Jack W. Aeby ( ; August 16 , 1923 -- June 19 , 2015 ) was an American environmental physicist most famous for having taken the only well-exposed color photograph of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16 , 1945 at the Trinity nuclear test site in New Mexico .
Jack W. Aeby ( ; August 16 , 1923 -- June 19 , 2015 ) was an American environmental physicist and photographer . He is known for having taken the only well-exposed color photograph of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16 , 1945 at the Trinity nuclear test site in New Mexico .