Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon • Hacker News Board

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#131

Post by flyinRyan » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 4:13 PM UTC

jyap wrote: post #21

In fact, now that you know this picture was manipulated by the source, I’d urge you to have it removed from your photo archives. Permanently. Uh, Neil Armstrong had a Hasselblad camera strapped to his chest. I'd say excuse the lack of sky composition. Besides, the original picture also captures the lander in the composition. Wouldn't you want more photographic detail in a moon landing operation photo instead of one w…

>Uh, Neil Armstrong had a Hasselblad camera strapped to his chest. I'd say excuse the lack of sky composition.

No, that's not what he's talking about at all. He's talking to photo journalists and he's saying if you have the doctored photo (the one with the skyline) delete it from your archives. Because you can't use it for many publications.

>And who cares if it isn't a picture of Neil? It is the best representation of the feat and overall project. Besides, he took the picture.

So every other paper can't print an article about how stupid you are that you put a picture of some other guy to represent Neil Armstrong?

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#132

Post by michaelt » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #129

michaelt wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an obituary for Leonardo I'd use a portrait of Leonardo. I'll add a bit more nuance to that - people don't always read every word of a newspaper article. That's fine, it's why the inverted pyramid [0] model is used. If there's a big headline (Neil Armstrong Dies) and a single photo (the one of Buzz Aldrin) and the fact it's not a photo of Armstrong is in a little caption, it's going to contribute to the misconcep…

I confess that I'm puzzled by what seems to be an assumption that there's only going to be a single photo used in an obituary of one of the world's most historic figures. I agree that if I can only have a single photo in an obit, it should be a picture of the subject of the obit! I also think using a picture where one cannot see the subject's face would be tacky, regardless of who is behind the visor. I might have so…

Different news websites and publications have different styles - Sites like [0-5] seem to have decided on having one leading photo, with optional click-through galleries. On the other hand [6-8] have multiple images. Perhaps the websites of print publications have a tradition of more-text-fewer-pictures.

[0] http://science.time.com/2012/08/25/remembering-neil-armstron... [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/neil-armstrong-modest-h... [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9501410/Neil-Armstr... [3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/26/neil-armstrong... [4] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-26/us/33... [5] http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1247118--neil-arms... [6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/neil-a... [7] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11162858 [8] http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/30958...

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#133

Post by justin66 » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #132

justin66 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I confess that I'm puzzled by what seems to be an assumption that there's only going to be a single photo used in an obituary of one of the world's most historic figures. I agree that if I can only have a single photo in an obit, it should be a picture of the subject of the obit! I also think using a picture where one cannot see the subject's face would be tacky, regardless of who is behind the visor. I might have so…

Different news websites and publications have different styles - Sites like [0-5] seem to have decided on having one leading photo, with optional click-through galleries. On the other hand [6-8] have multiple images. Perhaps the websites of print publications have a tradition of more-text-fewer-pictures. [0] http://science.time.com/2012/08/25/remembering-neil-armstron... [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/neil-…

Interestingly, the BBC's obit had multiple videos (represented by a picture with an icon over it, as is the convention) but no still photos. I am obviously not an expert on this :) but I thought their article looked great.

Re: Why it's so hard to find a photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon

#134

Post by gwern » Mon, Aug 27, 2012, 5:56 PM UTC

> Despite the vast attention paid to the astronauts’ psychological profiles and their ability to work in teams, the Apollo 11 crew verged on the dysfunctional. While Armstrong and Aldrin didn’t quite match Stoppard’s Scott and Oates, there was a fierce behind-the-scenes battle between them to be first to set foot on the Moon. Early plans were for Aldrin, as module pilot, to step out first, but one version reported by Smith has it that Armstrong, as mission commander, lobbied more vigorously than Aldrin, and Nasa backed him up because he would be ‘better equipped to handle the clamour when he got back’ and, more mundanely, because his seat in the lunar module was closer to the door. Aldrin paid Armstrong back by taking no photographs of him on the Moon: the only manually taken lunar image of the First Man on the Moon is in one of many pictures Armstrong snapped of Aldrin, showing himself reflected in the visor of Aldrin’s spacesuit. Asked about this omission later, Aldrin lamely replied: ‘My fault, perhaps, but we had never simulated this in training.’ Later, Aldrin put it about that Armstrong’s First Sentence might have been a bureaucratic concoction.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n17/steven-shapin/what-did-you-expe...