001:20:10 Collins (onboard): …I’ve lost a Hasselblad. Has anybody seen a Hasselblad floating by? It couldn’t have gone very far, big son of a gun like that.

About 40 years ago, three guys took a giant leap. And in a month, I will be taking my own.

When I got engaged, I did not have a list of things to do before I got married but a list of things to buy before I had to stop being selfish with my money. At the top of that list was completing a quest called Operation Frankenblad, which boiled down to this: about 4 years ago, I bought a Hasselblad body on eBay, then when I got it I realized that one part alone does not a Hasselblad make (don’t worry, I wasn’t ripped off, and it led to a self imposed exile from Internet auctions for a while). So piece by piece, I have bought a photographic icon.

I think about taking ol’ Frankie out for a spin all the time, none more than the week commemorating the camera’s finest moment. But the chances keep floating away, under the pressure of making sure that everything’s done for the wedding (not the marriage, which I am ready for), but it’s time will come. And so will mine.