Tesla Downunder: Backyard Scientist’s Electrical Photography

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“This needs a good understanding of the physics involved and a certain amount of faith, balls of steel, or simple stupidity.” – Peter Terren, Tesla coil tinkerer.

Bunbury, Western Australia: Backyard physicist Peter Terren has combined his love of electricity with a passion for photography to capture some incredible still images of electricity in motion.

Check out the gallery, and learn a little more about Peter Terren’s technique, after the jump.

Terren uses a Tesla coil to boost mains power to 500,000 volts and then captures the sparks on camera with long exposure shots; combined with a rotating color filter in front of the camera, this makes for some breathtaking pictures. Terren estimates that his hobby costs about as much as running a car each year.

[Tesla Downunder, The Age]

Categories
Science and Tech

C.S. Magor is the editor-in-chief and a reporter at large for We Interrupt and Uberreview. He currently resides in the Japanese countryside approximately two hours from Tokyo - where he has spent the better part of a decade testing his hypothesis that Japan is neither as quirky nor as interesting as others would have you believe.
7 Comments on this post.
  • admin
    19 December 2008 at 12:31 am
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  • admin
    18 December 2008 at 7:31 pm
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  • Tesladownunder
    19 December 2008 at 5:37 pm
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    the comment about cost was: costs about as much as RUNNING a car.
    Not buying one every year!

  • Tesladownunder
    19 December 2008 at 12:37 pm
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    the comment about cost was: costs about as much as RUNNING a car.
    Not buying one every year!

  • chrismagor
    20 December 2008 at 1:03 pm
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    Thanks for that info Peter. I have corrected the information in the post.

  • chrismagor
    20 December 2008 at 8:03 am
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    Thanks for that info Peter. I have corrected the information in the post.

  • Modern Thinker: Australian Tesla Tinkerer’s Latest Visual Treat | We Interrupt
    21 April 2009 at 4:51 pm
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    […] Terren, a backyard Tesla coil tinkerer has combined Tesla coils and photography to create some truly impressive photographs in the past, but his latest piece, The Thinker is truly a sight to behold. .gallery { margin: […]

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