Explosive Art By Alan Sailer

This picture of a cashew nut being smashed shows how miniscule the pellets are, and how fast the pictures are taken (Caters)

Alan Sailer uses a high-powered air cannon to fire the pellet at different objects to produces stunning images.

Alan Sailer uses a high-powered air cannon to fire the pellet at different objects to produces stunning images.

Alan uses a homemade high speed flash, which fires a light burst that is one millionth of a second long to capture the quick pictures.

The original device was designed by Harold Edgerton in the late 1950s.

Alan built his own version of the flash mechanism as the commercial units which do the same were too expensive, and began taking his foodie photos soon afterwards.

He said, “The explosions are created by firing projectiles – usually a steel ball – from a high power air cannon. By high power I mean about as deadly as a 22 rifle bullet.”

“I often get people who think I really love blowing stuff up. Unfortunately I don’t. I enjoy getting interesting pictures and in this case it means blowing stuff up.”

“The techniques I use are not inherently safe and I have to spend a lot of time worrying about that.”

Please click the photos for larger images:

Alan uses a high-powered air cannon to fire the pellet at different objects, including this orange (Caters)

This image shows the exact moment a russula mushroom is shot with a high speed pellet (Caters)

A dry rose hip disintegrates as it is shot with a 600mph pellet (Caters)

The camera’s flash has to be lightning speed to capture a pellet smashing this red carrot (Caters)

This picture of a rhubarb was captured at just one millionth of a second. (Caters)