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Staccato

Single exposure. Multiple images created with custom flash synchronization and multiple flash heads.

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Susan Brandt Graham 2 weeks ago

WOW, just wow

King Douglas Thanks, Susan. You know how to make an old man happy. :>)

Lars Höög 1 month ago

You captured the motion using this lighting technique better than most such attempts I've seen.

King Douglas Lars,

This was shot on film in 1980 using a strobe-control rig designed for me by Texas Instruments in trade for a service I provided to them. I think I used about 10 strobe packs on this shot. Thank you for the comment.

Lars Höög It's always nice to get some behind the shot comments, thanks.
How did you control the light so that the piece of wood she's performing her act on was not totally overexposed.

King Douglas Good question, Lars, but I took this shot over 30 years ago and don't remember everything. However, I was careful about that sort of thing and I'm sure I made some compensation somewhere during the process. This image is not retouched.

Lars Höög I believe you and cannot possibly blame you for not recalling that detail. It is of lesser importance and the picture is great.

Dragan M. Babovic 3 months ago

Superb. Bravo maestro.

King Douglas Sorry, Dragan, to take so long to say thank you. I appreciate the comment and your support.

Mido Mohamed 5 months ago

Awesome

King Douglas Thanks, Mido...sorry for the long delay in responding.

Jan Vojtek 1 year ago

Holy crap! Single exposure? Awesome. You captured a full "movie" or a part of life in a single frame. Judging from your equipment it is more than a hobby for you but still wonderful!

King Douglas Thanks for the comment and the email, which I will answer later.

This photograph was simple to capture, but took some special lighting and equipment.

This is a single time exposure shot against a deep black background using three different light sources as the gymnast performed a walkover on the balance beam.

1. The multiple flash effect. A set of powerful lights were flashed in sequence at an adjustable firing rate. this controller was made especially for me. The controller was firing multiple flash units sequentially--not a single flash flash unit multiple times.
2. The blur links the multiple images together. The blur was created with a separate continuous tungsten light source that was filtered (blue) to match the color balance of the electronic flash units.
3. A big soft box electronic flash unit captured the final pose just before I close the shutter.

This is the sequence:

A. All lights in the studio are turned of except for the blue-filtered tungsten spotlight, which was carefully masked so as no to shine any light on the background.
B. 1-2-3 Go! I open the shutter when the gymnast begins her trick (the right side of the image above) and the multiple flash unit is started at the same time.
C. The tungsten spot light and the multiple flash unit are turned off when the gymnasts foot first touches the balance beam--so the multiple flash would not overlay the final pose.
D. The final pose is captured with a separate, big soft-box electronic flash using a button held in my hand.
E. Image captured--close the shutter.
F. Try again.

Everything was worked out and practiced using Polaroid film before I put color transparency film in the Hasselblad to capture what you see above.

Thanks again for your interest in this image.

Jan Vojtek Woooooooow. King that is amazing. Thank you soooo much for this detailed description. What I admire the most is the creativity, the thought process, the planning and the patience needed to execute this. The end result is indeed stunning. Thank you so much for taking the time to describe how you did it. Great. Just great!

amit 1 year ago

wowwww

Fu Yung 1 year ago

great shot ...

Stefano Tealdi 2 years ago

great shot!! it reminds me of a similar one of Joe McNally ^___^

Patricia Sweeney 2 years ago

amazing photography..

King Douglas Thank you, Patricia.

Milos Markelj 2 years ago

Great shot.....

King Douglas Thanks very much, Milos.

Huush 2 years ago

amazing... :-D

King Douglas Thank you, Huush.

siavash bakhtiarnia 2 years ago

Great Idea...I love this...I'm wondering did you merge many frames or this is just one try shooting? Knowing the technique is so tempting to me :)

King Douglas Thank you, siavash. This is a single exposure. I had a special flash controller that allowed me to create sequences like this.

Shirley S 2 years ago

Wow!!!!

King Douglas Thanks, Shirley S.

Daniel Hasselberg 4 years ago

Out standing! A pleasure to look and learn! Thx!

King Douglas Thanks so much, Daniel.

Jure Kravanja 4 years ago

excellent

King Douglas Thank you, Jure.

Scott Crouse 4 years ago

Very visually stunning King. The eye can follow the action perfectly.

King Douglas Thanks very much, Scott.

brita lomba 4 years ago

Technically perfect - wonderful example of the possibilities of lens and light.
Well done.

King Douglas Thanks, brita, for the fine compliment.

Nicole Goggins 4 years ago

oh wow! another inspirational photo! I have never come across anyone as talented and as skilled as you. To be able to get inside your head - just for a day....

King Douglas Nicole,
Thank you. If any of my colleagues who worked in Dallas in the 70's and 80's read this I would get a good teasing because they could do anything I could do photographically. The competition was tough and humbling.
I appreciate your compliments.

Paul van Geldrop 4 years ago

Incredible motion capture. And what a beautifull colours.
/Paul

King Douglas Thank you, Paul, for the very kind compliments.

Jacek Stefan 4 years ago

Excellent motion!
Best regards,
J.

King Douglas Thanks, Jacek.

Jeremy Russell 4 years ago

You are the King !

King Douglas Thanks, Jeremy, for the high praise and the pun...which is an identity, really, as I'm the only King in OE, as far as I know. In truth, not only isn't that a pun, it's barely a play on words. Pretty lame, in fact.

Just kidding! Thanks for writing. :>)

Jeremy Russell LOL.

You're a stirrer King. :-)

King Douglas I just wanted you to know that I hang on your every word. Is "stirrer" a compliment? :>)
Thanks again.

prbimages 4 years ago

Out of this world ... again!

King Douglas Thanks very much, prbimages.

Jacob Jovelou 4 years ago

Very impressive, King!

King Douglas Thank you, Jacob.

Daria Endresen 4 years ago

This is really beautiful! I've never seen SUCH artistic gymnastics shots before.. fantastic work, King :)

King Douglas Thanks, Daria. I'm pleased that you like my gymnast photos.

Fulvio Pellegrini 4 years ago

magnificent
F.

King Douglas Thank you, Fulvio.

barbara 4 years ago

what can one say...?

there are no words to say IT.

King Douglas Thanks, barbara.

Carola Lundmark 4 years ago

VERY amazing work both by the model and photographer.
Best regards Carola

King Douglas Thank you, Carola.

Mel Brackstone 4 years ago

Oh my goodness you do amazing work, King, I'd love to have an ounce of your photographic knowledge!!!

King Douglas Thanks, Mel.

King Douglas 4 years ago

Folks,

You've seen a lot of this type of thing among my published OE photos, but this one is a bit different in that it took a special, custom-made flash control device to capture the multiple images. It's not one of my favorite images, but it's not a bad example of this type of time-lapse imagery.

Claudio Solera 4 years ago

Chapeau! Ciao,Claudio.

King Douglas Grazie, Claudio. Ciao!

Stefan Nielsen 4 years ago

Perfect from a technical perspective - and beautiful from a photographic perspective.
I love it :)

King Douglas Thank you, Stefan.

Sandro di Carlo Darsa 4 years ago

Perfect my dear ;)
Not my favorite subject but so technical.

King Douglas You know, I feel exactly the same way. I just submitted this as a slightly different solution to illustrating motion.

Thanks very much.

Patrick Desmet 4 years ago

Great photo !

King Douglas Thanks, Patrick.