NASA's Official Photographer Has the Best Job Ever and the Pictures to Prove It
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Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls
Bill Ingalls is the official photographer for NASA, which means he chases scientists, the stars, and rockets all over the world.
You can say he has a pretty cool job. You can also say that like many other famous photographers, he kind of stumbled into it.
A supermoon rising over the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"TV was my first love," Ingalls said. This love led him to NASA, where he interned as a writer and television producer. The job required him to practice photography on the side.
He left NASA when he graduated and started teaching, much to his dismay. He missed NASA.
"I think they just got sick of me calling and said, God. Get him a desk. Throw him in a corner."
Ingalls took this photo with an extra long exposure to showcase the launch of the rocket that carried NASA's Parker Solar Probe. The probe is currently studying the sun and will be the first to "touch" it.
The only two available jobs at the moment were photo researcher or photographer. Ingalls chose the hands-on route.
Some perks of the job included two Nikonos underwater cameras from the Apollo days, despite the face Ingalls mostly shoots digital now.
The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft launches in Kazakhstan, led by a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut.
His impressive CV includes photographing the Deputy Administrator of NASA right after the space shuttle Columbia pulled apart on its descent to Earth and killed all seven crew members on board.
But, there have also been happy times.
He photographed a robot inside an active volcano in Alaska, shot out of helicopters during Russian spacecraft landings, and met President George H.W. Bush during the Appollo moon landing.
A spacecraft just landed in Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, with Russian support staff on the way.
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The moment an American and Japanese astronaut, alongside a Russian cosmonaut, emerge from their spacecraft following a five-month mission on the International Space Station
A young boy watches as the space shuttle Endeavor was moved to the California Science Center after 25 missions and nearly a full year in orbit.
All photos by Bill Ingalls/NASA, used under public domain.
