Water drop photography

[GerritSmith]

..... Also set up your focus beforehand and make sure the room is a spitch black as possible and you can use long shutterspeeds.

Sorry Jake, but you're only batting .333 with this reply.
1 - Very true, pre-focus on you focal point and then make sure AF is turned off.
2 - Not only is a pitch black shooting room potentionally hazardous to your health and gear, but it is also unnecessary when using flash because it (flash) will/can kill any ambient light in most normally lit rooms.
3 - The idea behind water drop shots is to freeze the action. A long shutter speed would be counterproductive, unless you're dragging the shutter.

GerritSmith, you can get background colors to show quite easily. I like tie-dyed t-shirts personally, but any sort of colorful material can be used such as Xmas wrapping paper, colorful scarves, or beach towels. I would suggest getting out of the sink if that is where you're setup is. You'll want more space to work with. Setup on a table top with your bowl of water elevated. Use appropriate measures to prevent any water damage to furniture and "stuff" nearby. Slide your background under and/or behind the bowl. The more distance the better the look IMO because it will be easier for your lens to throw it out of focus. If you don't have a means of creating a suspension mount, get a friend to steadily hold the water supply over your pre-focused spot. Fire away. Obviously off camera flash would be preferred, but a couple of strategically placed mirrors could bounce your built-in flash to light the water drops. Straight on flash will freeze the drops, but won't be as visually appealing as OCF. To give you an idea of how some color in the background can enhance your shots, here is a tie-dyed t-shirt and here is a couple of womens scarves one & two. I used a 105mm macro lens and three speedlights for these. BTW, a few drops of water is unlikely to cause any harm to your lens. Just gently wipe off the water between shots.

Thanks for the advice! I have my water bowl on a table. my camera on a tripod. My bag of water is around 3 feet above my bowl. I cant find a good speedlite for less than $200. I take a pen and AF on it. Then take the pen away and put my camera on Manual Focus. I did just start using a dslr so I dont know much about all the settings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!