Jared Polin (aka. Fro Knows Photo) recently scored an interview that has us all extremely jealous here at DPReview. A phone call to NASA to find out if astronauts shoot Raw in space led to an interview with Marine fighter pilot and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, who had arrived back to Earth from the International Space Station just three days before Jared spoke with him!
The entire interview is fascinating from first question to last, but first things first: yes, astronauts do shoot Raw in space. Bresnik himself says he shot RAW+JPEG so he could download the JPEGs onto his laptop and see the shots ASAP, but the Raw files are beamed down to Earth where the folks at NASA process them to their full potential.
This is far from the only only topic Polin and Bresnik cover, though. They hit everything from radiation damage, to stabilizing your shots in space, to the glass available, to what it was like switching from Nikon D4 cameras to the brand new D5s that arrived on the ISS in mid-November, and much more.
And all the while, gorgeous photos Bresnik captured while up there scroll across your screen. Photos like the ones below—some of our favorites from Bresnik’s last 2 months on the ISS:
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Editor’s Note: Bresnik also contributed the #oneworldmanyviews hashtag, which paired shots of beautiful locations captured in space with photos of the same spot taken from Earth.
For Polin, the conversation seemed surreal. He tells DPReview that:
For me I was in awe for a lot of the interview. It’s not easy to wrap your head around SPACE and the sheer fact you can transfer the data back to earth. Sure that’s been going on for decades but think about it. 250 miles up in space there’s a station with six astronauts on it, with an entire Nikon setup of D5’s and glass up to an 800 5.6 for god sake. The direct downlinks to NASA transfer data all night long.
Check out the full interview up top, scroll through the gallery above for a bit of awe, and if you want even more, head over to Bresnik’s Twitter account where you can find enough photos, videos, and timelapses to keep you busy until New Years and beyond.
And, since Polin says he may actually get to interview an astronaut who is on the space station when he talks to them, we’re curious: what would you ask an astronaut about photography in space? Drop your suggestions in the comments.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
