I love shooting still life pictures. The whole process is so much fun – from the creative thought, to setting up your equipment the right way, to experimenting over and over, to editing and making the final touches on the image…and all of that from the comfort of your own home.

My first successful still life picture was that of the Paint Splash which I had taken last April. Shortly there after, I decided to do a similar experiment, only this time attempt to freeze a water drop as it falls into a pool of water. Water drop pictures are in abundance – perhaps one might argue that this is by far the most popular still life photograph on the internet. Skipping therefore a big chunk of the creative thought process, I proceeded to set up my equipment out on my balcony. The ingredients for this shoot, were simply 2 tripods (one to hold the camera and one to hold a zip lock bag full of water), my off-camera flash, a black paint dish, a few coloured sheets of cardboard and my trusty camera remote trigger (see photo link of my entire setup).

The cardboard sheets play an important role in the whole recipe. The off-camera flash is aimed directly at the cardboard, so the sheet’s colour will dictate the colour cast of the entire image. For this experiment, I tried with red, lime green and blue, but in my opinion the blue one came out best.

Shot with my Canon 60D and Canon 100mm F2.8 prime macro lens at ISO 100, F11, 1/250 sec.