During the summer of 2020 as the world ground to a near standstill, many of us were forced to remain in our homes and not able to venture out. The one bright side of that for me was that my studio space is literally within the garage of our home. For some time, I had been hoping to apply the techniques I had learned creating still images with liquids towards video capture with the Sony RX100V. The Sony is to date the only camera that offers native high frame rate capture at near 1000 fps. at a price point under $1000 US. While there are some limitations, the captures are quite impressive.

One of my very first video projects entailed capturing the simple beauty of the drop collision. Despite it's simplicity, there are specific challenges in creating this video.

Timing is critical in catching the collision at it's peak of action. The time between the first drop striking the surface and creating the pillar and the next drop striking it is less than 100 milliseconds. The formation is actually quite small, which requires macro capable optics and positioning. Lighting has to be very intense and needs to fill a rather small area.

Thanks for watching

Jack Long