Egg
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Chevy Blazer
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A Ball of Clay
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Light Bulb
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The Setup
Equipment: Safety Glasses; Paintball Gun; High-speed Photo Flash; 35mm Camera;
Big tarp; Flash Trigger; Various Targets.
We mounted and pointed the paintball gun at the target zone. The camera was placed
such that it had a view, from a safe distance, of the target zone. The flash was
positioned to illuminate the scene and was connected to the flash trigger. With the
tarps in place and a shield to stop the paintball, we are ready to place the target
and destroy it.
Tommy manned the gun and I manned the camera. When all was ready, we dimmed the lights,
opened the camera shutter, and fired the gun. The paintball would then penetrate the
target and continue on to strike the flash trigger. At this point the flash fired and
the scene would be illuminated, ever so briefly. This extremely brief illumination
stops the motion and captures the scene on film.
The total time from impact to flash is about 1/400th of a second or 2.5 milliseconds.
The total time of illumination is about 1/30,000th of a second or 33 microseconds.
The Egg
The egg was our first kill. It caught us by surprise in its explosiveness. Standing
behind the camera, I was not completely protected from the blast (we had safety glasses).
I had egg on my face, literally. When the lights came up, there was egg on the walls
where ever any small holes allowed it to escape. Needless to say it required cleanup.
The shot is amazing. You can see the expanding envelope of egg guts as it races outward
in all directions, including mine. Embedded in the goop are pieces of egg shells, paint
and paintball shell. I did not expect to see so much structure in the blast.
The Blazer
It was a model that was given to me by the kids quite some time ago. It’s been through
a lot over the years. We added one more event to its history. It survived, minus a few parts.
The Clay
The paintball did not penetrate this one. I was hoping to create more of a crater.
It is still interesting to see the spray of paint. It almost looks like it is pouring
out of the blob.
The Light Bulb
Wow! This was the most dangerous kill. I made sure we were as far out of the line
of sight as possible.
Bang! No more light bulb. But its death has been record for posterity. Check out
all of the detail. Almost all of the paint exited the back side. One of the pieces
of glass actually was able to cut through the tarp and escape. The cloud seen upstream
of the impact is CO2 from the gun.
What is it about blowing things up that is so fun?
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