Splash!

Ok, so yesterday my girlfriend was studying and I was getting a little bored. So, I decided to do the washing up... However, on the short journey to the kitchen I decided that I should play around with my camera instead!

I tried to combine the two activities so that I wouldn't get in trouble, and I'm glad to inform you that I successfully completed the washing up, eventually.

Anyway, something I've never taken photos of before is water droplets and splashes. I've seen some awesome photos within this category and decided it was time to try and take some of my own. I didn't really have all the appropriate equipment (I'd left my tripod at home), however, I'd got my Tamron 90mm Macro lens, and my SB-700 speedlight so decided to try it handheld.

It's actually surprisingly difficult to focus, you think you've got it right but you tend to end up with the splash itself out of focus. I found I had to focus slightly beyond where the water was impacting the surface to get the best shot.

I'd read on the Internet that the 'scatter gun effect' was best, i.e. set the camera to its continual shooting mode and hope for the best. I disagree... I found I was getting a lot of wasted shots, whilst this doesn't matter too much, I just found it wasted time. I was shooting water droplets from a tap, so I found it much easier just to get in to a rhythm.

There were a lot of photos that I really liked, and you can view the Flickr collection here. Below are some of my favourites, the one on the far right being my absolute favourite.