Photographing sound?

[Maggot_ff]

Hi, everyone! I bought my first DSLR 3-4 months ago and so far I really enjoy it, I've even started to get the hang of it (somewhat, that is).

I don't really know if this is the right place the forum, but please bear with me.

The thing is, that a friend of mine and I have started our own little project to help each other get better a photographing, both technically and artistically. The way this works is that we give each other "assignments" now and then, like; "cars", "people", "nature", "architecture" and so on, and show each other a bunch of pictures (everything from 10 to 50) we've taken.

We started up with pretty basic stuff like the things i mentioned earlier, but the past few weeks we've upped the ante, and given each other some challenges that are a bit more... Well, challenging. So last week my friend gave me the assignment of capturing "sound", it doesn't matter if it depicts complete silence or utter, audio chaos, as long as the theme is "sound".

Now to my problem; I'm out of ideas!
I'm usually pretty creative, but now I'm blank! I want to show of some impressive pictures, but so far I only have a couple of pictures of a busy street and an empty wood. Therefore, I came here, looking for assistance from some creative minds, and please don't feel that you can't think outside the box, the picture doesn't have to show off sound in an obvious way. Making people think "What does this have to do with sound?" for a few seconds before they realize it is part of the fun.

So any ideas are more than welcome! Now, let the brainstorming begin!

 

[Sweetneers]

The first thing that popped into my mind was like a Husband and Wife fighting and one person screaming in the others face. Haha, maybe I'm just odd.

 

[Maggot_ff]

Haha... That's a good one actually, it's noted!

 

[SCraig]

What comes to my mind, since your location is shown as Norway, is the sound that snow makes falling through a tree when there is no other sound whatsoever to be heard. I was in the woods once when it was snowing heavily, miles from anything, and the sound of nothing but snow flakes hitting what few leaves were left on the trees was something I still remember.

 

[rlemert]

Some random thoughts:

1) Someone listening through one of those old ear-horns
2) The foam lining in an anechoic chamber
3) Patterns on an oscilliscope screen
4) NW Washington State (ie. Puget SOUND)
5) A solid, well-constructed builiding (i.e. of SOUND construction)
6) A will ("... being of SOUND mind ...")

 

[Maggot_ff]

Wow! Lots of good ideas here, all of them noted! Sometimes you just need some help to get the creative juices flowing. Thanks guys! Just keep'em coming though, as there's no such thing as too many ideas!

 

[cgipson1]

Remember that scene in Back to the Future.. where Marty has a electric guitar hooked up to a mountain of amps and speakers? When he strums the guitar, he is blown backwards by the wall of sound? That would be fun to recreate with a buddy and a few speakers... sound fun?

 

[KmH]

Or photograph a speaker while it's working so that it blurs as it moves to reproduce sound.

Sound is pressure waves in the air (Did you know, in a vacuum like outer space, sound waves cannot propagate). Ripples in water are analogs to sound waves.

 

[SCraig]

Click image for large view ....

If you've never been there it's hard to explain. If you have been there it needs no explanation.

 

[Maggot_ff]

Click image for large view ....

If you've never been there it's hard to explain. If you have been there it needs no explanation.

I'm a total gear head, also worked with F-16's for some time, so it doesn't need an explanation. Like the idea though. I also liked the idea of the blurring speakers.

 

[fokker]

I'm a bit of an audio freak so when I think of sound I always think of speakers or audio. There's plenty of ways to get creative photographing speakers, here's a couple that I did:

Hope that helps with some inspiration!

 

[cgipson1]

You can always do the baking soda mixed with water trick. Pour in onto a speakers cone and play some serious bass music though it. Lots of examples of YouTube

Thread is a year and a half old, JoeBob... we call those Zombie threads! The OP has been MIA since March 2012. He probably won't see your response. Welcome to TPF, though!

 

[TCampbell]

The science geek in me says: go to YouTube, do a search for "cornstarch speaker" and you'll get LOTS AND LOTS of examples.

Usually the speaker cone is covered with a plastic wrap for protection. The cornstarch solution is poured over that. Then turn on the music and let the fun happen.

 

[unpopular]

While perhaps beyond the abilities of a beginner, Schlieren Photography actually records shock waves in a medium.

Schlieren photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The technique was used to record soundwaves produced by a trombone in a 1995 paper:

BBC News - Shock wave from trombone filmed

More detail on the technique here:

Schlieren photography: Information from Answers.com

I've always felt there was a lot of artistic possibilities with the technique.

 

[masquerad101]

I cant belive my ears...eyes...Ah! Im confussed