Hack Your Camera and Taser Your Subjects, Yes Really

Hacked cameras, tasers, and portrait photography are not elements you'd usually find together, and for very good reason too! This creative programmer is about to combine all these things for some hilarious photographic results.

If tasers and photography are ringing a bell for you, it may be because Fstoppers very own Patrick Hall did a similar stun gun-themed shoot back in 2014. Fast-forward five years and the same crazy combination is being utilized by programmer and comedy YouTuber Michael Reeves. This time around, Reeves uses tasers to contract his subject's leg muscles in the hope they will appear shorter in pictures taken with him.

While this video is mostly for entertainment purposes, Reeves does show how he made his contraption, and some of you may actually be inspired to use some of his techniques for (hopefully) less violent applications. The way the camera and the taser were synced up in the video was by hacking there camera's wireless transmitter and taking advantage of some simple code fed into an Arduino. The result, was an electric shot the moment the camera shutter was pressed.

Wireless camera transmitter sets can be bought relatively cheaply these days, which means for not much money and a little bit of electronic know-how, you could easily make all manner of gadgets to aid your photographic practice. Maybe just leave the taser element out of your next creation.