The Best Perfectly Timed Photos From Before It Was An Internet Meme

Perfectly timed photos from before the age of digital photography and smartphone cameras are even more impressive. Some of the best photographers of the time captured iconic moments on film.

This picture, identified as a woman sneezing and taken in 1900, is often called the original perfectly timed photo. It’s more likely that the picture is staged, however, and the woman is an actress advertising her skills. Film exposures were too long to catch something as fleeting as a sneeze—especially with no blurring. (via Imgur)

Race car driver Hans Herrmann is thrown clear of his BRM F1 car during the 1959 German Grand Prix after the brakes failed. He survived and raced professionally until 1969. (via Imgur)

René Maltête was a French photographer who published his first book in 1960. He looked for humor in everyday situations. (Photo: René Maltête)

Maltête captured perfectly timed photos throughout his career, before the internet and before it became a thing. (Photo: René Maltête)

No, this baby isn’t sitting on telephone wires. He’s just getting tossed into the air by his father, circa 1969, and really enjoying it. (Photo: mricon/Flickr)

In the early days of football, when helmets were nothing more than padded leather, the easiest way to test them out was to run headlong into the sides of houses. (via Imgur)

The most iconic perfectly timed photo is from the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who captured the exact moment a man leaped into a gigantic puddle from a ladder. Cartier-Bresson shot this image in 1932, three years after receiving his first camera. He went on to pioneer street photography and the candid form of picture-taking. (Photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson)

Robert Frank was a well-known mid-century photographer born in Switzerland who photographed street scenes across Europe. In London in 1951 he captured this dog leaping between buildings. (Photo: Robert Frank/National Gallery of Art)

Garry Winogrand was a contemporary of Robert Frank’s, primarily shooting photographs in New York City. He is known as one of the definitive New York photographers. In this image, commonly called “Flip,” a man soars high in the air, cigarette still clenched between his lips. (Photo: Garry Winogrand)

When a kangaroo fights, it grabs its foe with its forelegs so it can use its powerful hindlegs to kick, slash, and even disembowel its attacker. This woman found out the hard way that kangaroos are secretly vicious, and her camera went flying. (via Imgur)

Via Allday