Drops

High-speed photographs of water: a drop rebounding into a column, a crown forming on the surface, a splash around a shell.

Each of these shapes lasts a fraction of a second, far too fast for the eye. To catch them I built my own trigger. A piezoelectric sensor sat under the tray of water, wired to a small circuit connected to an external camera flash. The camera waited in bulb mode, shutter open, in a dark room. When a drop hit the surface, the piezo felt the vibration and the circuit fired the flash instantly. That single burst of light was the whole exposure, and it froze the water in place.