Ever since I studied visual perception in graduate school, I have been intrigued by how we see. Much of my interest in photography comes from how it lets us see things that can't be seen easily with the naked eye.
A few years ago, I saw some amazing water drop photographs on the Internet. When I did some research to learn how these images were made, I found the remarkable images captured by Harold Edgerton at MIT in the 1930's. His now-classic images of bullets splitting playing cards, or of the splashes made by falling drops of milk, revealed a world beyond the limitations of our visual sense. His development of xenon flash tubes made photographing these fleeting images possible.
The technical aspects of this kind of photography appeal to me as they involve working with electronics, software, optics, photography, and visual perception – all things that I enjoy. I ended up building all the equipment needed to be able to capture these water drops with a digital camera and high-speed flashes. You can read more about how I do water drop photography in the Studio.
After I got the equipment working, I found that science can be combined with art. Varying timing, light, color, and liquid chemistry makes the images even more intriguing to look at, and adds fun to the process, too.
The Photo Gallery shows a collection of my recent work. I hope you enjoy looking at these images.