I know this is confusing to look at, and it seems simple—pour some paint into a fishbowl and snap a shot. Here’s why you’re very, very wrong.
Now, more than 10 years later, this is easier to do, and I understand much more about it. But when I first attempted this, it was because I saw it in a commercial through a video and thought, "Ooo, I’d like to attempt that in a photo. Seems like something I could do." I mean, I had a small cube that I could pour some water into, throw some ink in, and boom—I’ve got a cool shot.
This led me on a multi-month journey to find a way to take this photo, which is where I stopped. I never got the shot I had in my head. Maybe I should revisit it now that I have better ideas on how to do it. But this was pre-high-speed sync, so that was off the menu. I had to use constant light for this, and since the ink was moving so fast, I needed to be at about 2000s to freeze the motion.
Yes, so we’re talking halogens—very hot, very bright, right next to my head, causing issues with everything blooming. The harsh lights couldn’t be diffused because they would burn up the diffuser—so all kinds of problems. The lights were sitting right next to this thing, trying to light it up, and yet, it was still blurry.
Then came the container issue. After going through three or four drinking glasses and switching to large vases, I ended up having to buy a fish tank—not for the reason you might think. I found out that when you drop ink into a small container, it interacts with the sides and doesn’t flow freely in the water. What you can’t tell from the photo is that this whole setup is only the size of a golf ball, so the macro focus had to be spot on at a high f-stop to keep everything in focus.
So there I was, sitting with my huge fish tank that took 10 minutes to fill with water, using the brightest lights I could find. Now, I had to squirt the ink in, because just dripping it didn’t work—it had to be moving at speed to look good. I grabbed a little baby medicine dropper, filled it up, and squirted it in fast.
Easy enough, right? Nope. This led to a timing issue. It was just me, so I had to get a trigger for my camera. At the time, cameras only shot at 3-4 frames per second, so I’d hold the button down and get maybe 2-3 photos per squirt. Then, the moment I dropped the ink in, hoping I got the shot, the water was ruined.
So I had to start all over again. Take the whole thing outside, dump the water, refill it for another 10 minutes, and repeat the process. You can see where this is going. Let’s just say the water bill was a little higher that month.
And now, the final act—the part that took the longest to figure out: the ink/paint. I attempted oil paint, acrylic paint, dyed water, fountain ink, gel pen ink extracted from gel pens, dyed corn syrup, and resin.
So what actually worked? It was a special type of fountain ink that gave the best result. Not a good result, but something close.
So, the point of all this? It was very hard, but the outcome was not what I expected when I started this journey. And still, to this day, I have not gotten the photo I originally had in my head.