Big Splash in a Glass
Splash
Before heading back to Jena I had another chance to play around with the previously posted glass and water drop setup.
Since it was requested by several persons I took a photo of the setup this time. The picture is attached at the bottom and is pretty much the same a described before. As you can see there it’s very simple after all.
Since I was already taking pictures of single water drops the next idea of course was to create some bigger splashs covering the entire glass. My previous method of just having a bottle with a hole in it to produce the drops of course won’t work, not even when the hole is made bigger.
Mixing
So I simply used a long metal tube by filling some water in while keeping the other end closed. It took some time to get the timing between releasing the water and taking the picture right.
But it worked out pretty well with some practice and after setting everything under water several times. 
The biggest problem with this of course is that every shot you take sets the entire setup pretty much under water. The background will be covered with water and there will be little drops all over the glass. So the really annoying thing about this is that you have to clean the glass and background between every single picture.
In the end it was still worth the work since the pictures turned out really amazing!
Setup
Splash in a Glass
Glass 1
So I started playing around with different setups, having a water drop fall into a glass for example. Problem there only was that the drops of course looked awesome as always, but the glass itself looked really bad with the lighting I had used so far (just flash from above). Now I had to find a different lighting setup which would create good light for the splash itself, the water in the glass and the glass plus some kind of background.
Glass 2
But without any background the pictures didn’t turn out that great either, simply because without a background everything above the water is just too dark. So back to trying out different backgrounds in combination with an SB-800 right behind it (for the lighting from behind the glass). I ended up finding some small milk glass plates which turned out pretty well as background and basement for the glass. Only that the pieces where too small to fill the entire background, so for this I ended up using a of scattering foil which I had left from taking apart the LCD display of my old laptop
Glass 3
In: High Speed, Photography
Winter Night
Winter has arrived in Jena!
Not very much snow but at least this year it’s cold enough for the snow to not instantly melt away. Forecast says temperatures below 0°C until next week. So chances are good that I will be out this weekend taking lots of pictures. Until then here are two pictures of a snowy Jena at night.
Winter Night
Winter Night 2
In: Nature, Photography
Dreams
Something to keep in mind (Source)
Sunrise Silhouettes
Watching
So I got back to shooting silhouettes against the sun and the beautiful sky. This time I was alone so shooting people silhouettes was a bit limited. All I could do for that was use the camera timer and run back and forth like crazy all the time.
It was the third time that I was shooting sunrise pictures at that location (Napoleonstein near the Landgraf in Jena), but only this time I utilized the surroundings properly. Using the bench which is placed up there and using some lonely trees made some great picture compositions possible.
Lonely Tree
Whas is really interesting about shooting those sunrise silhouettes is that the sky and the clouds are very important in the impact and feeling of the final image. Everytime I was up there the cloud formations and density was different, and everytime it created completely different pictures. You can’t really predict what it will look like before heading out – but that makes it even more fun to repeat shooting those kind of pictures. You will get something completely different each time.
I have already planned to go there again soon to take more pictures. Luckily the sun rises so late this time of the year that one must not get up too early.
Sunrise
In: Photography, Sunrise