High-speed photographs freeze bullets mid-shot -

An artist has created an amazing set of high-speed photographs which capture the precise moment bullets pass through objects.


Lex Augusteijn from the Netherlands uses a Canon 40D DSLR camera along with a flash unit to take the stunning images.


His equipment is all electronically controlled to achieve precise timing (as is the gun) -- though it still requires a lot of patience to create the scene.


Lex says it can take hundreds of shots to get a scene just right… meaning his neighbours must think they live next to a war zone.

Speaking to Newslite, Lex said he got into high speed photography in 2004 when he was inspired by a simple water drop he saw on a post card.



From then on he was hooked on high speed photography and setting himself more and more complex challenges, like shooting a bullet passing through a coke can, egg, water balloon and a drop of water.


"Timing is achieved by making first a series of trial shots, calibrating the setup," he said.


"This takes a couple of tens to hundreds shots, typically, depending on the complexity of the scene.


"After that, everything is pretty well controlled and every second shot is usable. There is still some fluctuation though, about 1 out of 10 is nice, with 1 out of 100 a top shot.


"Once you can do this, you can almost shoot any object you like. The challenge is to find things that look nice and/or spectacular.


"Liquids are generally nice, since they splash around and can easily be coloured."


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Lex Augusteijn