Day 47

47/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

My light, color, and  gesture tributes are done, but I can't help to think Jay Maisel forgot something very crucial that can make a photo great: spectacle. 


I was coming up with some ridiculous ideas for this shoot, few of which seemed possible. After ditching all of my big ideas, I started thinking small. In my opinion, there is something very spectacular about water droplets. There are a ton of things that happen when water collides, most of which happens so quickly that we never see it, so I decided that's what I would shoot for today. 






These photos are deceptively easy to take. I grabbed a pan and filled it with water, and then started looking for something colorful. The water itself won't take light, so you have to bounce light onto it so that it can reflect the color and whatnot. Thankfully, I am lazy and haven't taken the trash out since Dustin dropped by, so I tore apart the cases to the 12 packs he brought over. I taped the cardboard to a bounce card that I set up, and then grabbed some flashes. Once I had it lit, I had to set up a water drop system. I got my other light stand, filled up a bag of water, and used a grip-clip to clamp it up. I poked a hole in the bag, and voila! The hardest part is getting the water drops to hit at the right time, but if you are lucky, you get shots that look like this.