Perfectly Timed Photography

[neil.b]

Stumbled across this and thought I'd share it with the PH snappers...

http://my.opera.com/SerbianFighter/albums/show.dml?p

There's also some discussion of the secrets of the techniques...

www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/48547/page/1

[hugh_]

Wow, These 2 are particularly stunning I think:

[C&C]

I don't know about the exact techniques used here, but when I was at school, I did a photo project with the aim of taking photos of a bursting balloon. The results were not dissimilar to the ones of balloons in this gallery - I also found that putting a small amount of water in the balloon made for a more interesting picture, as the skin of the balloon quickly contracts leaving the outline of the balloon represented by little droplets of water.

The technique I used was pretty straighforward - basically used a small crystal microphone to trigger a diode connected to the trigger circuit of a flashgun. The camera was set up on a tripod in a darkened room, and set to "B"/bulb shutter speed. Process went something like: Shutter opened, and balloon burst with a pin. The sound triggered the flash. Shutter closed.

I found that by varying the distance of the microphone from the balloon, the photos varied from the balloon being virtually complete (microphone next to balloon), to being completely deflated (microphone further away). As it was a physics project, and was not just about taking pretty pictures, I measured the distances of the microphone from the balloon, and knowing the speed of sound, could calculate how long it took for the balloon to burst.

I'm sure that a similar technique could work to take photos of similar events - especially if the event caused a sudden sound.