Uploads from TxPilot, tagged sigmabigmamacrolens

Shattered

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:03:50 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

The one thing that you can absolutely count on with water drop photography is that you will never two of the same exact shots! :-)

Reflective Illusions

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 11:49:03 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Someday We'll Find It...

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 11:49:09 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Good Vibrations

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:16:13 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Thought I would throw one more drop collision out there before I headed north to the airshow! Caught this one at the start of the collision! :-)

As Two Become One

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:24:20 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

I think I will always be fascinated by these! When I look at these up close like this and see the marble like patterns swirling around inside the columns and drops of water, it reminds me of how I use to look at clouds before I became a pilot and how I see them now. You know the clouds I am talking about... The soft, puffy clouds that look like cotton balls floating in the sky. The ones everyone loves to lie back and watch as they make shapes of faces and all sorts of animals and how they look so peaceful as they slowly move across the sky on a summer afternoon. I always thought that flying into them would be like diving into a huge pool full of cotton! That is, until I flew into one for the first time! At first it was sort of scary... I could see this wall of white coming at me and over a hundred miles per hour and even though I knew it wasn't solid, it sure did LOOK like it was! I cringed as I hit it and THEN I found out just how rough and violent those "soft puffy" clouds really are inside! I look at these water drop collisions think of them the same way now. Even though it is on a VERY small scale, it is hard for me not to think about the currents and forces that must be thrashing about inside them! Very cool to think about really. :-)

Okay... I have been working on a new little geeky project for the past few days. Not anything related to photography but cool none the less. ;-) Something I have been wanting to build since the first time I saw one and another project related to my never ending quest to build a time machine! ;-) Stay tuned!

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:24:15 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Reflections in water are just awesome!! 'Nough said! ;-)

Communications Network

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:30:21 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

11 111 - 10 01 0100 000 01 1 - 000 110 0 - 0 1111 1 101 1 110011

(Let's see who can decode that one! ;-) And Good luck!) ;-)

Messing with your mind...

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:30:17 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

I think I feel a little disoriented! ;-)

Seals...

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:27:19 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Love to play with balls don't they!? ;-)

I still can't get over some of the things that just appear out of nowhere with these drops! There is no way that they could ever be duplicated and being able to capture them for everyone to see is really awesome! :-)

Painting the Sky Blue

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:27:22 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue.
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

An old Irish Blessing

Dodging Bullets!

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:00:30 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

"What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?"
"No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you are ready, you won't have to."

I was working with these water photos and was getting one good collision after another and then all of the sudden this happened! Now what made this pillar lean drastically to the right causing the second drop to miss the top of it entirely is beyond me! But it sure does look like it did it on purpose! ;-)

Lost in Time

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:08:27 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

And space! :-)

During some testing with my little time machine, I captured this image of this tiny little smiling body of water as it was being drawn into a really colorful wormhole. Or perhaps it is a black hole! Either way, I am sure it was in for a fun ride!... Wherever or whenever it went! ;-)

Hmmm... this has me thinking of lots of different possibilities! ;-)

A Water Drop Light Painting

Light Painting - Single Exposure

Invading My Space!

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:08:22 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Here is an up close and personal view of a water drop collision. The water was mixed about 50/50 with glycerin with a few drops of rinse aid and some neon green food coloring. Tasted like crap but it sure looked good! Ha! ;-)

I have several shots to post from yesterday's session so I will be going through them and posting as I run across the best of them. I think I need an LP fix so I am going to work on a few photos I have been thinking about! ;-)

Somewhere In Time

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:42:46 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

I spent most of the day yesterday fabricating a new mount for some 24v Shako Valves that I received just as I finished putting the Precision High Speed Photography Trigger together. Most of my work with the unit so far has been with some cheaper solenoid valves that were purchased on a whim after finding out it would take several weeks to get the Shako solenoids.

What a difference these precision made valves are!! They were very expensive and almost 5 times the cost of the other valves but with reaction times so fast that it allows a 7 millisecond pulse width for water drop size control, I am pretty much in awe of these!

With the change to these new valves, the precision is now there to capture any stage of water drops and collisions repeatably almost every shot! :-)

He DOES Exist!

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:34:05 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

I took a quick trip to the Highlands of Scotland this weekend and was actually enjoying a beautiful blue sky sunset on the shores of Loch Ness and of course had my camera with me! And I would imagine that just about everyone knows the significance of that location! ;-) When all of the sudden, this monster raises its head from the depths and looked at me for what seemed an eternity! Then it opened its huge mouth and said... "Waaaazzzzuuuuuupp!!!???" And I promptly woke up! ;-) I think this photo might have had a little bit to do with that really odd dream! ;-) Ha!

Floats like a Butterfly...

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:46:27 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

And Stings like a bee!

While sitting down and taking photos of water drops, every once in a while a shot pops up and I immediately see something in it! I see shapes, faces, and figures in the clouds all the time and things just randomly pop up in these also.

I have a LONG list of things that I want to try with this unit. There are a lot of variables to work with to see if I can get things more consistent. I am getting ready to put some different valves into play and work with different nozzles to see if I can get the drops falling more consistently first. A session of photos can take 4 hours or more, several hundred shots and only yeild a few "keepers" and I would really like to figure out a way to narrow that down more. One thing I have noticed with all of this is that it takes constant adjustment of the drop cycles and I currently have adjustment resolution of 100 microseconds, so I am going to change that to 10 microsecond increments to allow for finer adjustments.

More to come! :-)

Water Drop Light Painting

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:47:18 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

This has been a goal all along with the creation of the Precision High Speed Photography Trigger! ;-) This is a bit tougher than I thought it would be. Lighting is critical for water drop photos and everything is about the reflection. So taking that background away and adding my own lighting sort of made the water drops fade away a bit too much. Going to have to try this with maybe a touch of milk or something to see if that will help some. :-)

Light Painting - Single Exposure.

The Big Kiss!

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:36:21 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Two water drop columns meeting in the middle while two other drops start to form columns of their own.

Teamwork

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:51:47 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

Two drops joining together to form a little water arch.

One thing that I was not expecting in working with two drops side by side is the effect that they have on one another when creating columns. In pretty much all of the shots I made with two drops like this, the columns seemed to be drawn together and were leaning inward towards each other. I suspect this has something to do with the pressures created under the water surface when the drops hit the water. Not expected, but cool none the less! :-)

I still haven't had time to work with this device much, but hope to do some more maybe this weekend. The job hunt goes on. :-)

Deep Purple

nobody@flickr.com (TxPilot) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:45:31 -0700

TxPilot posted a photo:

I know I know... it's not deep purple! But the song that this reminds me of IS Deep Purple! ;-) Besides, a few microseconds after this shot was made, I would imagine those blue and red drops combined to make Deep Purple! ;-)

I am really not quite sure HOW I got this shot! But I am not going to complain! ;-)
I think one of my strobes misfired or something! :-)