New Water Sculptures

[coffee]

Worked on some new macro shots this past weekend. Here's a sample. The same alien from the shot I entered in this months contest had a relatives show up.

[Hype]

Joseph,

When you said you would be taking another shot at this I couldn't wait and I must say, You CERTAINLY never disappointed. These shots are amazing.

Such bright lovely colours and the shapes you managed to get of the water is brilliant.

Excellent stuff as always.

Thank you!

[coffee]

Joseph,

When you said you would be taking another shot at this I couldn't wait and I must say, You CERTAINLY never disappointed. These shots are amazing.

Such bright lovely colours and the shapes you managed to get of the water is brilliant.

Excellent stuff as always.

Thank you!

Thank you Steve. What kind words, I'm glad you liked them. I have most of them to go through yet. This was just a handful that caught my eye and I quickly did some PP to them. This was a pretty successful shoot today. Mostly because to a new device I made. Let me explain.

Some time ago when I first tried water drop macros, I use an eye dropper and a bowl. After a few months of fighting with the small dropper with one hand, and shooting with the other, I got a bigger dropper. It was easier but still to hard. I then thought of hanging a ziplock full of water taped to a small tripod, and cutting a small hole in the corner of it. This is how I started the day today. The problem with that is using a macro lens, and with the drops not hitting the exact same spot, I had to use something else. This morning I got together an empty water bottle, plumbers putty, duct tape, small section of hose, a tomato trestle, and a two way shutoff valve for a faucet. One of the ways was broke so I had to jam plumbers putty in the opening to keep the water in. Once assembled and filled, I turned it over on the tomato stand and was able to control the water with the valve. This at least enabled me to control it and have the drops hit in one exact spot. Or at least more accurate than the ziplock. Quite the primitive setup right?

This week I plan on finding out where I can buy one of those beaker things that fit into a metal stand that has a drip valve. Like what you see scientist use. This is going to be a huge step on getting a predicable hit every time. And once I have this I'm going to move on to water drop collisions. I know that 10 drops a second will produce a hit from a falling drop into a rising column from the last drop. This has always been my ultimate goal when I stared water sculptures on and off for a year now, and I think I'm ready for it now. And if this works and betters my shot quality, I might go for a photo eye that will trip the shutter when a drop passes it.

So if anyone knows any place that sells this stuff, please let me know. Preferably not online, but a store locally. I wonder if Hobby Lobby might have something like this.

[Kaye]

These are magnificent Joseph. Sometimes primitive set ups can be the best!

[Pat]

Beautiful, Joseph. Gotta admire that Rube Goldberg inventive spirit.

[kinetic]

Hi Joseph, and once again a master class series of shots,
I can just imagine you with all your bits and pieces,
one hand holding tape the other hand the putty big toe on the shutter release.
But no matter what the setup its the magic that counts and you certainly have that cover.
Excellent work Joseph.
Mark

[sorted]

I Agree With Everyone they are Awesome :) I love them all.
Sorted

[amature101]

Hi Joseph,
These shots are amazing!
It sounds like we have a very similar set up as far as the droplets go.
I use a zip lock back hanging from a suport beam via a paper clip and a hook. I was trying to think of a better way to control the drops, your idea has got me thinking again....
I will post some more of my attempts when my new lights arrive.

Mick.

[johnnya]

Sweet shots Joseph...Maybe you should change your name user name to "waterbug" or "Dripdropsplash" :)
Are you just adding color with photo shop???

[johnnya]

I would love to see a cup of steaming coffee with the droplete effect.

[coffee]

These are magnificent Joseph. Sometimes primitive set ups can be the best!


Beautiful, Joseph. Gotta admire that Rube Goldberg inventive spirit.


Hi Joseph, and once again a master class series of shots,
I can just imagine you with all your bits and pieces,
one hand holding tape the other hand the putty big toe on the shutter release.
But no matter what the setup its the magic that counts and you certainly have that cover.
Excellent work Joseph.
Mark


I Agree With Everyone they are Awesome :) I love them all.
Sorted


Hi Joseph,
These shots are amazing!
It sounds like we have a very similar set up as far as the droplets go.
I use a zip lock back hanging from a suport beam via a paper clip and a hook. I was trying to think of a better way to control the drops, your idea has got me thinking again....
I will post some more of my attempts when my new lights arrive.

Mick.


Sweet shots Joseph...Maybe you should change your name user name to "waterbug" or "Dripdropsplash" :)
Are you just adding color with photo shop???


I would love to see a cup of steaming coffee with the droplete effect.

Thanks for all the added comments. Now that I have a better way of drop delivery, I really have to work on better technical aspects. One of my problems I have that I hope to correct in the near future in these, and later water drop series is all done with one flash. No other light source. What these type of shots really call for is more light to better help stop the action and for better focus and better DOF which is a real challenge with water drops. My next step will be to find a way to afford a second speedlight so I can get more light, and at the same time slow the duration of both lights as to better freeze the drops in flight. And so I can open the aperture more to help increase DOF for better sharpness.

To answer your questions John: There is very little PS work on these. These were also done in just plain water. The color you are seeing is the reflections of pictures that are either place behind the drops, or underneath the glass dish the drops are falling into. I use a variety of backdrops pictures, hence the different colors and patterns.

My next series attempts will be after the first of the year. Thanks again for the support.

[johnnya]

Very cool Joseph. I would have never guessed. I din;t think much editing was done. maybe just adding colours. This is way to cool. I can't wait to get a decent camera.