There’s a certain aesthetic pleasure in seeing everyday objects torn apart by a speeding bullet. But it’s certainly not as simple as point and shoot. Dutch photographer Alexander Augusteijn explains, “The most critical parameter in this kind of photography is timing, which is achieved by computer control of shutter, flash, valve, gun or whatever other device is used.” And the process is certainly time consuming and, as one may overlook, messy. “These kind of images require a lot of experimentation, dedication, patience and willingness to endlessly clean spill of liquids and debris from objects shot to pieces,” he continues. “Several hundreds of trial shots may be needed to get timing correct.”
Augusteijn has, in his own words, “dedicated myself to high-speed photography, taking pictures of extremely short events.” He’s not talking about a speeding animal or even an action shot from top athletes. Having perfected regular “bullet time” photography, Augusteijn made it all the more challenging by timing both the bullet and his camera with a drop of water.
Images via Peta Pixel.
What about video? Well one question is how many frames per second (fps) would it take to capture a bullet on film. Werner Mehl from Kurrzeit, a German company that manufactures measurement equipment, doesn’t take any chances. This film takes in a mind-boggling 1 million frames per second.
Jasper Nance (Flickr user nebarnix) has a passion for bullet photography. “Most of these photos are taken with a special flash unit that uses a high voltage arc in air as the light source,” she explains. “The flash of light lasts only 500 nanoseconds!” Here are some of the more colorful images.
And you thought lighting a match off the bottom of your cowboy boot was cool. David Neff also photographs household objects at impact, including what appears to be the aftermath of a bullet lighting a match. Contact him to purchase prints.
Sometimes it’s easy to tell what the targets (victims?) are, but the work by Alan Sailer has left us guessing in some cases. Check out his Flickr page to see his use of other projectiles, like paintballs and rubber balls.
Images via Digital Picture Zone.