Talk about a camera platform! This sure beats shooting out the window of a Cessna 172 (which is what I usually do.)

But what really shocked me about this picture of one of the astronauts shooting out the window of the International Space Station was his obvious sheer strength. That's a 400mm f2.8 Nikkor lens he is holding and they weigh a ton. And there he is hand holding it! Wow! Arms of steel.

Except, of course, it's weightless up there with no gravity so holding a lens of that bulk is about as easy as holding a Kodak Instamatic. Or maybe a feather!

For all you equipment hounds out there note that it has a 2X extender attached, so he's really holding an 800mm lens. Piece of cake. And, of course, I could have shot that picture if I had been there. I guess the "being there" is the hard part, as usual.

Thanks to Nikon Rumors for bringing this to my attention. See them here: http://nikonrumors.com/

(Please note that the photo is courtesy of NASA. I did not shoot this photo, in case you were wondering what I do with all my time.)

Jim