Comments on: Perfect timing

Perfect timing

growabrain — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:07:30 -0800

People taking photos :
9:03AM 9/11.
The 2004 Tsunami.
This was taken a second before a lightning strike the hikers. The kid on the left died.
6 bolts hitting the water at the same time.
Diet Coke & Mentos (click on pix to see the second candy).
Bored.
Gray squirrel leaping between two trees. 8 lives left.
Throw ups: A baby, a seaman, a group photo.
Fencing.
...I took a picture w/ no flash at the same time someone took a picture w/ flash...

Bubbles and a dog. Flying dolphin. "The clock on my microwave changed at the same time I took this picture". Airplanes: with The Buddha, Doing flips, landing in Hong Kong. Lava Kiss. The woman on a train platform. A bird blocks speed camera. Two laughing horses Times two. Two soccer player, a boy & a girl. Basketball: with Rick Snyder and mid-dribble. Balls: Catching, kicking and one to the face. Mom & dog, dad & seagull. Splash down. The EagleDeer. Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom. Sparring a fish. (Buzzfeed can now have enough material for two new posts. From)

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:14:45 -0800

Some fantastic pics there.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:15:52 -0800

A bird once beat me in a bike race (I'm the guy on the left)

By: ChrisR

ChrisR — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:15:59 -0800

Oh, wow. Thank you for these. My heart skipped a beat at this one. Heartwrenching.

By: theodolite

theodolite — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:16:27 -0800

It seems kind of fucked up to mix wacky animal hijinx with photos of people moments before they die.

By: bswinburn

bswinburn — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:16:36 -0800

I like how the flying dolphin is running from a flying orca.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:24:16 -0800

Background about the hikers that were hit by lightning

By: foobaz

foobaz — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:25:42 -0800

6 bolts hitting the water at the same time That one's a long exposure.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:35:59 -0800

I'm just wondering why the photographer of "group photo" would have had such an insanely high shutter speed in that situation, but what do I know?

By: The Girl Who Ate Boston

The Girl Who Ate Boston — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:39:36 -0800

I saw this post and thought, "The most amazing photo I've seen in 2012 was that one of the couple kissing in front of the lava flow in the rain. I wonder if that photo will be included in the post." Glad to see you're a step ahead of me! :) I love the Atlantic's InFocus photography section. The world can be so beautiful. I never thought that finding amazing photography on the web could be a talent itself, but I swear, Alan Taylor raises it to an art form.

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:43:06 -0800

8 lightning bolts strike SF Bay Bridge at once (Daily Mail; Flickr original)

By: The Deej

The Deej — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:43:22 -0800

I'm just wondering why the photographer of "group photo" would have had such an insanely high shutter speed in that situation, but what do I know? The action is frozen by the speed of the flash, not the shutter speed of the camera.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:48:20 -0800

> A bird once beat me in a bike race (I'm the guy on the left) I'm pretty sure that bird was cheating.

By: Bovine Love

Bovine Love — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:50:28 -0800

8 lightning bolts strike SF Bay Bridge at once Notice the streaking of the lights of the vehicles crossing the bridge? Not "at once" I suspect.

By: crush-onastick

crush-onastick — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:55:57 -0800

"Tonight, I got lightning in 3 seperate 20 second exposures. This is a single exposure. " reads the description on that Bay Bridge shot. I parse that as a "single 20 second exposure" which indicates (as pointed out above) that it's not really striking "at once" but rather in quick succession.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:01:20 -0800

Some fun photos. But the no-flash/flash photo is suspect. A camera flash can't light up an auditorium (and if it could, the shadows are facing the wrong way). It reminds me of the time my sister tried to take a flash photo of San Francisco at night from across the bay (many miles away).

By: sciencegeek

sciencegeek — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:02:04 -0800

The picture of the people who ended up getting hit by lightning reminds me of a day back in high school. I did track & field and we were standing around waiting to do javelin when I looked at one of my teammates and noticed her hair standing on end just about the same time as she noticed my hair standing on end. We both looked at the javelins we were carrying, dropped them on the ground and started running inside while warning everyone else. Nothing bad happened, but I still remember that moment of realization, mirrored in my teammate's eyes, that we should get the heck out of there.

By: mediocre

mediocre — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:04:36 -0800

When I was in an elementary school soccer team (the woefully unfortunately named Rainbows.. sigh..) and in the middle of a game kids hair started sticking up like that seemingly for no reason a few parents were smart enough to get the kids the hell off the field. Moments later the lightning struck the second closest conductor nearby and blew a transformer across the street.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:06:01 -0800

The action is frozen by the speed of the flash, not the shutter speed of the camera. Yay! I learned something new! Thanks!

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:13:31 -0800

9:03AM 9/11 Fuck. I remember watching that live on television. Just watching the confused helicopter feed about the first tower, and then watching that second plane streak in. Unreal. It was around 10PM in Japan. I had just got out of a nice bath, and was drinking a beer, watching the news. Horrible stuff. I phoned my parents and woke them on the West Coast. As I was talking with my father on the phone the bastards rammed a plane into the Pentagon. I wish to hell we could have that decade back.

By: growabrain

growabrain — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:15:18 -0800

Eye of newt, here is an explanation of the flash effect

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:22:03 -0800

Eye of newt, here is an explanation of the flash effect--growabrain Wow. Some auditoriums have ceiling flash strobe lights for press photographers. You learn something every day.

By: Auden

Auden — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:25:19 -0800

This one with the dude doing the face-plant in the background has me a little perplexed.

By: brennen

brennen — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:39:55 -0800

My heart skipped a beat at this one. Heartwrenching. I hiked a handful of 14ers earlier this year with some friends. At the top of one, we probably could have taken a similar picture. The wooden pole marking the summit started crackling like a Van de Graaff generator, followed by all of the rocks, and there were sparks running in the gap between my hood and my face. I don't know how nobody got struck, but I am entirely confident that I have never done anything with the speed and efficiency with which I got the fuck down off that mountain.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:41:46 -0800

The decisive moment Mr. Cartier-Bresson might say.

By: arcticseal

arcticseal — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:59:41 -0800

I liked the alien horse.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:01:05 -0800

...I took a picture w/ no flash at the same time someone took a picture w/ flash... I spent way too much time at a MeFi meetup trying to do this, and finally succeeded.

By: peagood

peagood — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:34:07 -0800

Well, once upon a time this past year I was walking down the sidewalk on the way to school with my daughter, and we saw this water stain: (nsfw, and funniest thing in the world if you're eight - and perfect timing for showing and telling all your friends in the schooyard)

By: Atreides

Atreides — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:38:01 -0800

8 lives left. Is it me or is that gonna be one really big cat given its size relative to the fire escape and photographer?

By: photoslob

photoslob — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:33:15 -0800

I shot hundreds of those mid-dribble images when I worked at the newspaper years ago. I never thought that anyone would find them interesting. Also, great post.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:42:40 -0800

Wonderful post, as ever, thanks growabrain. And Happy New Year!

By: CrazyLemonade

CrazyLemonade — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:44:22 -0800

Great post. Great pics.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:11:13 -0800

Fabulous post!

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:12:04 -0800

The book "The Instant It Happened" has a lot of these along with the story behind them. Here is the assassination of the mayor of New York The photojournalist got it only because he had as his primary assignment taking a picture of a horse laughing and showed up after the formal farewell at the dock. Here is a campaign photo of Wendell Willkie.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:16:49 -0800

funny - i have a photographer friend who pointed out the stadium flash thing to me. in the context of a college basketball arena, he explained that people put their remote flashes up in the rafters and leave their business card next to them for identification. sure enough you can see the official photographers down on the floor with radio transmitters on their flash hotshoes and when they push the shutter button the whole place flashes momentarily. it's hard to believe that such 'small' lights so far away can really light up the whole stadium enough that it makes a difference to their picture, but it must or they would not do it. of course when i try to tell my other, non-photographer friends about this they don't believe me...

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:43:10 -0800

...I took a picture w/ no flash at the same time someone took a picture w/ flash... Some years ago in a bar I took a picture down a table of friends at the same instant that someone at the far end took a picture from his end. Each photo shows the flash of the other camera, and the same people from the opposite angle. It could not have worked better if we had planned it.

By: Bindyree

Bindyree — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:08:35 -0800

...I took a picture w/ no flash at the same time someone took a picture w/ flash... Some years ago in a bar I took a picture down a table of friends at the same instant that someone at the far end took a picture from his end. Each photo shows the flash of the other camera, and the same people from the opposite angle. It could not have worked better if we had planned it. I *love* stuff like that Took a similarly coincidental picture of my Aunt Carol at Thanksgiving one year and you can see it here if you wish.

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 04:19:33 -0800

Oh, and let's not forget the riot kiss.

By: Bunny Ultramod

Bunny Ultramod — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 05:56:06 -0800

For those upset about the lightning photo, the Web has all sorts of contradictory information, some saying the boy on the left was killed outright and some saying he eventually died of his injuries, almost none actually referencing anything but each other. This 2007 book has him surviving the strike, with a nearby hiker getting killed; another has his sister getting killed. It was actually the subject of a 2004 AskMe, which came up with no answers. In the absence of any additional evidence, I'm going to say that the jury is out on whether or not this is a photo of a young man moments before his death. In fact, while I think it is possible that it is indeed a photo taken just before a lightning strike, I know how easy it is for urban legends to spring up around photos, and for whatever is actually going on in the image to be misidentified. So I'm going to say it's a pretty starling photo, and raises a lot of questions, but I don't think they have been credibly answered.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:14:37 -0800

I did track & field and we were standing around waiting to do javelin when I looked at one of my teammates and noticed her hair standing on end just about the same time as she noticed my hair standing on end. sciencegeek, I'm sincerely glad that you didn't get hit, but damn that would have been an awesome shot. And, dances_with_sneetches, a clarification about that shot of the NYC mayor getting shot: he lived for three years afterwards. (It was William Jay Gaynor, BTW.)

By: sonika

sonika — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:14:34 -0800

The eagledeer has surpassed the liger to become my favorite animal. So majestic, so serene.

By: Saddo

Saddo — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:25:06 -0800

Here's my go at the decisive moment

By: CrazyLemonade

CrazyLemonade — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:24:01 -0800

A really weird thing happened after reading this post. I had never heard/seen the concept of a pic taken with no flash and flash at the almost exact time. So I saw the basketball pic, thought it was interesting, read the explanation that growabrain posted and thought nothing more of it. I'd have never thought to get my own pic of the type since I thought it must be almost impossible. Then last night while out shooting fireworks at the beach with my family, this happened. The funny thing is, I think there was no flash per se, just a sudden burst of extra light from the sparkler. Still, same effect.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:38:38 -0800

.kobayashi.: "> A bird once beat me in a bike race (I'm the guy on the left) I'm pretty sure that bird was cheating." Did the bird get tested for performance enhancing drugs?

By: mikepop

mikepop — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 07:03:09 -0800

Timing took on new meaning once I started photographing my daughther's soccer games. This one is pretty good.