It also helped that we had individual dorm rooms that we could sleep in—they were very small, very thin walls—but we did have a door that we could shut. I think being able to have alone time, but then also being able to spend time together as a crew was a nice balance.
You were taking photos in a spacesuit—what was that like?
It was more physically demanding than I expected it to be. When we are on EVAs [space walks, or extra vehicular activity], anytime we were outside of the habitat, we had to be in a spacesuit. That meant anytime I was documenting researchers, I was also in a spacesuit. And the bubble for the helmet goes so far in front of your head that you can’t hold anything close to your eye. It was so bright outside during the day that it was hard to sometimes even see the back of my screen.
A lot of times it almost felt like guessing at the pictures I was taking; even trying to get focus could be really challenging. I would try and bring the camera close to my face and just ram it into the suit and I kept thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to dent these suits. They’re going to have a camera mark across the front.’ Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Calle carried 50 pounds of camera equipment strapped to her waist and shoulders.
I wore everything I needed because I couldn’t have a backpack with any camera gear. Everything that I had to carry was in a waist belt. With the camera weight, plus the spacesuit, I was probably carrying 50 pounds on me. And I couldn’t see the waist belt when I looked down because of the helmet, so I had to do everything by touch.