I pulled out all the stops on this one, folks! Pictured here is a water drop in freefall (roughly 1/4 second after it started its fall.) Through the drop, you can see Dreyfus and me engaged in a vigorous scratch session.

To capture the drop, I had to use every piece of gear in my photography arsenal, including my homemade laser-beam-sensor and timing computer, my 300mm macro lens, and the radio trigger for my flash unit.

The sequence of events is:

  1. Water drop falls from my dripper
  2. Five inches below the dripper is a laser beam, pointed at a home-made light sensor.
  3. As the water drop falls through the light sensor, a signal is sent to...
  4. A home-made timing computer, which waits for exactly 161 milliseconds before telling the camera to take the shot.
  5. The water drop continues to fall for another 107 milliseconds, while the camera gets ready (shutter lag)
  6. The shutter is open for 1/200th of a second, during which time...
  7. The radio flash trigger attached to the camera tells the flash unit to fire.

The end result isn't quite as crisp as I need yet, but I already have a few ideas for how I can improve the shot.

Geek Pride is swelling in me.