A long time ago, I coined the phrase ‘It is really cool to stop a moment in time, but supremely tough to control which moment’.
What I mean by this is that high speed flash can be used to freeze time – if you have the shutter of a camera open, and you trigger a high speed flash, you will get an image of whatever the camera was pointed at, at that exact moment in time. Making the flash trigger at the exact time you wish almost always requires a remote trigger. These offer a number of benefits:
A (usually) programmable delay from receiving a trigger, to firing a flash/camera setup
Very repeatable timing
Very quick timing (if necessary) – down to microseconds in some cases
Convenience (they can be set and left, and will do all the photography for you).
Many systems are, or have been on the market over the years. Many have unique features, and are suitable for a subset of all possible applications, but as far as I know, there is not a single system that can possibly cover every requirement. First of all, very few are weatherproof, and most of my remote photography is done in the field (or in the studio with splashing liquids!) Take a look at the following pages for a brief description and a few images of the systems that I am either familiar with, or have at least heard of. Please feel free to contact me with any additional information.
