51. Droplet - June 1-7, 2014
Paul-
For this week’s theme I took a very thin cross section of agate, supported it on a piece of plexiglas, and lit it from below with a schmatta* covering the light source to cast an interesting pattern in the background. (Okay, it wasn’t so much a rag as a rubberized piece of material you would line your silverware drawer with to keep things from sliding around. I just happen to like the word schmatta…) Using a sable watercolor brush, I added water here and there and hoped for something interesting to appear in the lens. I’ll let you be the judge if it worked.
*Yiddish. It literally means "rag", but can used to describe merchandise of low quality. It comes from the Polish word "szmata" meaning "rag".
Our Story So Far… Under different circumstances, bibliophile and Kabbalah scholar Saul Pitchblende would have yelled out to the heavens his extraordinary discovery buried deep amid the musty tomes and crumbling quartos carefully archived in the restricted sub-basement section of the Library of Congress. But ever the academic, and mindful of the stern gaze of the Head Librarian of Middle Eastern Studies (the dour grammarian Gretchen DeCush), he could only whisper the passage he had finally found among the Arcanum in the Codex Aramaicum again and again…translating the ancient Hebraic into the broken English passage: “Olympus E500; 35mm macro lens at 35mm focal length; 1/160 sec. at f4.5; ISO 120, the camera is mounted on a copy stand.”
For this week’s theme I took a very thin cross section of agate, supported it on a piece of plexiglas, and lit it from below with a schmatta* covering the light source to cast an interesting pattern in the background. (Okay, it wasn’t so much a rag as a rubberized piece of material you would line your silverware drawer with to keep things from sliding around. I just happen to like the word schmatta…) Using a sable watercolor brush, I added water here and there and hoped for something interesting to appear in the lens. I’ll let you be the judge if it worked.
*Yiddish. It literally means "rag", but can used to describe merchandise of low quality. It comes from the Polish word "szmata" meaning "rag".
Our Story So Far… Under different circumstances, bibliophile and Kabbalah scholar Saul Pitchblende would have yelled out to the heavens his extraordinary discovery buried deep amid the musty tomes and crumbling quartos carefully archived in the restricted sub-basement section of the Library of Congress. But ever the academic, and mindful of the stern gaze of the Head Librarian of Middle Eastern Studies (the dour grammarian Gretchen DeCush), he could only whisper the passage he had finally found among the Arcanum in the Codex Aramaicum again and again…translating the ancient Hebraic into the broken English passage: “Olympus E500; 35mm macro lens at 35mm focal length; 1/160 sec. at f4.5; ISO 120, the camera is mounted on a copy stand.”
Jerry-
Greetings earthlings!
With the droplet idea in mind, my first thought was blood, nice and red. Since volunteers would be hard to find and I didn't want to poke myself, my thoughts drifted to the different automotive fluids in my garage that might work. No pain, just a little mess. My first choice was JB Power Steering Anti-Leak, about the consistency of STP and fairly red. I put a drop on an old gear from a transmission rebuild, and it was ok, but kind of bored me. The next idea was antifreeze, I had one of those little $1 testers and was fairly happy with this shot. My camera is a Nikon D5200 with the 105 Micro Nikkor (AF-S VR). The exposure was 1/1000th at f11, ISO 1250. I held the antifreeze tester (complete with automotive scum) in one hand and the camera in another. Background was a piece of foamcore board. Lighting is what came in the open garage door, facing the south.
Greetings earthlings!
With the droplet idea in mind, my first thought was blood, nice and red. Since volunteers would be hard to find and I didn't want to poke myself, my thoughts drifted to the different automotive fluids in my garage that might work. No pain, just a little mess. My first choice was JB Power Steering Anti-Leak, about the consistency of STP and fairly red. I put a drop on an old gear from a transmission rebuild, and it was ok, but kind of bored me. The next idea was antifreeze, I had one of those little $1 testers and was fairly happy with this shot. My camera is a Nikon D5200 with the 105 Micro Nikkor (AF-S VR). The exposure was 1/1000th at f11, ISO 1250. I held the antifreeze tester (complete with automotive scum) in one hand and the camera in another. Background was a piece of foamcore board. Lighting is what came in the open garage door, facing the south.
Kevin-
Okay, this isn’t a great image, but it was an interesting experiment. An experiment that I am committed to trying again some time. The theme was Droplets. I took the approach of trying to photograph a small droplet of water, falling into a shallow pan of water, and capturing the splash and the tiny waves that result.
I had a small baking pan that I filled with about an inch of water. After capturing some images using an eyedropper to let loose the droplets - I switched to putting a tiny hole in a ziplock bag filled with water. Then suspended it over the baking pan, which caused a drop of water to fall into the pan every few seconds.
Two Nikon strobe units were used. They were set to manual at very low power settings (like 1/32 power) so that the flash duration's were extremely short. One strobe unit with the red gel over it was aimed at the wall behind. The other gelled strobe was aimed at a white card above the pan. The studio lights were turned way down, so that the short flash duration of about 1/20,000 of a second was, in effect, the shutter speed.
I captured about 250 images in all. Some with yellow food coloring in the water. Some with plain water like this. When I try this again I want to use a different pan for the water, perhaps a black one, instead of the baking pan with all the little sparkly detail evident in the non-stick coating like this one has. I also want to do more experimenting with the background and the lights. A shot like this is really all about the reflections in the water. Finally all the images I shot were the result of a single droplet of water falling into the pan. The droplets hit, make waves, and splash back up to varying degrees, as this one did. It’s supposed to be even more interesting, and create more unique patterns, if a couple of drops fall within micro seconds of each other. But as I say, this seems like a good start.
This was with my tripod mounted, Nikon D4s, and Byron’s 55mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor lens. Exposure details: The ISO was set to 3200. Shutter speed was 1/250th of a second (flash sync speed). The aperture was f/8.
Okay, this isn’t a great image, but it was an interesting experiment. An experiment that I am committed to trying again some time. The theme was Droplets. I took the approach of trying to photograph a small droplet of water, falling into a shallow pan of water, and capturing the splash and the tiny waves that result.
I had a small baking pan that I filled with about an inch of water. After capturing some images using an eyedropper to let loose the droplets - I switched to putting a tiny hole in a ziplock bag filled with water. Then suspended it over the baking pan, which caused a drop of water to fall into the pan every few seconds.
Two Nikon strobe units were used. They were set to manual at very low power settings (like 1/32 power) so that the flash duration's were extremely short. One strobe unit with the red gel over it was aimed at the wall behind. The other gelled strobe was aimed at a white card above the pan. The studio lights were turned way down, so that the short flash duration of about 1/20,000 of a second was, in effect, the shutter speed.
I captured about 250 images in all. Some with yellow food coloring in the water. Some with plain water like this. When I try this again I want to use a different pan for the water, perhaps a black one, instead of the baking pan with all the little sparkly detail evident in the non-stick coating like this one has. I also want to do more experimenting with the background and the lights. A shot like this is really all about the reflections in the water. Finally all the images I shot were the result of a single droplet of water falling into the pan. The droplets hit, make waves, and splash back up to varying degrees, as this one did. It’s supposed to be even more interesting, and create more unique patterns, if a couple of drops fall within micro seconds of each other. But as I say, this seems like a good start.
This was with my tripod mounted, Nikon D4s, and Byron’s 55mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor lens. Exposure details: The ISO was set to 3200. Shutter speed was 1/250th of a second (flash sync speed). The aperture was f/8.
Byron-
I was toying with some ideas of photographing droplets. One day this week was a hot humid one. That made my decision easier. What could be better than photographing droplets of Root Beer running down the side of a mug? The plus side of that is that I was able to drink the prop immediately after the shoot.
It was shot outdoors at ISO 100, f/11 at 1/125 sec.
I was toying with some ideas of photographing droplets. One day this week was a hot humid one. That made my decision easier. What could be better than photographing droplets of Root Beer running down the side of a mug? The plus side of that is that I was able to drink the prop immediately after the shoot.
It was shot outdoors at ISO 100, f/11 at 1/125 sec.
Deron-
After 50 miles, I was out of water and dehydrated. My onboard computer read 107.4 degrees. In the blinding heat, I got my bike back to the house, filled one of my water bottles with ice cold water and let'er rip. A well deserved dousing. My equivalent of a Gatorade bath after a hard fought victory.
For this, I had to shoot with my left hand, for it would have been near impossible to hold the Nikon D40 with my right hand at the angle I needed, as I wanted to make sure I got a hint of the beating sun in the shot.
After 50 miles, I was out of water and dehydrated. My onboard computer read 107.4 degrees. In the blinding heat, I got my bike back to the house, filled one of my water bottles with ice cold water and let'er rip. A well deserved dousing. My equivalent of a Gatorade bath after a hard fought victory.
For this, I had to shoot with my left hand, for it would have been near impossible to hold the Nikon D40 with my right hand at the angle I needed, as I wanted to make sure I got a hint of the beating sun in the shot.