Chris Hadfield has his hands full, to put it mildly. He's an astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the Canadian Space Agency. On a daily basis, he conducts scientific research in zero gravity, sees the sun set and rise sixteen times, is the first person to record music in space, and holds conversations with William Shatner on Twitter. All things considered, it sounds like a job that many of us would pay to have, rather than vice versa. If that isn't enough to convince you to start astronaut training, however, he's also up there with the latest Nikon gear taking some truly wonderful shots of the world he sees below him, moving at 17,400 miles per hour (25,749.5 kilometers per hour, for everyone else in the world).
Glacial water entering the Atlantic Ocean in Argentina (Chris Hadfield)
He broadcasts these images almost daily via his Twitter feed to over 850,000+ Earth-bound followers. He makes his best efforts to photograph as many areas of the world as he can, and often varies his photographs from the intricate web-like pattern of city lights at night to endless expanses of wilderness as seen from above.
"Dr. Seuss-inspired" currents in the Black Sea (Chris Hadfield)
The challenges of Earth photography are numerous and daunting. Since the space station, and thus the camera, is moving at such a tremendous rate of speed in one direction, and the Earth in another, ridiculously fast shutter times are required to minimize motion blur, especially if a very long telephoto lens is used to capture a small part of the Earth. If your task is to capture a certain landmark, you'll have merely seconds to do it, as it will fly by like watching a car drive by on a highway, and your next chance may not be for a while.
Commander Hadfield jamming on the Station
UPDATE 5/13/13: Hadfield takes all of this in stride as he juggles his work on the Space Station; in fact, for his final days onboard the Space Station, he recorded this awesome music video, covering David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Is there anything this guy can't do? Let's all wish him a good trip home today!
Tim Kauger is a blogger and photographer based in Short Hills, NJ. You can visit his website here.