Welcome to my World
of
Tricks and Effects

My keenest area of interest in in photography is set-up photography using a multitude of props and sometimes some electronic wizardry or gadgets.  One such gadget which I built myself is a Sound Activated Flash unit.  I bought the circuit from Maplin Electronics, a Sound Activated Switch and modified it to trigger my flash gun and mounted it all in a neat little box complete with battery holder, switch and socket.  It was with this gadget I captured the moment the hammer impacted on the light bulbs, the bursting of the water balloon (the white one where you can just see the skin starting to peel back) and the popping of the air and smoke filled balloons.  For these shots, I set up at the bottom of the garden late at night when it was dark (pitch black!) so that I could leave the shutter open on my camera mounted on a tripod.  The external flashgun was placed on another tripod and plugged into the sound activation gadget.  Any sound triggered the flash and hey presto - the image was recorded.  I have plans to do some more of this kind of photography when my inspiration returns.

For Ker-Plop, I didn't have the sound activation gadget at that time.  This was done purely by trial and error.  I bought a fish tank from Argos, filled with water and set up the camera on tripod aimed at the tank.  With finger ready on the shutter button, I dropped an apple in the tank and pressed the shutter.  I must have taken some 30 to 50 photos that day and believe it or not, the third attempt was the result I wanted!

The Liquid Balloon was also another trial-and-error set up.  Preparation was the key here.  I went out and bought a bag of party balloons and filled them all up with water and tied a piece of string to each one.  Again, I did the shoot at night so it was dark and hung the balloons, one at a time, on the washing line outside.  With camera set up on tripod focused on the balloon and flash turned on, again it was a case of "finger at the ready on the shutter button" and I pressed the shutter at the same time as pricking the balloon with a pin.  Several balloons and one pair of soggy feet later, I examined the results on the PC.  Plenty misses and one or two good ones, the best I used in a competition.

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