PhotosbyKev

Experimenting with High Speed Flash Photography and a Mumford Time Machine, other experiments can be seen here

“Catch a Falling Star”, an image I’m very pleased with:

a. 2″ @ f16 iso 200 cable release. 50mm on a 40D, full frame image.
b. Front 580Ex 1/32 power with diffuser
c. Rear 580Ex 1/64 power zoomed in to 105mm as a spotlight. Reduced to 1/64 because it was much closer than the main flashgun.
d. Flashes triggered from microphone (200mm away), 0.009 seconds delay.
e. Balloon smaller than previous attempts and under more pressure.

---

A water droplet animation consisting of 480 images taken at 0.5 millisecond intervals. Click here to see the full animation.

---

A biscuit being shot by an air gun pellet from a Beeman 0.177 air pistol.

The muzzle velocity of this gun is 130 metres/second and the muzzle was approx 250mm from the biscuit.

a. 2″ @ f11 iso 200 cable release. 100mm on a 40D, full frame image.
b. Front 580Ex 1/128 power zoomed into 105mm to maximise the lighting.
c. Rear 580Ex 1/128 power zoomed into 105mm as a rim light.
d. Flashes triggered from microphone attached to the gun barrel, 0.002 seconds delay.
The flash duration is approximately 1/35,000 second and the pellet has traveled about 4mm during this exposure and it can be seen in the debris trail.

---

A party popper captured 0.003 milliseconds after the popper was popped.

A single 580EX flashgun on 1/64 power was used to capture this image. The flashgun was triggered using a microphone sensor picking up the bang from the party popper.

---

A journey through failed experiments with notes on each experiment which might help anyone else taking this path.

---

Falling Apart at the Seams

A failure in my book because I didn’t get the shot I was after ie I wanted to capture the pellet after it broken the internal filament but before it exited the bulb.

Interesting to see what appears to be a double exposure around the edge of the bulb but no evidence of it if you look at the cracking in the middle of the bulb. I can’t figure out what would cause this.

It was a 1 second exposure BUT in a completely darkened room and lit by two flashguns wirelessly triggered. One aimed at the background and one aimed from in front of the bulb. Both guns on 1/128 of full power so flash duration would be about 1/35,000 of a second.

This was another attempt using the same setup but the double exposure effect isn’t apparent.

f16 @ iso200 using a Canon 40D and 100mm macro len

update: a possible solution to the double exposure is an electronic delay between the firing of the two flashguns which I haven’t observed before.

---

A recent stop motion animation test on a clockwork mechanism.

Click here to see the full animation.
500 photographs triggered by a photodiode across one of the moving arms. Each frame was incremented by 0.002 second delay. So this represents 1 second of movement but took a couple of hours to shoot. 9 trigger events were ignored to allow the flashes to recycle. A 580Ex and 550Ex flashgun on 1/128 full power were used to stop the movement.
Fail: Using a poor quality alarm clock mechanism has resulted in an irregular movement of the main lever

---

Water Balloons Trials

a. 2″ @ f11 iso 200 cable release. 50mm on a 40D
b. Front 580Ex 1/32 power with diffuser
c. Rear 580Ex 1/32 power zoomed in to 105mm
d. Flashes triggered from microphone set 200mm from the balloon, 0.003 seconds delay.
Fail: Delay slightly too short for the balloon to clear the balloon.

---

a. 2″ @ f11 iso 200 cable release. 50mm on a 40D, full frame image.
b. Front 580Ex 1/32 power with diffuser
c. Rear 580Ex 1/64 power zoomed in to 105mm as a spotlight. Reduced to 1/64 because it was much closer than the main flashgun.
d. Flashes triggered from microphone (200mm away), 0.006 seconds delay.
Fail: Pressure in the balloon wasn’t high enough to rip the balloon apart quickly enough.

---

Pushing the laws of physics too hard

a. 2″ @ f16 iso 200 cable release. 50mm on a 40D, full frame image.
b. Front 580Ex 1/32 power with diffuser
c. Rear 580Ex 1/64 power zoomed in to 105mm as a spotlight. Reduced to 1/64 because it was much closer than the main flashgun.
d. Flashes triggered from microphone (200mm away), 0.012 seconds delay.
Fail: at 12 milliseconds after the balloon was popped the water sphere has collapsed into chaos

---

more to follow

The Skerries lighthouse (53° 25’.3 N; 04° 36’.4 W) is situated to the North-East of Holyhead off the Isle of Anglesey. The rocks upon which the lighthouse stand are at the end of a low tract of submerged land, directly in the path of the major shipping lines operating to and from Ireland.

In 1716 the first working beacon started operation on the Skerries. This was a simple round tower, 35 feet high with an open grate on top in which coal was burnt. In 1987 the lighthouse was finally automated.

Today the Skerries are home to a large breeding colony of Arctic Tern (approximately 2,500 breeding pairs in 2008). Roseate Tern breeds occasionally in very small numbers. The following species also breed on the islands: Puffin, Black-legged Kittiwake, Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull. The Skerries are wardened by the RSPB during the tern breeding season.

West Mouse islet

The Mouse is known as Maen-y-Bugail (The Shepherd’s Stone) in Welsh. This is based on an old tale about a shepherd who lived on the headland.

While tending his flock of sheep, he got a stone in his shoe. The stone caused him a lot of pain and in his anger he pulled out the stone and threw it out to sea. And so we have West Mouse.

This white beacon, in daylight of course, is a daymark which helps local shipping as they navigate past this very tidal stretch of the coast.

An interactive Panoramic view of the waterfall can been seen here: Java or Flash version. To see the waterfall as a very high resolution photography please click here

At 240ft Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall is the highest waterfall in England or Wales.

Referred to as “The Hidden Pearl of Wales” this waterfall provides a magnificent backdrop to one of the most beautiful and serene valleys I’ve had the pleasure of photographing.

Full of surprises with a wide variety of wildlife and birds that can be seen from the comfort of the friendly restaurant/tearoom conveniently found at the bottom of the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall.

The folklore and legends of the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall can be read on the main website located here.

Wylfa power station, located on the north coast of Anglesey has two Magnox nuclear reactors and four turbine generators. Wylfa power station meets more than 40% of Wales’ electricity needs and on a typical day, the power station supplies 23 million Kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to meet the needs of two cities the size of Liverpool and Manchester put together.

Java viewer - Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey, N. Wales.

Wylfa power station is the second pre-stressed concrete pressure vessel built in the UK and is the last Magnox plant to be built, with the design being superseded by the Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR). Construction of Wylfa power station commenced in 1963 and it started supplying electricity to the grid in 1971.

Wylfa power station is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and is operated, on their behalf, by Magnox Electric Ltd.

The Menai Suspension bridge, which crosses the Menai Strait, was the first iron suspension bridge of its kind in the world, and was probably Thomas Telfords most acclaimed achievement. With his extra improvements to the Holyhead to London road he managed to reduce the travel time from 36 hours down to 27 hours.

Work on the Menai Suspension Bridge commenced in 1819, and it was completed and opened on 30th Jan 1826. Building began with the stone pillars, the stone was quarried locally at Penmon on the northern end of the strait. The stonework was completed in 1824 and the task of lifting the main support chains began. In order to lift the central section of chain – each weighing 23 and a half tons – it took 150 men using block and tackle. Each chain was dipped in linseed oil to stop them rusting and prompted Lewis Carrol to include a reference to the bridge in ‘Through the Looking Glass’

One of the design requirements for the bridge was that it needed to have 100 feet of space under the main span, to allow for the passage of the tall sailing ships that plied the Menai Strait. Modern ships do not have this problem as the yacht in the next image shows.

In 1893 the wooden decking was replaced with steel decking and the original iron chains were replaced in 1938 with steel ones which significantly increased the load carrying capacity of the bridge.

The Britannia bridge and Menai bridge link Anglesey with mainland Wales.

When first conceived by Robert Stephenson, the tubular bridge was to have been suspended from cables strung through the openings at the tops of the towers. However, after engineering calculations and tests of the finished tubes it was decided that they were strong enough by themselves to carry the trains.

Like the Menai Bridge, the stonework of the Britannia Bridge was constructed of limestone from Penmon, although sandstone from various places was used internally. The steel tubes themselves were constructed on the banks of the Strait.

There are four magnificent limestone lions guarding the entrances to the bridge. They were carved by John Thomas, who had also done stone carving for the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace in London. The lions are almost 4 metres high and sit on plinths of equal height. The bridge was opened on 5 March 1850.

The present day bridge has a much different appearance than the original. This is because it has been reconstructed after a disastrous fire in 1970.

South of the bridge is a statue erected in honour of Lord Nelson.

switch to java-based version

Copyright K Lewis (c) 2008

The St. Tysilio church is situated on the aptly named Church Island in the Menai Strait adjacent to the Menai Strait bridge and is reached by crossing a small causeway. The Welsh name for the island is Ynys Tysilio, meaning the Island of Tysilio.

It is thought that Tysilio was the son of the famous sixth century ruler of Powys, Brochfael Ysgythrog and rather than become a warrior as his father wished he turned to religion and built the St. Tysilio church in the 6th century.

It is widely accepted that the current church has replaced an earlier church or chapel on the same site during the 15th century.

 

Copyright K Lewis (c) 2008