Photos that are out of this world

     As a professional photographer I love looking at incredible photographs.  One of the few sites I visit on a daily basis provides me with images that are often out of the world.  It is the NASA Image of the Day page.  
     I am a big fan of NASA and the images they post on there are simply out of this world.  I often set out on my deck at night and look up at the stars and just wonder what amazements awaits up there.  NASA's images feed my curiosity.  Like this one of the Seagull nebula as seen in this infrared mosaic from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer known as WISE.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

     Would that not be cool to see in person?  The ones I love to see the most are the ones that the astronauts create while in space.  They just fascinate me.  We have a beautiful world that we live on and I love exploring it and creating images of its beauty.  The view from up there is well... out of this world.

Image Credit: NASA

       You can see Earth in this self-portrait of astronaut Garrett Reisman during a spacewalk.  What you actually are seeing is the reflection of Earth and part of the space station in his visor.
     My Canon photography friends are going to love me, but something else that is neat is that the astronauts use Nikon equipment while up in space just like I do here on Earth.  I have known this for a while, but a recent article by NPR shared some new images from the new Nikon D3s that recently just arrived to the space station. I can say that even though I may never get to create images from outer space like you see from NASA, their images simply inspire me. 
     Each morning I check the new image of the day from NASA and I await the next shuttle launch.  Which is scheduled for November 1st.  Each night I look up into the night sky and dream of photos that are out of this world.