In the summer of 1969 I had just graduated high school and was about to start classes at Auburn University.
My favorite TV show was “Star Trek” and my favorite movie was “2001: A Space Odyssey” so I wasn’t going to miss the first lunar landing by Apollo 11 on TV.
This would be one of the great events in human history and I wanted photographs to remember the occasion so I setup my Polaroid Land camera on a foot stool in front of the TV. Our TV was a B&W model with rabbit ears and we lived some distance from town so reception was not very good.
I turned off the lights so I could get good photos. My Grandparents were tolerant of my projects as usual 🙂
The TV broadcast from the surface of the moon was a bit confusing. The initial images of the ladder were upside down.
(the images are found at end of this post)
After a while NASA got the image upright but it was still a bit difficult to see.
Once Neil Armstrong was on the surface the image was easier to see but there were still a few visual glitches that made one photo look like a film “negative”.
These minor glitches did not take away from the excitement of the moment and these Polaroid photographs are among my most cherished possessions.
The Polaroid Land camera (which I still have) was one of my all time favorite cameras although it would be confusing to modern photographers.
For example, I had to press a lever to cock the shutter, and after taking the photo I pulled out the photo which had a protective dark cover to keep the developing solution in touch with the the print. After a short time I pulled off the cover and coated the B&W print with a pink varnish that protected the print from fading.
I loved the fact that if I didn’t pull the picture out I could recock the shutter and take another photo yielding a double exposure. Later I’ll post some of those “trick” pictures which appeared to showed me with identical twin, or a flying saucer flying over the tree tops.
This camera really boosted my interest in photography and during my time at Auburn I took a photography class and bought my first 35mm camera, a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL.
I also set up a darkroom to process and print B&W film.
I fondly remember those days, although I wouldn’t want to give up my modern equipment 🙂
Jim
