Sometimes it’s fun to photograph something different, something playful, to take a break from landscapes and sunsets, as much as I love them. Fun to shoot something I could never do on my own. So I was happy to have the opportunity through the Plymouth Digital Photographer’s club to do just that.
Roy Marshall, a member of two local camera clubs, did the prep work, setting up a sophisticated system that relies on perfect timing, with strobes designed to flash in time to catch the split-second of action--in this case, a splash of colored water.
Roy partially filled three brandy snifters with colored water and set them on a platform. About twenty of us stood behind our cameras, which were perched on tripods, and focused on the glasses. Then Roy pulled the platform up a short incline, and lights were turned out.
In this pitch-blackness, we clicked open camera shutters, using "bulb mode," which allowed the shutter to stay open until released. We waited for the platform to be released to slide down the incline and come to an abrupt stop. This triggered the high-speed flash to light the snifters so we could capture the resulting slurp of the colored water.
Fun. Different. Pretty cool!
Roy's Suggested Camera Settings
• ISO 200
• F Stop: about f/11 to f/16
• Manual focus
• No auto focus and Anti Vibration off
• Camera on Blub or able to have a 2 to 4 sec. exposure.
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