Shooting the Space Shuttles

Mission to Pluto An Atlas 5 rocket launches on the world's first mission to Pluto, with the New Horizons space probe atop. New Horizons will get to Pluto in mid-2015 after a decade long journey. See the rest of Ben's photos at PopPhoto.com. Ben Cooper

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Our sister publication Popular Photography has a great interview with Ben Cooper, whose photos of space shuttle launches are both beautiful and technically amazing.

When Popular Photography first caught up with Ben Cooper back in 2008, he was a 21-year-old college student, shooting with film cameras and sacrificing his lenses for the sake of the shot. Since then he has gone digital (for the most part) and racked up some impressive new work that somehow takes an epic event like shuttle launch and makes it even more impressive.

What is your process like on launch day?
Shooting a launch requires some preparation and some knowledge if you want to get the right shot, especially for night launches. The real challenge is the remote cameras; setting them up at the pad a day or two before sometimes, and leaving them there to get the shot. This is the big process, taking hours sometimes, and requiring a lot of planning.

Read the rest of the interview on PopPhoto.com.