Glenn Baker, Astronaut

by charlene

In honour of the successful landing of Curiosity on Mars – NASA did test their equipment in the Pilbara region of Western Australia after all.

Meet Glenn Baker: former shipwright, custom automobile restorer, all round great guy, and fabulous portrait subject, though unfortunately somewhat camera shy. I first met Glenn when I went to give True North Mark a hand with light painting one of Glenn’s restored trucks, which you can read about here, and spent most of the night listening to him and Mark (who are old mates) swapping stories and while painting the truck with a torch, sneaking in a few pictures of my own when we took breaks.

It was Glenn’s turn to be painting assistant when we went up to Lancelin to shoot Steve and his Harley. I think he showed up happily under the impression that he wasn’t going to be the target of any itchy trigger fingers that day, a notion that Flemming and I very quickly put to rest. Glenn has one of those faces that photographers love to shoot, but scaling the dune with the big painting light and battery pack strapped on his back, he makes a decent addition to an extraterrestrial landscape too.

Meet Glenn Baker: astronaut.     

And if you ever wondered whether life really does exist elsewhere in the universe, you might be getting an answer today:

You be the judge.