How much effort do you put into getting it just the way you want?

[tirediron]

In the ongoing saga of the 'Bored Photographer Chronicles' I've been developing ever-more complex assortments of gear for my water-drop images. Today I was experimenting with double drops, the goal being to have one ice-cub making a splash in the glass, and one still in the air. This of course means separation is required in dropping, so, how best to accomplish this?

Starting off with this rig, and my standard single-drop tube, I found there was no way to accomplish what I wanted, so...

Get another piece of tube out of the plumbing scraps box and three 3" finishing nails and drag out the MiG...

Now I have a two-stage release mechanism....

Put the bottom nail in, drop in the first "ice cube", insert the second nail and then drop in the second ice-cube. This gives me a nice 2-3" separation. So, in 5-10,000 frames I should be able to get the image I want.
What sort of things have you bodged together to create an image?

 

[zombiesniper111 11]

Very nice.
Most photography for me ends up in trying to solve a problem for the image I want.

 

[Soocom1]

I have a sever case of GAS, and have been buying diff. items to play with....

Dont see the wife anymore, shes doing 7door dash for 12 hrs a day and I drone around from place to place to keep bordom away.

 

[Jeff1546 46]

It all looks very complicated to me....

 

[tirediron]

Very nice.
Most photography for me ends up in trying to solve a problem for the image I want.

Photographer's is problem solvers!

I have a sever case of GAS, and have been buying diff. items to play with....

Dont see the wife anymore, shes doing 7door dash for 12 hrs a day and I drone around from place to place to keep bordom away.

Toys are good!!!

It all looks very complicated to me....

Not really; I tend to "build" my set, so things often wind up being more convoluted than they really need to be. At the end of the day, all that is, is a camera, two speedlights, and some white paper & plexi.

 

[tirediron]

This is a "preliminary sketch" for what I'm trying to accomplish using the rig above:

I need to either find prop ice cubes of the right size, or make some clear ice, and tweak the lighting a tad,

 

[Ysarex83 77]

Thank God I'm retired -- I don't do that no more.

Joe

 

[tirediron]

Thank God I'm retired -- I don't do that no more.

Joe

Which part?

 

[JBPhotog1]

I can’t vouch for the quality but Michaels and Amazon have clear Acrylic ice cubes at very reasonable prices. Back in the late 1980’s they were insanely priced, mind you they were hand made. Studio Specialties also sells them but they are quite pricey.
Superior Studio Specialties

 

[tirediron]

I'll have to check out Michael's; lots on Amazon, but most are bigger than I'd like.

 

[Original katomi]

Nice set up

 

[smoke665]

I'll give you extra points for combining Mig welding and photography , but overall I'm a little disappointed. I figured you for the kind of guy that would rig up a few micro air cylinders, operated by a pneumatic controller, coupled to trap doors and micro switches to release the ice at timed intervals and fire the shutter.

Looking forward to your results!

 

[jcdeboever]

nice....my wife yells at me enough...

 

[ronlane]

Sweet John, now I want to see the final image where you were successful.

Come on show us!!!!!!!

 

[webestang6411]

Looks like fun hope it all works out for you.
I worked at a studio shooting small products for about a year and we did all kinds of crazy setups.