Ok, so I had a discussion recently about just how fast of a shutter speed you need to set to freeze moving water. So I decided to dig out these photos. Anya took these at Phipps Conservatory.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/400 sec at f/5. ISO 400. No post production. Phipps Conservatory.

What Works: The droplets of water are nicely frozen, and excellently placed on one of the thirds. The light reflecting in the drops provides nice highlights that draw the viewers eyes quickly to them as the main focal element of the photo. And finally, the nicely softened background from the fairly wide aperture offers a hint at the stature behind the fountain without it being a distraction.

What Doesn't Work: The floating fountain is somewhat disturbing, providing just a small portion of the fountain base along the left edge of the frame would anchor the photo more. Also, the convergence of the fountain and the statue's head could have probably been fixed at the same time by repositioning slightly. There also is a very slight amount of camera shake from the shot being done handheld (because Phipps has a policy against tripod use)

And just because I feel like it, we'll look at two photos today, so here's the second...

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/500 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400. No post production. Phipps Conservatory.

What Works: This shot does an opposite view from the one above, here the water drops become the background element, and let the orchids take the foreground focal element. The diagonal lines of the fountain base provide a nice offset in the image (diagonal lines are usually pleasing for whatever reason).

What Doesn't Work: The main thing that I don't like about this photo is the small bit of the flower pot encroaching on the left edge of the frame. With it being bright white, it is not able to be ignored.

Anyway - back to what started today's discussion, the shutter speed necessary to freeze water drops. Granted these water drops aren't exactly moving at the speed of bullets, but the exposures settings used are not pushing the boundaries of what the camera could do by any stretch of the imagination.

Should Anya have needed to freeze the motion more, she could have used a wider aperture, which would have allowed for an even faster shutter speed. Additionally, at ISO 400, she could have possibly increased that slightly to also allow for even faster faster shutter speed. And on top of all that, she could have also used flash to help provide additional light to freeze the motion.

The bottom line is that freezing motion like this is much easier than you might think. Give it a shot sometime and see what you can get.

- Bill