Harold Edgerton

I’m captivated and amused by this video of hummingbirds by Harold Edgerton. Edgerton (1903-1990) was an MIT professor who invented a strobe flash to capture in photographs what the naked eye can’t see. He is probably most known for the image below of a bullet going through a playing card. Like all of his work, the technology he invented allows us to see the invisible. I always thought hummingbirds were competent, decisive little things, but here they look slightly powerless as if they can’t control their bodies. Fascinating and adorable at the same time.