So what if we threw an implosion and nobody came? Fat chance of that! Over the weekend, Kodak used the method of "explosive demolition" to bring down two buildings in Kodak Park.

Like all events of this type, there is an opportunity for great photographs and for lead-ins to many bad puns! I will spare you the small photographs and just provide blow-ups.

The one thing about implosions is that it's all about Physics and the findings of Sir Isaac Newton. Once the detonation takes place, the building is going to fall. And it is going to happen at 32 feet per second/per second! Not exactly gone in a flash but you get the picture.

Normally when photographing a building, you handle it as a still life. But implosions turn an inanimate object into an architectural version of Michael Jordon bringing down the house with a nitro packed dunk shot, and with all the grace of a free falling refrigerator cratering in after being dropped from an airplane.

The way we handled the coverage was the way Sports Illustrated would handle a horse race. Find the best angles, man them with photographers (out of harms way, of course), or put remote cameras in places that would question a person's sanity. In our case we did both. Did you ever wonder how SI got those "dynamite" shots from under the rail? Primed and ready, we did the same.

Several cameras were positioned with wide angles lenses (17mm-35mm) within the exclusion zone (500 foot perimeter) with wires trailing back to assistants whose job was to "push the button" as gravity did the rest. Well back from the potential debris zone, other photographers with longer lenses blasted away. To get a sense of place, we had a photographer positioned high atop a building recording the "establishing shot," just as you would photograph the infield at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May.

Unlike a horse race, there is no starting gate. Once the detonation sequence begins, the building is coming down. So to make sure we got the shot, each of us had motor driven digital cameras capable of shooting up to 8+ frames a second. Some of the remotes were the venerable Hasselblad ELX, dubbed by many as a battle tank, medium format cameras loaded with 24-exposure rolls of film. We even had one photographer dedicated to covering the event in stereoscopic 3D for that explosive look. Both 35mm and super 16mm motion picture cameras were used, as well as the latest in HD video recording.

The camera survived!... But did I get the shot?... Yes! Got the shot!

Why so many cameras and so many angles? You never know what is going to happen. All the pre-planning helps but, in reality, it's an educated guess. Besides, there is no re-shoot. In other words, there's no provision for a false start.

So there you have it - briefly how it was done. Now that the dust has settled and the rapture of adrenalin has worn off, hope you enjoy the pictures. Photographing the implosion was a blast; everyone did a bang up job and it really rocked the house! (Ugh!)

For more implosion coverage check out Tom Hoehn's post at 1000words.kodak.com.

Comments (14) | Permalink