Point and shoot: A red rose in liquid nitrogen explodes on contact with a bullet in one of Alan Sailer's dramatic high-speed photographs
Explosive: 'I love most of the things I shoot, but I don't like brussels sprouts,' says Sailer, who shot the vegetable steamed and piping hot
Hot stuff: A radish feels the impact of Sailer's rifle pellet. He describes the photography process as 'beyond dangerous'
Frozen in time: This strawberry was dipped in liquid nitrogen before it was shot
Say cheese: A wheel of Camembert was inspired by a Monty Python quote, reveals Sailer
Smokin': A rasher of bacon almost resembles a wave as the bullet hits it in Sailer's picture
Sugar rush: Sailer used his aversion to candy to stunning effect with this Hershey's 'Kiss' (left) and a hollow gumball (right)
Nut job: A wasabi peanut found in a bar proves an effective subject for high-speed photography
Shaken: A pair of snow globes, bought on sale for a dollar each, were destined for destruction in the name of art
Flash of light: A sweet red pepper is shot against a sunflower to colourful and dramatic effect
Hydrostatic shock: A plum proved a fantastic target, revealing a vibrant contrast between the purple skin and yellow flesh
Flavour explosion: Cherry tomatoes dipped in liquid nitrogen made for stunning results. The artist shot both red and yellow varieties
Guns and roses: The photographer who literally shoots his subjects
13th October 2009
A photo shoot usually requires a photographer to just point a camera and snap - but U.S. artist Alan Sailer takes the process much more literally. The California-based photographer, 54, has captured a series of otherwise unassuming items as they explode on contact with a bullet. The dramatic results feature everything from flowers to fruit, as well as more unexpected items such as bacon and even snow globes.
An expert at high-speed photography, Mr Sailer takes the pictures in a dark room positioned around 20cm from the target. The camera, which features a unique home-made flash, is set at a one-second delay. Mr Sailer, who describes the process as 'beyond dangerous, says: 'The special item is the flash. It is a home-built unit based on the design of Harold Edgerton*. The flash is about .5 microsecond in duration and runs at 17,000 volts. It is beyond dangerous, it's deadly.
'The flash is triggered when the pellet from a rifle travelling at about 200 metres per seconds passes through a laser beam. Its the same principle as those beams that set off a chime when you walk into a store,' he continues. 'The camera is set at one second and an f-stop of 9-13 depending on the reflectivity of the subject. The flash stops the action. The one second gives me time to click the camera shutter with one hand while I pull the trigger on the rifle with the other.'
MIT's trillion frames per second light camera
13 December 2011
A camera capable of visualising the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US. The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second - or about 40 billion times faster than a UK television camera. Direct recording of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions of repeated scans to recreate each image.
The team said the technique could be used to understand ultra fast processes. The images have been turned into films lasting roughly 480 frames. This footage shows different wavelengths of light rippling over the surface of a tomato.
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