My photos of the Apollo 15 mission captured from the


The Lunar Surface Viewed From Orbit	Mission Control During Falcon's Lunar Landing

Astronaut Descending The Ladder	Closeup Of Astronaut On The Footpad

Irwin And Scott Deploy The Rover	Irwin And Scott Deploy The Rover

Irwin And Scott Work Near Falcon	The TV Camera Now Mounted On The Rover

The stage is set for the most exciting mission to the Moon yet. Apollo 15 will land in an area of the Moon with diverse geology. The landing site in the Apennine mountains features not only the first landing near mountains, but also a canyon called Hadley Rille.

Astronauts Scott and Irwin will cover unprecedented distances while they are on the lunar surface. There mobility will be greatly increased by an electric vehicle called the lunar rover.

In July of 1971 I am 13 years old. This year on the farm we raised a considerable amount of wheat. After harvesting the wheat, I am helping my Mom and Dad save the excess straw by gathering it into bales. In the middle of July in Nebraska it is very hot and humid. Working with all of those straw bales is grueling and dusty work.

I am very motivated to work very hard on this project. I have struck a deal with my parents that if I work hard with the straw, they will buy me film for my camera for the upcoming Apollo 15 mission.

For previous Apollo missions I have typically had only a single roll of film. For the spectacle that I believe Apollo 15 will provide I am hoping to have 5 or 6 rolls of film.

My parents are also letting me drive the pickup truck out in the wheat stubble field. This is a lot of fun. To me however it is not a truck. When I am driving, I imagine that I am driving the lunar rover on the surface of the Moon.

As I drive in the field I wind around back and forth sampling the geology. I think my parents are somewhat embarrassed by my circuitous routes during my expeditions. The probably fear that the neighbors will think that the driver of this meandering vehicle has lost his sobriety.

All of the straw that we have baled is being stored in the abandoned two story farm house that my grandparents used to live in. The rooms are packed from the floor to the ceiling. We are working like an assembly line. I am inside of the house stacking the bales and my father is sending them up to me via an elevator. Did I mention how hot, Nebraska is in the summer?
Compounding the difficult working conditions are wasps that seem to have taken up residence in the abandoned house. I do not waver on my commitment to finishing this job without complaining. I work like a mule, knowing that my reward is going to be film.

It is now 33 years after I worked with those bales of straw. By no small miracle some of the photographs and negatives that I captured from the Apollo 15 mission coverage still survive. On the AP 15 TV linked pages you will see some of those images. Some of the images are scanned in from photos and some are scanned in from the negatives.

It is rather difficult to place the images in sequential order. In time I hope to watch the Apollo 15 mission video again in order to make the time line more accurate.

Reflecting back upon it now, those images are just as exciting to me now as they were 33 years ago.