Space Station Fly Over Time-lapse: Photographer Interview

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

A few months ago we wrote about an extremely popular time-lapse from space that shows footage of earth as seen from the International Space Station (ISS) captured by Commander Mike Fossum during Expedition 29. Now there is a video interview conducted by astronaut Mike Massimino from the NASA control center that reveals some of the techniques and equipment that captured the low light, night photographs. From the interview it sounds like Fossum was using a Nikon D3 due to it’s low light capabilities. Keep in mind that the Nikon D4 was just announced and will be released shortly. Here is the interview from NASA:

In the interview, Commander Fossum talks about the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, that is such a prominent part of the time lapse images he has taken of the earth from space. Astronaut Massimino points out that the aurora is not only seen in the north in these images from the ISS, then Commander Fossum touches on the science behind the aurora and why it is so widespread during the time the images were made. He also talks about the detail that he was able to capture by using moonlight instead of sunlight in tropical zones where bright sun usually washes out the area. The video is well worth seeing to get the insider perspective on how these spectacular images were captured.

The original footage contains a view of the incredible beauty of the earth that is completely unique. Fossum explains that his time of five months on the space station allowed him to spend the time on photography that was impossible on the shuttle. Here is the time-lapse footage captured from the space station if you missed it previously:

“The time has flown by,” Mike Fossum muses,  “I can’t believe I have been up here over five months already.”

His shuttle missions allowed a couple of quick shots out of a window, but the space station experience has allowed him to share a new vision of the planet that we live on.

For Further Training on Time-lapse Photography:

Check out this new COMPLETE guide (146 pages) to shooting, processing and rendering time-lapses using a dslr camera. It can be found here: Time-lapse Photography Guide