I experimented with a water drop kit and expected a straightforward result, and instead I found my way to an abstract shape that could pass as AI generated art.

This photo was a two drop setup where the first drop creates an upward splash and the second drop falls into the splash, resulting in some interesting collisions. The upward splash in this shot had a droplet followed by a jet of water. The droplet collided with the second drop, creating a flat disc of water, and then the jet punched a hole in the disc!

Blue food coloring was added to the bowl of water, while the drops were a mix of water, red food coloring, cream (for opaqueness), and xanthan gum (thickener).

I used a single flash to light the scene, and the disc of water cast a shadow on the fingers extending from the disc.

I had a lot of fun and there are so many variables to play with that I will be entertained for a long time with this kit.

I faced a few challenges, including depth of field (anything below f/32 lost sharpness at the front or back of the splash) which I overcame by bumping up my flash settings. Most sources I found recommended a max flash power of 1/64. The Fstoppers speedlight review showed me that a flash speed up to even 1/8 or more would still freeze the action, so I was able to bump up the power to compensate for the narrow aperture. I also had trouble with timing, and used the dropper kit to trigger the flash rather than the camera, which gave much better timing consistency and accuracy. I am not sure if the timing delays and variance were caused by the USB cable release cord, internal camera delays, or wireless flash trigger delay. In any case, a sync cable connected from the dropper to the flash solved the problem.