Roy’s high speed flash work was recently highlighted in an exhibition of his hummingbird images at the Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina. The exhibition was dedicated to the work of Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton and the photographers he inspired. Doc Edgerton was the pioneer of strobe photography, and developed many of the high speed flash systems still in use today. He was a Professor at MIT for many years, and was also involved in the development of Sonar. He worked alongside Jacques Cousteau to develop the first underwater photographic apparatus, and even spent significant time looking for the Loch Ness monster!
Doc’s high speed flash work is immortalized at MIT on one floor of the PhysicsBuilding, known as Strobe Alley. There, you will find many of his famous images such as the bullet through the playing card, the milk drop coronet and others. Another great feature of Strobe Alley is the number of displays that house many of the high speed flash systems that Doc developed, along with EG&G.
The exhibition ran for most of 2008 and was very warmly received. Other photographers who had work displayed included:
Roy was asked to part in an expedition to Ecuador with the Center of Tropical Research out of UCLA, in November last year. Roy spent nearly 3 weeks in the Choco Rainforest, regarded as one of the 5 ‘hotspots’ of biodiversity on the planet, photographing bugs, birds and other wildlife. Most of his time was spent assisting researchers in banding birds, however he managed to get a few nights in the forest, finding some wonderful specimens of frogs, spiders, snakes, moths and other invertebrates. He has been invited back in October 2009.
Presentations:
Roy recently gave a presentation to the Thousand Oaks Camera Club (www.topcc.org/photo) on macro photography, with an emphasis on spiders. The talk was well received, and Roy was flattered to hear from one of the club Officers that it was 'beyond outstanding'!!
Workshops:
Roy is considering running some hummingbird workshops from his home in Westlake Village, California. Three students at a time will spend an hour having a tutorial on hummer natural history, and high speed flash shooting techniques, then 3 hours shooting at 3 different high speed flash stations. All the students will need will be a camera with a hotshoe. There has been a sudden explosion in the hummingbird population here since late July, enabling sessions to become much more prolific. Contact Roy here if you are interested in finding out more.....
