NY Times Photographer Doug Mills and His History Making Time Stopping Donald Trump Bullet Photo

Crowdsource the Truth ^ | 8/7/2024 | Doug Milla and Jason Goodman

[mbrfl]

Doug Mills joins me for an in depth discussion of the technical details surrounding his historic photo and an incredible life on the road with Presidents of the United States of America.

[crosdaddy]

Frame rate is indépendant from shutter speed. Shutter speed is how long the shutter is open during an exposure, and has nothing to do with frame rate, which is how many exposures can I make in a second (regardless of shutter speed)
Most enthusiast cameras and up, will shoot 8-12 frames per sec, or slightly more, using the mechanical shutter, but they also are hybrid shutters, in that they are electronic and can shoot at a much higher frame rate,20 to 30 typically, a couple can do 40, one new Sony can do 120, when the shutter is in electronic mode.

[Tellurian]

surprised at the 24mm focal length

I was too, but then digital lens measurement is a different ballpark, and I'd say complicated, because there are multiple approaches to coming to grips with the difference. But in the end, 24mm on a professional digital camera is probably a reasonable choice in that situation.

That aside, I've gotten several cogent and reasonable responses to my claim that the fast speed was odd, telling me it's not out of the ordinary. But the bottom line is still that had the Trump/bullet trail photographer wanted the best quality shot without considering the bullet trail, he would have used 1/1000th of a second; 1/2000th of a second tops if he was afraid of some transient glare. A shutter speed two to three stops faster than that is a sacrifice of quality any way you slice it.

On the other hand, the photographer, pretty close to Trump as you mentioned, using a seemingly wide-view lens, was by the same token not very far away from the line of fire. Likely a greater angle than the people that were hit, but still ...

[Tellurian]

A subsonic bullet would leave an image of itself less than 2 inches long at that shutter speed. Can a subsonic bullet leave a condensation trail? Subsonic jets do, but their engines are turning fuel into water. A big fat bullet without an engine? Don’t know.