At A Journey's End

[Gus Cobos]

Note: This image is the first in a series of five compositions dealing with liquid motion. I dedicate these to Mr. Alfred Forns; my friend, teacher and mentor; who has guided me for the past four years and has picked me up for the many times I have fallen on my face. He has taught me to get up and keep on running...and never look back...:)

Techs: This composition is an image overlay of two frames captured in RAW and then converted to JEPG. format. The drops were created in an old fish aquarium filled half way with a suspension media of water, corn syrup, glycerin, and food coloring. It was shot at four frames per second using a polarizing filter.

This was painted with a Nikon D200, using a Nikkor 105mm f/2.8D macro lens with a 12mm extension tube.

Image solution: focal length @ 105mm / exposure mode @ aperture priority / 1/125sec. - f/4.2 / ISO @ 200 /
white balance @ cloudy / AF - mode @ auto - high speed continuous / metering mode @ in camera matrix metering / lighting solution - used combination of three speedlights with attached diffusers and green gel filters. speedlights were powered down to 3/4 lumen burst on manual mode. two were positioned at 45 degree angles from the right and left and the third speedlight was angled at 90 degrees. A 36" soft box was placed from the rear using a gold diffuser panel in front, and a 22" gold disk reflector angled from the side for an even golden light. / exposure comp @ -2.7EV / tone comp @ +2 degrees / hue adjustment @ +3 degrees / saturation factor @ +3 degrees / support platform - tripod assist /

omments greatly appreciated...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Thanks Gus Its much appreciated Don't really know what to say !!!!

One impressive image and can't wait for the entire series Can't imagine the time and effort that went into the images !!! Proud of you !!!

[Bruce Gove]

Wow Gus,

Love the rich colors and stop action. Very impressive image!!!

Bruce

[Richard Waas]

Great job my friend!!! Your technique with Macro has become professional. I can only hope that 4 years from now you're still talking to us (lol). Congrats....

[Julie Kenward]

So THAT'S what I am supposed to do with my old aquarium! I knew there was a reason I hadn't given it away!!!

Beautiful image Gus. My one critque would be to clone out the darker "blob" to the right of the drop. To me, it rivals the water splash for attention.

[Fabs Forns]

The creativity and dedication behind this is amazing and so are the results. Proud of you, my friend!

[Harold Davis]

as awesome as it is, if i may suggest, clone out the one small drop on the left that almost intersects the frame. jules has valid point to. i like the way your brain thinks. looks like you got a good water solution going there. cant wait to see the others from your series!!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Gus,
Another inspirational effort my friend - tend to agree about the darker patch competing for attention. I loveit!
Regards,
Nicki

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Very nice image. Al and Fabs must be very proud of you.

[Katie Rupp]

Absolutely wonderful, Gus! And thank you for sharing with us how you went about capturing it.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Hi, Gus, this is neat and great colors! Agree with what has already been said above. You are a good example of showing that going the extra mile to prepare for a photo can result in a super payoff!