CHILD OF APOLLO

What happens when you get the opportunity to meet and shoot an astronaut?

The opportunity to photograph astronaut Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden came up just a few days beforehand for Clive Booth. It was in 2019, and the shoot was to take place at New Scientist Live. To capture the portraits, Booth used a Canon EOS R and RF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens, along with a moon globe that he’d ordered from Amazon as a potential prop. “I wasn’t really sure if the idea would work, and I only had 15 minutes to shoot the picture as I’d managed to negotiate the use of Immersive Experiences’ planetarium tent (which doubled as a blackout studio).”

To make things more challenging, Booth met Al Worden just beforehand. “My wife held the 1x1 light, I put the globe in his hand and then took about two or three frames, but I didn’t think it was working and I felt really upset about it. I wasn’t happy with this image initially.” Booth often dislikes his images on a first look out of the camera, but he came round to the portraits of Al at the editing stage. “He was one of those people that not only did he meet your expectations; he exceeded them a million percent. He was fun. He was charming. He was cheeky. He was naughty. He was like the Apollo astronaut that everybody wanted to be with. I only met him the once for this shoot and we had lunch together. Sadly, that was the last professional shoot he ever did.”