Vinyl record

This is a photograph showing how the sound is made on a vinyl record.  The needle is made to vibrate as it runs along the grooves.  The more wobbly the line, the higher the pitch of the sound.  It was a great system, and vinyl is still favoured by many for the distinct tone it gives. This portion of the record is about 1mm long, so a split second of sound is all that is shown here.  Thanks to Thor Haugen for the idea (and the record).  It’s a pointer sisters track, by the way, I wonder which bit?

The Moon

This is the moon over Oxfordshire on the 3rd December 2009.  Nearly full, but because it’s not you can see the details of the craters and impact marks all over it.  It’s really taken a beating over the years, but it’s still there, and worth taking a closer look at.  There’s ice on there.  If you look closely you can probably see it…

Water drops

This is the result of experimenting with lighting liquids.  The photographs are standard high speed water drops, but lit in particular ways to make the three dimensional quality of the coloured coronets stand out. Essentially the technique involves lighting the liquid through itself to eliminate any reflections or distracting highlights.  I never get tired of seeing the random nature of these moments in time.  Sometimes what you can’t see is much more beautiful than what you can.  The action is frozen using high speed flash triggered by an infra-red beam and shot through a 1930’s Rapax shutter attached to the front of a Micro-nikkor 105mm f/4 lens.  Very often old equipment is better than new equipment.