Presented by Harry Johnson – March 17, 2021

Harry has become fascinated with the production of images that are influenced by surface tension and gravity. To generate images by “splashes”, “pours”, and “sonics” he has made and gathered some specialized equipment as well as a variety of glassware.  “Splashes” involve high-speed photography of the controlled fall of objects into liquids.  Water has the highest surface tension of the liquids he uses and is the most common medium for his splash imaging.  He uses common flashes for illumination, exploiting the shortest duration of flash – typically 50 microseconds, equivalent to a shutter speed of 1/20,000 second.

“Pours” capture liquids emerging from cans or bottles and falling into glassware such as the pour of beer from a can into a stein.  High-speed imaging is used, and the resulting images capture the nature of the flowing stream in a way that the human eye cannot on its own.

The “sonic” part of his work uses a microphone to trigger the flashes and capture liquids in ‘explosive’ scenarios.  Sonic images permit me to show, for example, how the mass of water holds together following the rupturing of a water balloon. 

These images satisfy his search for a personal photographic style that he can pursue at home.   Harry is hoping that you will share his fascination in seeing events that occur at very high speed and which require planning and ingenuity to capture.

The image used to illustrate his presentation is the splash of a strawberry into heavy cream.  Heavy cream has a lower surface tension than that of water and presents a different sort of splash character.

Harry is a medical physicist by profession.  Since his retirement from CancerCare Manitoba he has been occupied with photography.  His association with members of Winnipeg South Photo Club has given him much enjoyment and guidance in developing his photographic art.