Killerpix Contest Entry for SPHERE

Here's something different: water droplet photography!

Bubble by Derek Kind.jpg
A water droplet passes through a soap bubble without bursting it.

A Sphere within a Semi-Sphere for this week's #Killerpix Contest

@killerwhale/killerpix-contest-24-20-sbd-in-prizes-submissions-post-plus-winners-from-last-week

I made this by blowing bubbles (yes I used a bubble wand because I'm cool like that) into a pan of water, cajoling them into the focal plane of the camera, then using an eye-dropper in one hand to drip a droplet onto the bubble while triggering the camera with the other hand. It takes a few tries (okay, a LOT of tries), but with a little practice it's easier than you might think to achieve accurate timing. Once you get the timing down it's just a matter of trying a few (hundred) times until you get something that looks cool and is in focus.

Everything about this is real except the colors, which were added in Photoshop (and I blurred the reflections). The reason I didn't use coloured water droplets in-camera was because I didn't want hundreds of drops of food colouring to change the color of the water in the pan. In hindsight, I wish I had dropped food colouring.

I was using a strobe bouncing off a white paper in the background to throw highlights onto the bubbles.

Here's what the original looked like:

IMGP53462.jpg

And here's another good drop from the same day:

IMGP5337.jpg

Thank you for hosting the #Killerpix Challenge, @Killerwhale!

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