Hand Me a Roll of Color Quick, Would You? Hurry

How Bill Anders took one of the most amazing photographs in human history. A beautiful little film by the Goddard Space Flight Center that seems like it was made especially for photographers.

Take seven minutes out of your day today to watch this—it's wonderful. There isn't a photographer who ever shot film who won't smile as the astronauts dig around for the right film and then wonder whether they for sure got the shot.

We'll be off tomorrow in honor of a certain U.S. sporting contest, but back on Monday. Enjoy the Super Bowl, if you're among those who will be watching. (Oddly enough, I like both teams and would be happy with a win by either one. So I'm hoping it will be close, and well played, and dramatic.)

Mike
(Thanks to Bill Mitchell)

ADDENDUM from Bill Mitchell: "Thanks to Jack Jones, my old NASA co-worker, who often emails me stuff of interest. This is the best he's ever sent."

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Rod S.: "That was great! Thank you, Mike and Bill. It might (or should) seem surprising that Bill Anders was able to so quickly load a roll of film into the Hasselblad. Actually, he didn't. The rolls were pre-loaded into magazines, and Anders only had to attach the magazine Lovell handed him onto the body.

"There was a long-running controversy as to who actually took the photographs, although Bill Anders always maintained it was he, in part complicated by the similarity of the voices on the flight recorder. The uncertainty led National Geographic, in its lengthy coverage of the flight (May 1969 issue) to attribute the shot to Frank Borman, as Commander of the flight.

"It was also nice to hear the voice of Andrew Chaikin, Apollo historian and author of A Man on the Moon (1994), which is usually cited as the definitive chronicle of the Apollo program. In his book, Chaikin explains that Borman turned the spacecraft so that Lovell, as navigator and stationed at the Command Module's sextent, could sight the landmarks he needed. Chaikin added: 'Perhaps it is true that our most electrifying experiences are the ones that take us by surprise. Even on the first flight to the moon, rehearsed in painstaking detail, an event that no one anticipated became the most moving of all. There's a comprehensive moment-by-moment description of the event, with the photographs, in the Apollo 8 Flight Journal.

"That little video spiced the start of my day nicely."

Comments

[hugh crawford]

Client rep Borman: All right, we're gonna roll. Ready… Set…

This is so reminiscent of an ad agency shoot:

Photographer Anders: The impact crater with uh - at uh - just prior to the subsolar point on the south side, in the floor of it, uh, [unintelligible], there is one dark hole. But I couldn't get a quick enough look at it to see if it might be anything volcanic.

Photographer Anders: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!

Client rep Borman: Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled.

[shutter click]

Photographer Anders: You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?

Studio Assistant Lovell: Oh man, that's great.

Photographer Anders: Hurry.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Where is it?

Photographer Anders: Quick

Studio Assistant Lovell: Down here?

Photographer Anders: Just grab me a color. A color exterior. Hurry up. Got one?

Studio Assistant Lovell: Yeah, I'm looking' for one. C 368.

Photographer Anders: Anything. Quick.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Here.

Photographer Anders: Well, I think we missed it.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Hey, I got it right here [in the hatch window].

Photographer Anders: Let me get it out this one, it's a lot clearer.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Bill, I got it framed, it's very clear right here!

[shutter click]

Studio Assistant Lovell: Got it?

Photographer Anders: Yep.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Take several, take several of 'em! Here, give it to me!

Photographer Anders: Wait a minute, just let me get the right setting here now, just calm down.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Take -

Photographer Anders: Calm down, Lovell!

Studio Assistant Lovell: Well, I got it right - aw, that's a beautiful shot…Two-fifty at f/11.

[shutter click]

Photographer Anders: Okay.

Studio Assistant Lovell: Now vary-vary the exposure a little bit.

Photographer Anders: I did, I took two of 'em here.

Studio Assistant Lovell: You sure you got it now?

Photographer Anders: Yeah, we'll get - well, it'll come up again, I think.

"It'll come up again, I think." says volumes not only of the precariousness of their situation , but the general non recurrence of photographic opportunities.

[D B]

That's fantastic.

Thank you.

[Marc]

Thanks for sharing!
It made me smile.

[Frank]

Great! - thanks for that. (lol)

[Joe]

And if the flight happened today:

Dang, this memory card is full, find another!
or
Dang, this battery is dead, find another!

Did we get the shot? Dang,had the wrong WB!
or
Did we get the shot? Dang, hit the video button!

things change but stay the same...

[Jeff Glass]

I love how Anders says "Calm down Lovell!" while Anders is changing the film in a Hasselblad in just a few seconds. That's what's happening right?

Really cool clip, thanks.

[David Bostedo]

"Calm down, Lovell" made me laugh... though I've never shot film, that's a pretty universal thing to understand I think.

Although it is pretty different from what I'm used to. Now we bracket to try to make sure we got a "good" one, or maybe a perfect one. They were bracketing to try to make sure they got anything at all.

[hugh crawford]

I'm surprised there wasn't a ruckus about finding a dark slide in a hurry.

I'd always keep an extra darkslide and a golf tee in my hip pocket when I was assisting on a Hasselblad shoot.

[GRJ]

[Two-fifty at f/11] and be there.

Thanks for sharing this, Mike.

[Chuck Albertson]

The only 'Blad to make it back from the surface of the moon is going up for auction shortly:

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/02/hasselblads-moon-camera-goes-under-the-hammer/

[Jan Kwarnmark]

Like Rod S. wrote, the roll of film was a magazine. The magazine for 70 exp was modified for 200 exp with film on extra thin base. This was told by a friend, who worked at Hasselblad here in Gothenburg at that time.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

If I won the lottery I might well bid up that lunar-visit Hasselblad. Perfect combination of my interests!