March 24, 2018

High-Speed Photography Is Fun

I’ve been playing around some more with high-speed photography ever since I discovered that my camera’s shutter speed goes up to 1/32,000th of a second. Below you can see the results. I’ve got two hummingbird pictures, both full-frame photos taken within a few feet. I’ve got a honeybee flying around. And I’ve got a wasp (?) of some kind. All were taken at 1/16,000th of a second. They’re shockingly good.

But I need some help. I’d love to putter around with this some more, but what can I use it for? It needs to be something outdoors, since ultra-high shutter speeds require a lot of ambient light, and it needs to be something really fast. Cars and soccer balls might as well be molasses at these speeds. I need fast. Anyone got any good ideas?

UPDATE: In comments, Chris Hill suggests the “wasp” is really a hoverfly. I’ll buy that. But its shape is very distinctive, and so are its markings (two slanted white stripes followed by three horizontal white stripes). I can’t find one that looks anything like that.

UPDATE 2: It appears to be a four-spotted aphid fly.

March 21, 2018 — Irvine, California
March 21, 2018 — Irvine, California
March 23, 2018 — Irvine, California
March 21, 2018 — Irvine, California

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

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