Macro Water Drops with Refraction

Whilst preparing a talk on macro photography to deliver at one of my photographic clubs, I became fascinated by the tiny world of images refracted through water droplets. There are some incredibly beautiful examples to be seen on the web and my offerings here are a first attempt. As with everything in life, we become better by practice and I have already discovered some of the things that I have done wrong so far, so with a little patience, hopefully my next attempts will be better.

Lesson 1 learned…Ideally, pictures taken outdoors would provide more natural looking backgrounds…whereas my indoor shots, in some cases, managed to make a perfectly formed upside-down image of the oven in my kitchen… the water droplet is acting like a fisheye lens, of course, and there is nowhere to hide if the background is unnatural!

Lesson 2 (for me) was to do away with the tripod. I can manage much better with bounced and balanced flash and hand holding the camera when shooting indoors. This will vary from individual to individual – but those who know me best understand that I become much more creative and productive when I dispense with my tripod. Do not take this as advice, just my own peculiarity. Of course, if there are many droplets, a tripod and image stacking might be the best option.

Lesson 3 is to take a break from time to time, because with constantly looking at macro subjects moving in my viewfinder, I eventually succumbed to motion sickness without having to get into a car or boat.

Lesson 4 will be to look for more interesting grasses and stems so that I can improve composition.

Lesson 5, to get up early when there is real dew on the ground and photograph the wonders of nature.

Enough of the waffle, now here are the first attempt pictures.