These fascinating story is well known but I wanted to quote it once again for those of you who missed it. American photographer Robert Landsberg was filming Mount St. Helens when it erupted on May 18, 1980. He was shooting as long as he could. After he realized that he would not be able to survive he rewinded the film back, placed his camera into the backpack and covered it with his body in order to protect it. Landsberg's body was found buried in the ash 17 days later. The film could be developed and the photos were published in the January 1981 issue of National Geographic. You can see these photos after the jump. I added the rest of the pictures to show the eruption of Mount St. Helen and its aftermath.