Water Droplets Frozen In High Speed Photographs

Making a splash: Water droplets frozen in high speed photographs by Markus Reugels An artist has caused a splash with his photographs of water droplets. Markus Reugels, 33, drops water, milk or other liquids onto trays, egg cups or teaspoons and captures the splashes. He adds food colouring to the water and different colour gels to his flashes to create varying effects. Markus calls this image Firestarter Different liquids give different results. By adding guar gum to the water he is able to thicken it and alter the shape of the splashes. The shapes can be further altered by adding sugar, and the splash can be increased in height by adding rinse aid to the dish. Witch Hat Markus uses a sensor to trigger the camera because the water falls too fast for his finger to operate the shutter. An extremely fast flash and shutter speed, of up to 1/16,000th of a second, allow him to capture detail in the splash patterns that the human eye could never see. Pacman is Hungry For this image, called Big World in a Little Drop, Markus placed a map of the world behind the water splash His results are not manipulated or coloured on a computer. Markus said: "Water can create beautiful shapes but without high-speed photography we could never see them. The shapes of the splashes are very difficult to manipulate. The basic shapes, such as the umbrellas and flying discs, are easy but to create the double splashes you must work very hard, have good endurance and patience. You must also analyse the results and test new things." Red Double Markus, from Schweinfurt, Bavaria, Germany, added: "The important thing is to have fun - the rest will come by itself." Caged Spout This gallery in Telegraph contains 16 of Markus's water splash images. You can see hundreds more in his Flickr galleries. Water Flame s Just in Time Bubble Over the Bubble s Dancing with a Bubble Double Milk Splash Explosion Hypnotic Eye Small and Big Red Bottom