then stopped. The last roll on earth was developed in a small lab in Kansas in January 2011. These are the colors we have been chasing ever since.
The film was invented by a pianist and a violinist.
Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky Jr. were working concert musicians, sons of famous musicians, who spent their spare hours chasing color photography. Kodak eventually gave them a laboratory. In 1935 the two Leos gave the world Kodachrome.
What made it different was what it left out. Every other color film carried its dyes inside the emulsion. Kodachrome carried none — the color was built during development, one layer at a time, in a process so demanding that by the end only a single lab on earth could still run it. Leaving the dyes out let the film be extraordinarily thin, and thin film scatters less light. That is where the sharpness came from, and the depth, and the reds nobody has quite matched since.
It also meant the pictures lasted. Kodachrome slides from the 1940s, kept in a drawer, still look like they were made last week.
Kodak ended Kodachrome and built our sensor in the same year.
In June of 2009, Kodak discontinued the last Kodachrome emulsion. Three months later they shipped a custom CCD sensor to Leica in Germany, made to order for a rangefinder called the M9. Same company. Same year. One hand closing the book, the other quietly writing an epilogue.
That sensor is the one in our camera. It has no anti-aliasing filter and no highlight rescue, which means it clips the way slide film clipped and holds detail the way slide film held it. It has also been out of production for years and cannot be replaced.
We did not choose it to be sentimental. We chose it because it renders skin, water, and late light better than anything we have shot since — and it happens to be the closest digital relative Kodachrome ever had.
Warmer skin. Deeper blacks. Greens that stay quiet.
Kodachrome was never the loudest film. It was the most particular one. Reds run deep and hold their density instead of blooming. Skin goes warm and a little sun-touched. Shadows are genuinely dark — the film had no interest in showing you what was hiding in them. And the greens stay restrained and olive, which is why palm and kiawe look like Maui in these frames rather than like a postcard.
Every frame in this set is worked individually. There is no filter, no batch preset dropped over your gallery. The color is built by hand the way the film built it — one layer at a time.
Added to any session. Fifteen frames, hand-processed, delivered as their own gallery alongside your full set — so you keep everything, and get these as well. Just ask when you book, or mention it to us on the beach.
To be clear: no film is exposed. These are digital frames from the M9, processed by hand. If you are curious how that actually stacks up against real film, we ran the side-by-side — see Leica M9 vs. Kodak Portra 160.
Simple, and entirely optional.
The Sixty-Four is an add-on to the session you already booked. Nothing about your shoot changes and nothing is held back from your standard gallery. Below, until our own short film is finished, is one we love — Steve McCurry shooting the last roll.
Book any session
Family, couples, elopement, sunrise — it does not matter which. We shoot the M9 on all of them already.
Ask for The Sixty-Four
Tell us when you book, or just mention it when we meet at the beach. Twenty dollars, added to your session.
Two galleries
Your full set delivered as always, plus fifteen hand-processed frames in a gallery of their own.
National Geographic's The Last Roll of Kodachrome, following Steve McCurry as he shoots the final frames and drives them to Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas. Shared here because we love it. Wailea Photo has no affiliation with National Geographic or Mr. McCurry.
Let's make something beautiful.
View Sessions & PricingKodachrome® is a registered trademark of Eastman Kodak Company. Wailea Photo is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Kodak or Leica. Our photographs are made digitally on a Leica M9 and processed by hand to resemble the color character of Kodachrome film. No film is exposed or developed.