Chris Ang suggested using colored water - so I added some green food coloring. The results are much more dramatic. I'm shooting at 1/100, flash at 1/128 intensity (short flash pulse), ISO 100, f/25 (to maximize depth of field)
A drop entering the water and the splash response projecting upward around the drop
A fully developed splash "crown"
Two drops falling into a crater formed by the 1st drop falling into the water
Interesting distortion of the drop falling into the crater
My focus plumb bob - a needle superglued to a small pin
A closeup of the thread and pin. I tape the thread to the side of the outlet of the drop maker and focus on the point where the pin touches the water.
Jack gave me a Pluto Trigger for my birthday. I added the Pluto drop maker and today, I made my first experiments. Using a 60mm macro lens and up to 3 remote flashes - I'm slowly learning how to harness the world of splashes
A drop falling
A rebounding drop
A crown (splash rebound) and a detached droplet traveling up
A crown following the drop colliding with the water surface
A rebound with a detached drop
A twisted drop
My setup: Nikon 5300 + Tamron 60mm macro, Yongnu flash trigger. Pluto trigger and drip maker. LED light for focusing, 3 Meike flashes sitting on Yongnu receivers. A plastic container to hold the water and receive the drops.
A brief story of Hurricane Irma. Timelapse video from a sunny and cloudy Saturday (9.9.17), a couple of radar dumps as the storm moved toward us (blue circle) and video from Sunday afternoon (9.10.17) winds and rain, then about 1am (9.11.17) found us in the eye of the hurricane.
Time lapse video (12x) Saturday afternoon. Cloud movement (east to west) the before Irma's eye passed new my home from the south
Radar image: 2:05 pm Sunday
Tree motion in the wind - gusts to about 30 km/hr
Inside the eye of Hurricane Irma - no wind and no rain. Can even hear the frogs talking.
Storm has passed. Wind about 60 km/hr
Sept 11, 2017 Time lapse (1 image / 20 sec) of cloud movement (west to east), the day after passage of Irma's hurricane eye to the north
This morning was a treat. I recently found an Argiope aurantia and her web. I know that Argiope rebuild their web each morning. Today, I went to the web place and sure enough she was rebuilding her web. I took some photos and videos. After she completes weaving the circumferential elements, she retreats to the center of her web and glues small segments of silk in the center of her web. She rests a bit and then, instead of extruding single strands of silk, she extrudes ribbons of silk and paints here web decorations (stabilimenta)
Here she is at 7am extruding a single strand of silk and glues it to a radial element thus forming a segment of the circumferential elements.
its early morning and without a flash, there is a wonderful silhouette of the Argiope aurantia
Here she is weaving circumferential segments. A ballet of repetitive motion
Seen here is extraction of a silk strand from her spinnerets
Another view of her spinnerets
After completing the circumferential elements, she returns to the center and closes it with a mesh of short strands. She takes a break, poops, and returns to tacking on shot segments across the center core of her web
Not only can she extrude a single strand - she can extrude a ribbon of silk. Here she is painting her zig-zag web decoration (stabilimenta0
What a surprise - a large two headed dragonfly - no it was a male and female mating while flying - or maybe even "Flying United". Here is the video. Later, photos as I walked around the lake.
United Dragonflies - mating while flying
Snowy egret taking off
Video of Cyclosa repairing the radial segments of her web. At about 50 sec, she pauses and cuts a section of silk ribbon near the web hub
