School: Arizona State University, Graphic Information Technology

Instructor: Penny Dolin

Assignment: High Speed/Splash Photography

This shot was for a "liquids" assignment in an Advanced Commercial Photography class. We were tasked with capturing liquid in motion, either being poured over objects or food, or dropping objects or food into liquid. Having done some fun warm-up assignments, I was inspired to try the latter on my own. After some brainstorming, I decided to try and capture the excitement and energy of splash motion through a "rise and shine" morning-cup-of-joe sort of breakfast ad vibe. I work at Starbucks and have this really cool "you are here" Phoenix mug with some great warm colors, so I snatched it out of my cupboard with a packet of instant iced coffee and a box of sugar cubes and headed to the studio!

There were a few smaller challenges to this shot, one of them being the lighting--I wanted to make sure it was bright enough to get that early morning sunshine mood without being overexposed. Getting focus on the right areas was difficult too, since there are more than one area of action. The biggest challenge of this shot was getting the timing of the drop-n-pop technique so that I capture a splash and some sugar cubes still in motion so it's clear what's going on. I dropped about 37 sugar cubes to get a few good shots, this one being my favorite. 

I shot this in our campus studio with a camera tethered to Adobe Lightroom and edited in Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop.