To try this yourself, get a box of ordinary lead pencils for practice. Breaking the points loudly and cleanly is easy—but all the sharpening gets old. Once you've got the hang of it, switch to pricier colored pencils, the more multi-hued the better. Shot with a Panasonic Lumix G1 with a 14-45mm zoom, plus macro lens.
To try this yourself, get a box of ordinary lead pencils for practice. Breaking the points loudly and cleanly is easy—but all the sharpening gets old. Once you've got the hang of it, switch to pricier colored pencils, the more multi-hued the better. Shot with a Panasonic Lumix G1 with a 14-45mm zoom, plus macro lens. Mark Watson
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To catch these pencil shards in flight, Watson’s microphone (A) picked up the point breaking, which caused the flash trigger (B) to fire the strobe (C)—all in the dark. Mark Watson
Photography Tips