IMAGING WHAT WE CANNOT SEE: EXPLOSIONS IN THE PRE-BLINK OF AN EYE
Atomic bomb explosion photographed by Edgerton and his colleagues at EG&G, likely at the Nevada Proving Grounds, on commission for the Atomic Energy Commission; circa 1952.
Alright so jumping away from reeeeeally long exposures let's talk about ridiculously short exposures. Like a millisecond. Like so fast that by the time YOU reached for your little camera the event captured was all ready over. Here we have Harry Edgerton's high-speed photographs of atomic tests. Commissioned by the Atomic Energy Commission Edgerton developed the Rapatronic shutter allowing a camera to capture incredibly high speed events. As an example, for the image above the shutter was only open for 1/100,000,000 of a second. This is the atomic explosion only a millisecond after the explosion before the iconic mushroom cloud stage that we associate with atomic explosions. Click on the image above for more information on Egerton's work.