High Speed Microsecond exposure photograph A bullet travelling at supersonic speed is caught and frozen in flight just after having cut a playing card in two ... the hard way!. The photograph was made with an electronic flash lasting only 1/1,000,000 second in duration and triggered by the sound of the gun tripping a sound activated synchronizer. The camera shutter is left open for the exposure and therefore the room in which the photograph was taken was made absolutely pitch dark so as not to pre-expose the film.