Interesting Photo of the Day: Paint Splattered by Centrifugal Force

Interesting Photos

Spinning a wheel decked in paint may sound like the favorite summer pasttime of a fifth grader, but for photographer Fabian Oefner, this is serious work:

Spinning a stick covered in paint. (Via Imgur. Click to see full size.)

Oefner is known for his bizarre photography ideas, most of which involve paint. As a part of his Black Hole project, Oefner connected a metallic rod to an electric drill and then covered it with paint. You can probably imagine what he did next.

Switching on the electric drill resulted in the paint flinging outward while making a spinning motion as it flew off the surface of the rod. Oefner captured this movement on camera using a sensor attached to the drill, which triggered specialized flashes at just the right moment. The result of this tweak allowed him to fire the flash at 1/40,000 of a second, enough to freeze the paint in mid-air.