Ray Galea Photography
PHOTONS
There can be no understanding of photography without some insight of photons.
The study of photons was one of the major breakthroughs Albert Einstein, and the father of quantum physics, Max Planck, made about the nature of light, and that energy can be discretely measured on a quantum scale.
Einstein conceptualised the science relating to photons from 1905-1917. A photon is an electromagnetic "wave packet" and can behave as a wave or a particle depending on the experiment.
Photons are the fundamental particle of light, and have a unique property in that they are both a particle and a wave. This is what allows photons' properties such as refraction and diffusion.
Without the principal of photons I would not understand the importance of the speed of light and with it the understanding of the interaction of time and space that it produced. This science allows me to work with complex shutter speeds and sensitivity ratings to photograph flowing water on such intricate scales and ultimately produce unique colourful images.
Image: Swiss experiment using electrons to image light. A pulse of laser light fired at a tiny metallic nanowire, added energy to the charged particles in the nanowire, causing them to vibrate. Light travels along this tiny wire in two possible directions. When waves move in opposite directions and meet each other they form a new wave that looks like it is standing in place.