The Bob Marley Burnin album cover was the backdrop for this water drop collision image. And, I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. Using the album cover wasn’t my original plan. Especially since, I forgot that I had the album.
Burnin
The shoot started with my original vision: using a my red, yellow, and green t-shirt as the backdrop. Feeling that I had exhausted my creativity with the shirt, I went to find something else. So, I grabbed the multi-colored striped napkin I intended to use. Again, I reached a point where I needed another background. That’s when I went to my stack of vinyl albums. Yes, I still have vinyl. In staying with my reggae theme, the Bob Marley Burnin album cover was the perfect choice.
The Setup
As you can see – the setup for the shoot is not as attractive as the images themselves. That’s actually one of the many things I love about photography, and why I’m writing this. I like the fact that from this hodgepodge of items, I was able to create an image that I’m proud of.
Triggered
In the above shot you see there are four Speedlites being used. I use the Yongnuo brand, which are as good as (and far less expensive) the Canon Speedlites. The flashes are sitting on stacks of colored CD cases… don’t ask why I have so many. Above the shot (out of the frame) is my Pluto Valve filled with the water solution I made. The water droplets are generated from the valve, controlled by the Pluto Trigger – which also triggers the camera and the flashes
Flat Black
The catch basin is a circular food container, probably from some Thai food I ate (one of my favorites). I digress… To catch the overflow, it’s sitting in a dark baking pan that I spray painted flat black. In spite of the label, the paint dried shiny. So, I had to place a piece of gaffer’s tape on the corner, because it was resulting in some glare in my shots. Due to some leveling issues, you see another CD case awkwardly placed under the baking pan.
Focused
What I enjoyed most about this shoot is that my shots were more focused and deliberate. When I first started doing drop photography, I would take hundreds of shots to capture the different drops and collisions. As a result, there were many images that were “thrown away”. However, this shoot resulted in about 25 images, excluding calibration shots
“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”
– Henri Carter-Bresson
