Speed and Exposure and ...

Hi All,

I know I posted some of these a long time ago but I want to ask a question about these. I'm interested in us having more process-oriented conversations here to help us learn about taking photographs versus fixing photographs.

First let me explain what they are. these are photographs of electricity traveling up two wires on a piece of equipment called a Jacob's ladder. The trick with taking these is that the electric is moving in a pulse so if you want to catch one pulse, you have to expose for the right amount of time. However, if you don't get the timing right the second pulse will cover the first one in the exposure and it's just a bright mess. After figuring out the timing, the exposure can be tricky because the light is quite bright but if the room isn't completely dark you can see the equipment.

I've tried a lot of different things with these because I totally love the idea of catching electricity in motion. What I've never gotten is a crisp bolt or strand or whatever you would call the electric as it bounces back and forth across the wires and dissipates off the top. The last photo is just an example of crisp electricity moving from a metal loop to an electrode on a different piece of equipment just to show what that would look like.

So my question to the group is not so much how you would fix these but if you were going to try and take a picture of a Jacob's ladder now that you've read this, how would you go about it? I asked it this way because I'm interested in hearing your process not just your settings.

Can't wait to hear what you come up with!