See Inside An Atomic Bomb With Extreme Speed Photos

[@mikeknapik6746]

Another great presentation! When I was active duty Air Force in the mid 60’s I was a motion picture photographer. My first duty assignment was at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. We did high speed mopic aerial work. Our fastest amera ran at 500 FPS. Exciting times for a 19 year old! As an aside, one of our mainstay cameras ran at 240 FPS, I can accomplish the same rate with my iPhone! Again thanks and keep up the good work!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@Anon54387]

@@ThePhotographicEye This reminds me of a photo book I have, left behind by the prior tenant of the house oddly enough, which has various photos by various people. One of them is one of those blind luck photos. It is a photo of a bomb that the IRA had set in a building just blowing up. Just by coincidence the photographer had hit that shutter button at the same time the bomb went off. Similarly, there is a photograph of a Japanese bomb just barely starting its explosion on an American ship in WW2 that the photographer had shot it just as it was happening. No one on that flight deck survived and neither did the photographer on a platform above. Incredibly, the camera survived and was found among the debris and the film was processed.

[@Anon54387]

@@ThePhotographicEye That bullet shot shows the angle of the shock wave. That's caused the Schlieren effect. Measure that angle and there is a formula you can plug it into and you can calculate the speed just from that angle. A guy with a channel called Smarter Every Day sets up an apparatus to see this angle and determines the speed of the bullet observed. He has all kinds of science and engineering topics on his channel including some on photography, one is how they calibrated shutter speeds in the films days, another a visit to a film manufacturing plant. I think you'd enjoy his channel.

[@gerrittenberkdeboer7763]

i love the "pure-ness" of the Apollo pictures.

[@billbromer]

As a retired biologist, I find myself looking for the art in the science, especially in plants and I am drawn to macrophotography. As I continue to learn to see, it is so fun to experiment. As long as I don’t stick my finger in the fan or fall asleep in the office. Thanks for your videos, they are so fun and thoughtful.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@toddbowers418]

My wife loves to macro jumping spiders and their prey. The world of the small is fascinating.

[@TrevorEmahizer]

Harold Edgerton is from my hometown, where I still live. We actually have a science center named after him here and in the spire of our courthouse, a strobe light flashes all night to honor his achievements.

[@MattSF23]

Yes, Edgerton! I was so lucky as a 12-year-old to get to meet him at a presentation he gave at the Museum of Science in Boston in the early 80s. He autographed a postcard that had the image of one of his famous 'milk drop' images.

[@michaelb.42112]

It's crazy to know a camera was developed (pun intended) nearly 75 years ago that could take 15 million frames a second. That's beyond my comprehension.

[@banegool]

Initially NASA did not have a defined photography program. Apparently Walter Schirra who happened to be an avid photography nut, convinced NASA to let him take a Hasselblad 500c on his Mercury mission. NASA was so impressed that Hasselblad cameras and photography training became the standard for future missions.

[@alyahyai]

I am a biologist & have always taken photos that combine art & science because they appeal to both communities 👍🏻

[@rtqii]

9:10 - Tower shot - The spikes protruding from the bottom of the fireball are the tower guy wires being consumed. They call it the "Rope Trick Effect"

[@233kosta]

The reason those are ahead of the big fireball is that they get vapourised by radiation which travels at the speed of light, whereas the fireball is plasma and therefore limited to more uhh... "earthly" speeds 😅

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I remember spending several nights in 1977 laying on the floor of a darkened room in our student house with two cameras, flashguns, timers, trigger wires and an air rifle, using wine and milk bottles as targets and getting amazing images of the pellets as they hit the glass, and of the shattering bottles. We didn't cover the floor very well and got into a heap of trouble about the glass fragments in the carpet. Totally worth it. I must try to find the negatives and scan them.

[@Mike-xt2ot]

That's an amazing story . Thanks for sharing.

[@gundarsmiks4889]

I am intrigued. Let us see!!!

[@tylerthegrimm]

Lol, you would be arrested and sent to prison for that now, and be kicked out of the school. A whole lot of freedom was given away from then to now

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

@@tylerthegrimm This was a private rented student house, I think we'd have been evicted from University-owned lodgings even then! I really should try replicating the experiment with 1970-era technology...

[@ChainsawFPV]

I was born in 77, and like all that stuff. I may have to try and duplicate it!

[@richardlarsen5716]

That brought back some memories. Growing up in South Africa in the 60s and 70s with no TV broadcast I remember being so fascinated by the bullet cutting the card image. I even took a black and white photo of it with my Kodak instamatic to play with effects in the dark room. And the listening to the moon landing on the radio, then a few days later seeing the images in the newspaper. Finally seeing film of the landing a few weeks later on the news reel at the drive in. Sorry, gone on a bit.... nostalgia.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

Harold Edgerton, the "E", in EG&G Corporation. A professor at MIT, and two of his students formed the company. The company started providing the service of high speed photography, and expanded into making specialty electronic components, such as the krytron, which was needed to detonate the chemical explosives precisely enough so that made the "implosion" type nuclear bomb (fatman) possible.

[@Radiotexas]

My family have been in the professional photography business for over 130 years. My great grandfather was a pioneer Texas portrait photographer. My father ran the photo section at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo in the 1960s and 70s. He often traveled to Sandia in Albuquerque and Los Alamos. Back then NOBODY ever, and I mean EVER, talked about what they did at Pantex. He would barely even talk about it after he retired. Anyway.... I had the opportunity to go with him to a photography seminar in Albuquerque where there was a demonstration of the HyCam ultra high speed 16mm motion picture camera. The HyCam rep showed a motion picture of a #11 flash bulb firing. It was just incredible seeing the path of the electric charge travel up the leads and ignite the charge, Dad had met Dr. Edgerton and remembered him showing most of the photographs you featured. Without putting too fine a point on this subject, Dr. Edgerton's primary contribution to "high speed photography" was his invention of the stroboscope-- electronic flash. He stopped the motion with the high speed flash. Yes, he did invent early cameras but a lot of the pictures were simply single exposures on sheet film. Much more efficient motion picture cameras were used just before WWII in the Manhattan Project and even more, such as the HyCam and Hulcher Sequence Camera, were developed right after the war. One interesting thing is that it takes several seconds for the camera to get up to speed before the revolving shutter is triggered to record "the event." For example the HyCam cameras consumed a 400 foot reel of film stock for just a few seconds of "event!" Today, modern high speed digital equipment does the job. I'm pretty much retired now but in my career I have photographed just about everything and it was a great, if not always financially rewarding, career.

[@richardlong3745]

This is off topic but it struck me as I watched this video. The short clip during this video where a narrator was talking about fan blade cutting through a smoke stream brought back memories of this narrator who was used for many informational type short films of late 1930's to around 1960 when you didn't hear him any longer. This narrator had a somewhat unique American accent that wasn't all that common but you'd still hear it when was growing up in the 1950's and 60's but this American accent has completely disappeared in todays US and the only reason I wrote this ws because I fully remember some people sounding this way besides this particular narrator which I remember him well.

[@craig.a.glesner]

What got me was him reading “comma” and “period”, like dude don’t read the punctuation. Derp.

[@markgallagher5908]

The voice sounds like Rickard Feynman.

[@doog67]

@@craig.a.glesner He's mocking the format. The whole clip is mildly subversive. McCarthy era humor

[@spazmonkey3815]

Yes, many of the American accents have disappeared. For instance, Katherine Hepburn.

[@gotindrachenhart]

Yup I know the guy you're talking about but also could never find much info on him.

[@alanbrown4766]

My Dad was an impromptu photographer.. Somewhere along the way i became a photographer who took pictures of laboatory prototype hardware.. I've always been attracted to macro photography. Thanks your video

[@PhilipRanson-d5t]

I was born in 1956 and space was an unlimited frontier of excitement.Photography defined this time for almost everyone.Great job,thanks

[@grandpascuba]

I finally figured out why I like your videos so much. You are a “story teller” like me. Each subject you cover, you are compelled to share your thoughts. I love it. PS- there must be a US/UK language difference. I noticed that you pronounced Edgerton as “egg erton ”. In the the US we call him “edge erton”. 😅 keep it up! Love it!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks! I spent some time in FL early 2000's and could never figure out why that one shop was called Chik-Fil-AAH :D

[@jordanmicahcook]

I think knowing the significance of these particular photos, as well as the sheer power that was within that initial plume of nuclear detonation, the fact that it was so hot for a fraction of a second that it made our sun seem frigid, makes the fact that someone from that era was able to capture such an infinitesimally small fragment of time all the more stunning.

[@randy7417]

Not only were the photos beyond amazing,but this whole video was a 14 min art piece that I thoroughly enjoyed!!!Beautiful work 👏

[@GEFanuc21t]

The principal behind those Rapitronic cameras to film explosions was quite simple really... a rapidly rotating drum with several facets of mirrors on the drum and a camera in line of the mirrors. The cameras had to face the mirrors and not the object. The time interval of image capture is determined only by the RPM of the drum times the number of mirror facets. Some were built to spin up to 20,000 RPM and had to operate in a vacuum otherwise the air friction would tear them apart. Most often it's not the idea which is complex or difficult, it's the engineering problems to execute it. The method behind barcode scanners works the same way but instead of a camera it's a pulsed laser light.

[@ChrisHunt4497]

What incredible images you have shared with us Alex. I have never thought about the scientific side before but now I will. Thank you. 🎉

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@flashgordon3715]

You grew up in the 80s, I grew up in the 60s, and we still had air raid drills once a month in grade school.

[@rhouser1280]

That old fan video commentary was pretty good 😂

[@travisyayes6343]

I thought so too. Fan so quiet it won't wake the sleeping employees lol

[@JU5TINPDX]

I’m less than one minute into this video and I’ve already “liked” it… about 15-20 years ago I bought a dvd from the $10 discount bin called, “the atomic bomb movie” …narrated by William Shatner, and scored with incredible classical music… it was beautiful and absolutely terrifying all at once.

[@DavidFlowerOfficial]

I'm also a child of the 80's (born '77), fascinated by the whole nuclear thing and also had those books! Incredibly high speed cameras have always been incredible tools and seeing the world at fractions of seconds is quite honestly mind blowing to me. Another great video.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@jamesbarnes3063]

Alex, I enjoy our conversations , one I listen and I learn, thanks

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@andriescarstens9245]

This is a nice documentary about the use of photography in the sciences. Science would not be where it is, if not for the proof by means of photography. Being a scientific/industrial photographer for all my life at a university, this type of photography is my absolute passion. I never worked a single day for close to 50 years because of the joy of the profession. I always told friends that to be able to do the job properly, you need to know the science of photography very well, every facet of it, high speed, ultra violet, infrared, you mention it and we did it. We were on the edge to do Schlieren photography as well but the department could not get their act together. The only exclusion was medical photography which our sister department did at the medical faculty. And what about the beauty of double polarized light with stress patterns, you should look at that as well!! - Good to see this Alex!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@cm4233nz]

Hi Alex, on a related yet different note - are you familiar with the Slow Mo guys channel?, occasionally art, sometimes educational, always entertaining; as a direct link, the first of their videos I saw was spinning an apple (bullet through the apple photo link?) with an air line until it ruptures. Also, loving the another appearance of the coffee mug, it brings another layer of . . . what's the right word here, something between closeness and familiarity? Thx, Scott

[@veivoli]

@cm4233nz But, sadly, the cat appears to be an ex-cat. Or is it just sleeping?

[@233kosta]

When I worked in ballistics, we used Schlieren images to validate CFD predictions of shockwaves. Those things looked so cool!!!

[@craigstorer6571]

I like hearing your voice and laughter. My first boss was a photographer who took an iconic image of FDR. He hired me to write the names of Senior High Schoolers for class photos that would be hung in high schools. But my most memorable conversation was the time John Glenn called me on the phone.

[@Just_Sara]

I feel a horror I cannot explain when I see those nuclear bomb photos.

[@harrietharlow9929]

You're not alone. They give me the creeps and a sense of foreboding.

[@BrianLockett]

It feels like we're seeing something that human beings were never meant to mess around and find out, but now it's too late to unimagine.

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@BrianLockett Great way to put it!

[@ItsJustMyOpinion_Really]

Same here!

[@512kjt]

Same… I find them terrifying.

[@oneminutebugs]

'Doc' Edgerton was my inspiration to study scientific photography at University! When we use a camera with a flash we walk in the shadow of a giant. He pretty much invented modern flash 'strobe' lights.

[@gregmonks]

Speaking as a child of the 1950's, the feeling of watching atomic tests in slow-motion is what is called "horrified fascination". The speed at which a nuclear explosion unfolds CAN NOT be filmed (people directly under are vaporised faster than can be recorded), and what we do see resembles a living thing.

[@kiwidiesel]

You unleash that much energy in an instant it really does become a living thing.

[@233kosta]

The nuclear reaction does occur in a finite, measurable time frame, but that's probably orders of magnitude faster than the camera's shutter speed. I would assume that by the time we see the flash it's all over. In aerospace we call these time scales. There are also length scales. Events which occur at similar time scales and/or length scales can readily interact. Whereas if time/length scales differ by some orders of magnitude, the events do not directly interact in a dynamic way, though they may influence each other.

[@gregmonks]

@@233kosta Interesting. I'll go looking for papers on the subject.

[@davidedgar2818]

When I was in the US Navy back in the early eighties, I met a master chief that worked for NASA from Apollo to the shuttle. He came to our command for an Apollo commemorative and brought original slides and negatives that we got prints from. I still have an 8×10 of earth from the orbit of the moon. I seem to remember his name as " Red Smith" and he taught me a few things about camera repair and lenses. He also taught the astronauts about the proper photographic measures and helped to make those Hasselblads become adapted to use in a space suit. He showed us a couple of different configurations that he still had.

[@rtqii]

What I see in those first fractions of a second are the shock wave patterns created by the explosive lenses that compress the critical mass. These cores are layered and have different materials in them, the centers are hollow... The physical and materials geometry is completely reflected in the shape and temperatures of the early fireball formation.

[@bwmcelya]

Dr. Edgerton was a physicist who envisioned stop action photography. As a physicist he was able to build the high speed cameras to do that. It was a curious and fascinating leap forward in the world of imaging. A physicist who added fine art to his bag of tricks. Thank you Harold.

[@JohnShields-xx1yk]

Some of those images are fascinating and beautiful at the same time. I'm with him, my idea of beautiful images aren't necessarily of famous artists paintings but of time lapse or highspeed photograph images.

[@joshjones3408]

This an 16x9 are some of the best videos on the subject 👍👍👍

[@FixerUK]

And now we have Gav and Dan. Love their work!

[@MikhailRimskyKorsakov]

Privet friends... Da! The Slo Mo Guys... 🙂 До свидания

[@savoy99]

Doc Edgerton was a great man. Had the pleasure to interact with him several times at both MIT and at EG&G, Salem, MA Brilliant man.

[@L.Spencer]

I was at the eye doctor today and asked what kind of camera takes pictures in my eye. She said it is a laser. I don't know how a laser can take a picture, but I also don't understand how sound can travel on a copper wire. Fascinating.

[@TommyBoy3D]

Enjoying a cup of coffee with you as I watch this post. Been enjoying your channel for some time now. Thanks.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Awesome, thank you!

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

I’m a child of the ‘50’s when many of these shots were brand new. Being interested in guns, I was always fascinated by the bullet photos. The explosion shots felt a bit like roadkill - so fascinating that I couldn’t not look, but ugly in the extreme.

[@233kosta]

I used to frequent this air rifle range a while back. They added clips to the target holders so you can attach playing cards edge-on. I hit my fair share as far out as 30m. Properly split quite a few of them right half in two. It's not easy, but with the right setup, following all the fundamentals correctly, it's not impossible. I would recommend attempting that with a Walther LGR at about 10m. At that range, that rifle is perfectly capable of splitting a paper playing card right down the middle, but it might run out of chooch by 30m.

[@spodzone]

We might not be contemplating the photos of nukes for the whole "oh, the horror" contrast you mention, but I do find the combination of something alien to our experience (both the fact I don't have a nuke at my disposal nor the means of recording at 1e-6s) along with the precise geometry of the results quite _spooky_. They make you wonder exactly what caused the various structures - casings evaporating or grains of sand or whatever.

[@tsbrownie]

You can see the conventional explosive "lenses" used to compress the nuclear materials.

[@Warhawk76]

Is that music from Apollo 13 that is playing in the background when you start showing the space photos?

[@kevinhanley3023]

As a child of the 50s/60s I grew up with all those images. Edgerton was making images everyone saw. It was part of our race to the future. Hello Jetsons. There was the April 30 1965 Life magazine “The Drama of Life Before Birth” images that also made me stop and stare. I was 10. And “Napalm Girl”, geez. Then “Earthrise” came along and and gave us hope again. In the 70s, I was a submarine sailor, rode a boomer in the North Atlantic and I refined my sense of awe regarding all things nuclear. Thanks for showing me Edgerton again.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@TristanColgate]

I've got a Time Life compendium book with a bunch of the Lennart Nilsson egg/sperm/fetus shots in it. They are absolutely other-wordly. (and no, you are not alone. As a fellow '80s child, I concur, the nuclear stuff was pervasive, terrifying and still fascinating).

[@tedbrown7908]

COOL ! I was stationed at Holloman AFB 1979-1981 Alamogordo, New Mexico. I might be radio active ! I compare High speed photography to Macro photography. Both were unseen for a long time and the images produced amazed people.

[@travisyayes6343]

It's the stabilizing cables on the tower just vaporizing from the emense heat is what fascinates me.

[@TyMoore95503]

I agree with you that there is something intrinsically beautiful with many of the photographs captured during the atomic tests. I think it is possible to appreciate the beauty of the photographs without being overwhelmed by the horror of the sheer, raw destructive power that nuclear weapons represent. Understanding the physics, the way they work, the physics of the energy release, the timing, and the way energy interacts with matter...which results in this beautiful photograph. Understanding the bomb holistically makes one more appreciative of the perfect distillation and luck necessary to arrive at that photograph.

[@Noahfence251]

I've always been fascinated by pics of atomic and really just explosions in general.

[@flipmstr2]

The artist tries to document data into an image. The scientist tries to get data from an image. Where they overlap, that is magic.

[@Oldtanktapper]

I have a book called ‘Caught in motion’ by Stephen Dalton, as a child it fascinated me as he went into the details of how he managed to catch his images. It was especially challenging as it was long before the digital age and he was often photographing animals, sometimes in the wild. Absolutely crazy set ups and many, many hours of patience to get his shot.

[@H0mework]

Great video as usual! The technical achievements are incredible, if someone showed me the apple with the bullet through it, it's not a photography vibe for me as much as "THIS IS PHOTOGRAPHY!!". Art disguises itself where as these are honest depictions of things we do not see normally and we know isn't just beautiful but functional. Thank you!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@johncamp7679]

I’m 52, and I remember seeing the water drop pictures, where we learned that a drop goes down, and a drop goes up. I’ve seen some of the others as well.

[@bicivelo]

Liked and subscribed. Great video. 😊

[@seaeagles6025]

Hi Alex, I found this video very Captivating i was glued to my Computer. It's great looking at photos that I've never seen before like the Atom Bomb, powerful pictures. I agree these photos are Artistic and Dan Winters photos are amazing. Can't wait to see the photos of the next Moon Landing. I love the title of this video, THE HIDDEN BEAUTY OF EXTREME HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPHY. And it is BEAUTY at it's best. Great topic thank you for sharing it. 😃

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@franciscook5819]

It wasn't just EG&G that did such photography. For instance, the UK developed its own camera: the C4 Rotating Mirror High Speed Camera. Nowadays you can buy (expensive) cameras which expose one million frames per second. The (Oxfordshire) Rosalind Franklin Institute is developing one to expose one hundred million frames per second

[@alexerreme]

Amazing video! Thanks for it

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@smatthewson2613]

Thanks for this, also facinated by the collision of art and science, the high speed shots of nuclear shots was one of my gateways to that.

[@capoman1]

1:49 How the hell do you capture 15mil pics a second, on film no less?

[@photobooksandrecords]

Those photos capturing the atomic bomb are so creepy! What a collection of beautiful images.

[@TheSteveSteele]

The images of Ed White doing an EVA are incredible. Imagine being one of the first couple of people to ever do that? To see earth from that view moving at 17,000 MHP and “floating” above the earth in space in 1965. I wish that could have been me!

[@martinoberstein8431]

Fascinating! Thank you ever so much for this compilation, Alex!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

My pleasure!

[@sparky2008sparky]

The most interesting photo from EG&G that I’ve seen is one where the shot cab of a nuclear test is illuminated from the inside from the impending explosion. The light has emerged from the bomb casing inside the cab, but no fireball yet. I think it’s posted on MITs website.

[@citymagnum4734]

80s child here too, I believe we have all seen those same images in 1980s and 1970s encyclopedias and "our wonderful world" type of books. There's however something sad about them, especially the aerospace ones : they represented the pinnacle of tech for their era, and kind of opened a child's eyes as to what could be achieved by the human spirit. Little did we know back then that they 'd be, in a sense, the last of their kind , and that future generations would grow in a world without Apollo, Concorde or even the Space Shuttle.

[@alunrees3056]

I kind of felt that that a good picture is one that could stand on its own without explanation or external context. With out the explanation to support some of the images of the nuclear explosions I wouldn’t really know what I was looking at, the knowledge of what they are suddenly make the “how” more intriguing than the “what” or the “why”.

[@Kwaark]

outstanding photos ! thank you so much for sharing your love of photography with us.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

My pleasure!

[@captainscarlett1]

On the USS Intrepid aerospace museum in NYC I found that an SR-71 nose aligns perfectly with my nose. I have an awesome photo of that.

[@MsJoao101]

The Slow Mo guys recently showed a camera that can capture the motion of light itself... It's disconcerting to me that we can build machines that can capture the movement of light! Great content! Instantaneous fan!

[@saschaschneider9157]

I also grew up in the 80s and 90s and nuclear weapons to me are also fascinating and terrifying at the same time. I coped my fear with learning everything about it that I could find anywhere. Just the fact, that after 4 microseconds everything "mechnical" in at thermonuclaer device is done. The rest is just waiting for physics to be unleashed. Everytime I think about this it blows my mind.

[@mrbikeman]

I'm an average Joe who was born in 75' and raised in New Mexico. I had all those Disney books. I really like your video.

[@dennisk5818]

I, too, have been fascinated by the high speed images, rapatronic cameras that Edgerton created. I had a job interview with EG&G in LV. While waiting, I noticed a 6 up set of images that started at the first glow of the fision detonation, through to the final image showing the structure fully engulfed in the plasma fireball. You could see the rope trick effects following cables to the ground over the structure. It was both eerie to look at and the 'beauty' of this millisecond event. I've not since, seen this series. Scientifically, it showed fireball structure. As photography goes, there existed a strange beauty with a wonderful range of densities. I believe that Edgerton was principle in the detonator triggers for the early nuclear devices. This was from his development of strobe devices. At RIT, we had a lab dedicated to stroboscopic imaging, such as the bullet fired through the apple.

[@brucestorey3400]

The feeling I get the from the photo taken one millionth of a second into the atom bomb's detonation is a sensation of "other worldly" power. The heat, energy, percussive impact of this relatively tiny device frightens and creates genuine awe. And for the luddites and assorted haters: If Oppenheimer didn't develop it, someone else would have. This sort of truly awesome development is an unstoppable force of sentient beings. And it may be the end of us.

[@Pretermit_Sound]

5:44 so that’s why we have all those noisy fans at work 😉

[@glennjames7107]

There is something spiritual about witnessing or even seeing photos of a nuclear explosion. There is something deeper than I think we mere mortals can explain.

Absolutely fascinating. Reminds me of virology classes.

[@tigertiger1699]

🙏🙏🙏 bang on …. They blow my tiny mind… both the nuclear burst.. and the atmospheric/ space… The thought off the gases on the outside of capsules during re entry… Great vid…

[@notsparks]

We have 2 of Edgerton's limited edition photographs from the 1940s (each is one of 60) with a crystal clear depiction of rodeo riders in action. His art is incredible

[@StEvEn-dp1ri]

You asked how we viewed these images. Are they artistic or mesmerizing? Instantly I saw something in the photograph I hadn't seen before. It reminded me of the microwave background of the universe, right? I can certainly see an artistic visual, but the scientific aspect is undeniable. The images are intriguing. Thank you for making the video.

[@weekenddistractions]

Awesome video and commentary.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@nghermit4922]

Those photos do the same thing to me, the spikes coming down the guide cables of the fireball are just incredible, I’d say my other favorite is from the command module looking back at earth, every human that ever lived or died is in the photo except for Michael Collins.

[@nate_d376]

I had that book. I can't tell you how many times I read through it. Had a few others in that series too. I think they were in history and other topics. I was also a child of the late 70s and 80s, btw.

[@glennjames7107]

I remember, we had a set of those disney books when I was a child. I believe I still have them packed away somewhere. They were great !

[@robinwells8879]

Beauty is sometimes defined as fitness for purpose. As an engineer I am often taken aback by the beauty of pure engineering.

[@timmotel5804]

Good Day. Excellent. My son and I stood on the spot where the Trinity Site Tower once stood. We visited the site on the 50th anniversary of the "Trinity" test. I've never seen this picture of the tower as it is actually in the process of being Disintegrated. Going there was one of my "bucket list items". I was born in 1952. I just found your site and the photos are fascinating. I subscribed. Thank You.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks, it's great to have you here

[@agerven]

Thank you for putting out awareness of photography combining the edge of physics with, perhaps unexpected, art of physics. As a physicist, i have become aware that when studying either the extreme large and heavy (the universe, Einstein related), or the extreme small and almost weightless (quantum mechanics and sub-atomic domains) art seems to present itself. Perhaps through it's abstractness and symmetry. On the other hand, i must say the ultra-fast photos shown of Trinity, or in any case some of the first nuclear experiments, look horrifying and literally evil to me. That's because in an efficient nuclear device the explosion and the resulting fireball should be fully homogenous, i.e. symmetrical. These old photographs of the atoms splitting look like the atomic process is ripped apart, crippled. Which is actually true since the inward detonation was far from perfect. The purpose of these photos was actually to present these images to be able to tell the quality of that inward detonation. So yes, men succeeded in splitting the Uranium atoms, but how terrible and actually shocking this achievement looks at those photographs. It shook me to the core and those images will remain long in my mind. The monster was awakened.

[@stevendraper2613]

Is there a pictorial book "to buy" of these Atomic detonations.. they're beautiful yet destructive.. I'm really interested in purchasing it and showing it to my friends.. a PICTORIAL BOOK..Thanks.. Semper Fidelis Semper Fortis

[@sobreaver]

It's like watching old movies, they have their own vibes :P

[@leighyoung4023]

I love the NASA photography; those images are spectacular! Beautiful exposures, tone, and texture from the medium, which I assume would have been low ISO medium format transparencies, with very low F-stop lenses? Of course the prints are just as technically excellent too!

[@1mouseman]

The milk drop image inspired Salvador Dali’s “Milk Crown” signature

[@hendriklubbe]

Absolutely captivating, like a glimse of a parallel universe!

[@neilreynolds3858]

There's a high speed photograph of a nuke going off inside a house where the explosion is still inside the intact house. Amazing! I saw it once many years ago but can't find it on the internet.

[@Dilbert-o5k]

Third explosion photo looks like one of those desert rain frogs. So that is where they came from😊

[@foxdenham]

PS: You have a technical hitch Alex. The link you mentioned about 'NASA space prog photography' did not show up on screen at the end of the video (14:15 to the end - 15:40). Looking forward to seeing it at some point. 👍

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for the heads up. I could have sworn I checked the end of the video - there was a naughty hidden bit lurking at the end which I've removed. While that processes, you can visit the video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5XVqXqwaK2og6s

[@foxdenham]

My pleasure Alex. Really enjoying your content. You revived my slightly disillusioned pursuit of image storytelling and reinvigorated my ‘first love’ of photography, so thanks for that mate. No small thing.

[@Kw1161]

It is still amazing for me looking at the atomic bomb tests even as fast as the camera was, the bomb casing was already gas…the 1st rocket flights I remember were the Gemini program flights, Apollo 1 fire and being allowed to stay up for the 1st moon landing…good memories. Have a great day!

[@spiritwalker6153]

Most definitely art in my humble opinion.

[@clintonrice525]

I find the extreme high speed photos of the nuclear explosions interesting, but in a limited sense because I don’t really know what I’m seeing. I get the layman’s view of both fission and thermonuclear explosive processes, but that doesn’t really explain what exactly is bubbling outward in those photos. Of course, for that matter, I struggle with the idea that the core of the ongoing mushroom cloud is that same ball of boiling reactive material that is hot enough to be buoyant within the atmosphere for seconds or minutes after the explosion; the notion that despite the explosion, the core remains so centralized and still burning is a tough one for me.

[@binxbolling]

What function do the images have?

[@thelovertunisia]

Being a child of the 1980s, I totally understand and relate to your enthusiasm for this strange beauty. By the way, Apollo days were the best days of NASA, a time when enthusiasm was still alive and the flame was not yet extinguished! May a time come to remind us of the good old days. Greetings from Tunisia.

[@robertcook5201]

Harold was an interesting man. He was a true experimental scientist, I worked with him to actually fabricate most of his cameras. He was an artist with a Bridgeport mill.

[@NomadHatch]

I have always found the nuclear test photos strangely beautiful