Alien Assault of Outpost Nine

This water drop I imagine to be an alien riding a yellow ship, that's obliterating the outpost below. Photo Project #394.

Bowling for Bubbles

While this photo is all from a single take, the colors I create using food coloring and gels in front of my lights. In this case, I played around with mixing the colors to create "marbles". I use multiple droppers for the effect. Photo Project #399.

Jacob's Ladder

Different behaviors in water can be elicited by mixing in different additives to the water. In this case, the additive allowed the splash to "stretch" more, enabling a larger column. I had to move my camera back a bit in order to capture the entire thing. I imagine the splashes from the collission to be steps on a ladder reaching the way down. Photo Project #404.

Dressing Up

This is one of my favorite water drop photos, and is the result of multiple valves and drops. To me it resembles a form of belly dancer. There are actually two collisions here. The first created the main cap, while the second created the smaller one at the top. This is all done with precision timing, but every run is still different. Photo Project #408.

Tower Landing

This photo, in which no fewer than three drops collides with the rising column, looks like different things to different people. To me, it looks like some fantastical skyscraper. The first collision is on the side in the yellow. This collision was actually a bit of a mistake since it hit on the side. The second one was dead on and created the saucer on the top. The final collision has just hit and is the round drop at the very top. Extreme precision is required for these types of shots, but every one still turns out different. In many cases the column sways ever slightly and the subsequent drops miss. Photo Project #409

Magic Lamp

This drop looks to me a bit like Aladdin's lamp or a magic mirror. In this case, a sort of bubble was created at the bottom, through which a column rose and then collided with another drop to create the "mirror". The colors are a combination of gels on the lights and food coloring. Additives are used in the water to change its behavior. Photo Project #412.

The Fountain of Youth

This drop looks almost like some form of magical fountain. While I don't yet use fountains in my drop shots, it certainly looks like something shot three drops up, the third of which collided with another drop. In this case though, it was a single spindly column colliding with a rather large subsequent drop. Photo Project #422.

Water Hula

Like with many of my drop shots, this isn't what I initially intended. I was hoping for more of a "hat", but that broke up in this interesting pattern and proceeded to slide down the column. I took this photo some time ago and unfortunately don't have the notes for what I did to the water to cause this, because it's an accident I would definitely like to duplicate. Photo Project #426.

The Bubbleship

Though everything with water drop photographer operates on precision timing, each photo is completely different. In this one, they formed something very much like a triangle. There are several drops in the shot, as evidenced by the food coloring. While I cannot remember exactly how many I fired, it appears there were at least three in the collision. The first created the triangle. The second is the blue one, which I believe was supposed to be one drop but accidentally was two. The third forms the very top of the triangle just as it hit. Photo Project #429.

Water Arch

This shot is a complete mistake, but one that turned out well. My goal was to create a column and then have another water drop collide into it. In this case, however, the column fell over to the side and I didn't get nearly the shot I wanted. However, when going through my shots I thought it was still rather cool, so I processed it. Later on it was displayed at a gallery and sold. Photo Project #488.

A Day at the Circus

This is another successful failure. Elsewhere in my portfolio you'll see a shot of three consecutive water drop collisions. This was an attempt to replicate that shot, but with taller columns. I also wanted a solitary drop over each one. Unfortunately, there was only one perfect hit. The column on the right bent slightly, causing the drop to hit at an angle. The one on the left - well I'm not sure what happened there. Two other drops I released hadn't hit yet - mainly because they were misplaced and the columns weren't as tall as I hoped. I believe they hit too early and my timing was off. Regardless, the image looks to me like a trapeze artist on the left, ready to jump onto a platform in the middle, with a slide down on the right. Photo Project #624.

Mirror Mirror...

This drop image to me looks like the evil queen looking into the magic mirror. It's another example of how water drops are unpredictable, but often that results in the best ones. In this case the drop on the left was roughly what I wanted, but the one on the right didn't happen. Photo Project #627.

Superdrop to the Rescue

This is another unsuccessful attempt to get three simultaneous drop collisions with taller columns. In this case the two on the right succeeded, while the one on the left didn't. However, the left one kind of looks like Superman to me, while the other two columns the skyscrapers. Not all unsuccessful attempts are failures. Photo Project #633.

Little Doggie

This multiple drop shot kind of resembles a little doggie to me. It was almost certainly the result of multiple drops that blended together on the bottom, along with a single collision for the head. The pink background and light blue worked out well in this case. Photo Project #646.