Bernard's Photos: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Jan 15 - Baker

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:23:48 GMT

Lake Tahoe

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:35:21 GMT

Orcas Island

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:59:44 GMT

Christmas Eagles

(Bernard's Photos) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:53:03 GMT

For the past year or so we've had two eagles living in the fir trees right by our front door. There's no evidence of a nest, but they do seem to come back to those trees every evening in the fall and winter. We have no idea where they go in the summer. Anyway, they usually return and leave in the darkness of dusk and dawn, which makes them kind of hard to spot in failing light 50 feet up in a tree. On Christmas day 2011, however, they treated us to a rare early afternoon appearance in good light and good weather...so I got out my camera.

Kitchen Bench

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:00:46 GMT

Favorites

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:12:35 GMT

Misc

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:08:59 GMT

Willis (aka Sears) tower

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:55:51 GMT

Night

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:52:06 GMT

Architecture

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:51:18 GMT

Field Museum

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:48:22 GMT

Shedd Aquarium

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:48:16 GMT

Art Institute

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:43:07 GMT

All Photos

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:16:31 GMT

Mar 18 - Snoqualmie

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:40:46 GMT

Fall

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:33:32 GMT

Elwha River Hike

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:01:55 GMT

Favorites

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:16:55 GMT

Favorites

(Bernard's Photos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:48:30 GMT

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

(Bernard's Photos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:28:51 GMT

"Our" Vineyard

(Bernard's Photos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:28:23 GMT

The Countryside

(Bernard's Photos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:28:08 GMT

All Photos

(Bernard's Photos) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:48:50 GMT

Mt. Rainier

(Bernard's Photos) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:18:32 GMT

Nailed it!

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:23:56 GMT

Apr 30 - Alpental

(Bernard's Photos) — Mon, 02 May 2011 08:32:25 GMT

Focus Free Lens

(Bernard's Photos) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:58:58 GMT

Snap-o-Cam

(Bernard's Photos) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:41:54 GMT

Favorites

(Bernard's Photos) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:09:56 GMT

Setup

(Bernard's Photos) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:53:32 GMT

This gallery contains photos of various pieces of equipment and configurations that I've put together for taking my high speed photos. Here are some answers to questions people have asked me:

So...um...but...uhh...how does all this work?
Here's the basic process: I set up the target, load the projectile into the gun, pressurize the gun, and then turn off all the lights. Then, within one second, I release my camera's shutter with a remote, open the valve (trigger) on the gun to release the projectile, the projectile leaves the barrel of the gun and very shortly thereafter breaks an infrared beam of light ( http://www.bernardsphotos.com/highspeed/setup/h174a7a64#h174a7a64 ), that sends a signal to a delay timer which proceeds to wait, once the timer expires it fires off the flash which (if everything is tweaked correctly) coincides with the projectile hitting the target. After that, the studio (i.e. my garage) goes dark again and I wait (yawn) for the second to expire.

What's with that black box and all those wires?
The key piece of all of this is the high speed timer and trigger that I built from some kits I bought from HiViz ( http://www.hiviz.com/ ). Specifically, I use the TPG-DU-BB Transistor Photogate-Delay Unit Package with Breadboard. I also have the SK2 Sound Trigger, but have yet to use it. The parts as-shipped and configured from HiViz work fine for one-off applications, tech demos, and science fair types of projects but they don't come packaged in any sort of a protective enclosure and the potentiometers are kinda small and fiddly. To make my trigger a more rugged device that I can quickly set up, take down, and use over and over again I bought an enclosure and some upgraded potentiometers and switches (from Vetco http://shop.vetcosurplus.com ), reconfigured HiViz's circuits to fit on one breadboard, and then built the little black box timing and trigger unit shown in the photos below.

What kind of gun is that?
It's an air gun of my own design built from schedule 80 PVC pipe and brass fittings bought from McLendon's ( http://www.mclendons.com/ ) and pressurized with a bicycle pump. The projectile is "a nickel plated steel sphere (12.7mm dia)" from a Geomag kit ( http://www.geomagsa.com/cp_gioco.php ). I hesitate to go into more detail than that because, frankly, if its design and operation isn't apparent from the photos then you should probably reconsider whether building and operating something like this is something you ought to be doing in the first place.

How fast is the projectile going?
The projectile is fired with between 20 - 60 psi in the gun. I've learned over time that 35 -40 psi seems to be somewhat of a sweet spot for repeatability...which is what taking photos like this is really all about...so most of these photos were probably taken in that range. That said, don't know what the exact speed is because I've never bothered to measure or calculate it.

The EXIF data says the shutter speed is 1 second, why aren't things blurred?
High speed images are all taken in complete darkness with the only light coming from the flash. When the flash is the only light source available then it doesn't matter how long the shutter is open because the camera isn't going to gather any more light when the flash is off. So the actual exposure it only for the ridiculously short amount of time that the flash is actually discharging. Note the streaking in this shot: http://www.bernardsphotos.com/highspeed/setup/h174a7a64#h55be3c1 , that's what happens when there's a bit of ambient light duing the exposure. The dominaitng power of the flash illuminates the scene to freeze the projectile for an instant, but the ambient light is still enough to burn in a faint path. There's nothing magic about 1 second. That just happens to be a convenient amount of time for me to set off the shot.

What's your lighting set up?
All of the images in my high speed galleries are lit by a single Nikon SB-800 flash triggered through a flash cord connected to the triggering and delay unit. Sometimes the flash is aimed directly at the subject and sometimes I shoot off or through a 24 or 36 inch umbrella.

Are those shots in sequence?
Even though some of my images may appears as though they are photos in a sequence, that's just a coincidence. They are all just the single photo from one high speed event.