Liquid Art & Droplet Photography

"QUANTUM SHOT" #325(rev) Link - article by Avi Abrams One Ordinary Drop of Water: Liquid Art & Droplet Photography It certainly takes great skill and very good equipment to create these frozen-in-time "water sculptures", in every captured frame revealing the inherent energy and the beautiful dynamics of flowing, cascading and dripping water: ("Dew-Soaked Dandelions" by Sharon Johnstone, see more here) Some artists decide to substitute water with more viscous liquids, which leads to even more psychedelic, "lava lamp"-like effects. But more often than not, simply playing with ambient color and light distribution is enough to produce an outstanding effect. In this article we will try to cover the full variety of high-speed liquid photography and the excitement of resulting abstract-modernist compositions. Luiz Luxvich makes startlingly clear images of splashing water This master of liquid photography lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has the most fantastic gallery online, bursting with variety of colorful creations: (images credit: Luiz Luxvich) Amazingly, even without any added coloring, pure water looks simply great... like in these examples from the French photographer: (images credit: JPV) Liquid Sculptures by Martin Waugh Martin Waugh, of Liquid Sculpture, is perhaps the most famous artist in liquid photography sub-genre. His works are justly praised as "full of fun, whimsy and wonder" (see full gallery here): Water Kiss! (images credit: Martin Waugh) More Surreal Colored Drops These droplets seem to have acquired a life of their own. The fluid forms and smoothly flowing into each other colors remind me of the similarly fluid illustrations by the famous 1950s science fiction artist Richard M. Powers. Photographs by Fotoopa, liquid art master from Belgium, are one million times better than a lava lamp, and significantly more mesmerizing: (images credit: Fotoopa) Got Milk? Spill it, Drip it, Swirl it! (artistically speaking, of course) A Milk Drop: (image credit: Michele M. Ferrario) Drops of food coloring come together to become an artistically-pleasing set, by Peter Ovesny: (images credit: Peter Ovesny) A Tentacle! - (originals unknown) This is not mercury, not even melting ice - just water... splendid water! Woke up one morning, saw this thing crawling toward me across the sink... decided to go back to bed and sleep it off - (image credit: Carolina LaBranche) Coffee Meets Milk Look at the gorgeous "liquid art" photography by Irene Muller, transforming coffee and milk into a mysterious whole, bringing them to entirely new heights of artistic expression. With her permission, here are some samples of this highly delicate art: Welcome your own personal caffeine octopus: You want eggs with that? - Blueberry Milkshake: Suspended... (images credit: Irene Muller) For more great high-speed photography of colored water drops we recommend to visit this Flickr group. (images via) The following is a 3D rendering, but still very impressive: (image credit: Ratow) Cold Shower Splendor Next time you catch someone creeping from behind and overturning a bucket of cold water over somebody's head, don't get too upset; perhaps they are just (very selfishly) trying to take a memorable picture... Like this one, for example: (image credit: Helene Desplechin) This looks like a flowing water cape! (image via) These interesting water shapes happened as a result of blowing up water-filled balloons. What lengths some photographers would go to, just to make a cool picture! - (image credit: Ronnie Phipps) (image via) While the turbulent flows of water would easily produce mesmerizing effect in high-speed photography, the simple falling of individual droplets - one after another - can also produce interesting results: The Dynamics of The Fall of a Droplet The following shots trace the physics of water's flow in a form of individual caplets, seemingly quite complex (see more on this page): (images credit: John Bush at M.I.T.) In Your Face! Liquid photography is often used in promotional images and advertisements: (image via) Potpourri of Droplets The Universe seem to be reflected in a single drop, or in a necklace of droplets: (image credit: Irene Mueller) (originals unknown) (image via) (image via) Beautiful drops of water, just sitting there and waiting to be photographed: (originals unknown) (image credit: Winston Rockwell) (image credit: Ark) In this series we find perhaps the most artistic presentation of droplets and bubbles ever made: (image credit: Linda) Most of the effects seen here are caused by the surface tension of common water, as formation and flowing forms of giant soap bubbles clearly demonstrate: (image via) CONTINUE TO NEXT PART! -> ALSO READ OUR "AWESOME PHOTOGRAPHY" CATEGORY -> Share Tweet