Water Droplets Dance In Markus Reugels' Stunning Stop-Action Photos (PHOTOS)

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"God has made a beautiful world even in the smallest things."

That's Markus Reugels waxing philosophic about the tiny water droplets that play the starring role in the sublime high-speed photography that has become his passion. But Reugels' stunning photos--which show in exquisite stop-action detail what happens when droplets collide—may owe as much to science and technology as they do to any deity.

"You need to understand the different parameters like temperature, viscosity, drop size, drop distance, etc.," Reugels told The Huffington Post in an email. "I take lots of care with the light and color composition. It's very Important that all parts of the Image get into harmony."

Reugels--who lives in a village outside the German city of Schweinfurt--uses conventional photography equipment, freezing the action with a powerful flash. But the water is mixed with guar gum to give it a milk-like viscosity, and for some of the photos dye is added. And Reugels varies the rate and height at which the droplets are released.

Things don’t always go right. But when they do, Reugels said the images captivate him: "It's incredible what shapes simple water drops can build. You can plan everything, but each drop is unique."

Comments

[iLdoRight]

07:14 PM on 02/12/2012

Thank You, Mr. Markus Reugels and Mr. David Freeman ! Almost too beautiful and too fancy to be believed, but I do believe and appreciate the picture and the article.

Your pictures confirmed I was right on a question my 8th grade science teacher counted me wrong on. He had the class watch a movie on water while he graded some papers and one portion showed that falling water drops were mostly spherical and not tear dropped in shape. He apparently did not watch the movie as in his written out test he had the question and counted me wrong and insisted they were tear dropped in shape rather than spherical, although they can osculate some.

Kind of stupid but over the years I have probably wasted 10 hours thinking about his error, the good thing it did was help me to not put too much trust in "authorities" and "teachers". He was only one of the "authorities" in my High School who I thought should not have had their jobs. One should have had some jail time.

[iLdoRight]

12:15 AM on 02/13/2012

Oscillate, not "osculate" Dudley. Sorry, my fingers were cold and I wanted too much to get them warm, to take the time to get it right at the time.

[asiclilpup]

05:10 PM on 02/12/2012

Articles like this just leave me sitting back with a big smile on my face. Calming and uplifting at the same time.

[Ex-Fed]

05:31 PM on 02/11/2012

Why does this bring back memories of window pane and strawberry mescaline? The good bad old days.

[asiclilpup]

05:07 PM on 02/12/2012

"windows" ! Thanks for the voyage down memory lane !

[llisa]

05:19 PM on 02/11/2012

Incredible photos. I would love to see a slo-mo video of these splashes.

[19th Amendment]

10:47 AM on 02/11/2012

Gorgeous! The science of it all: seemingly simple but deeply complex. Thank you, Markus Reugels. The images are stunning. I wish you had a gallery showing in L.A.

[oneeasyrider]

06:13 AM on 02/11/2012

Wow, this guy's doing some amazing work. Photos are gorgeous.

[MoMick]

12:47 AM on 02/11/2012

Thank you, Markus Reugels, for some beautiful images.

[toughlove]

11:28 PM on 02/10/2012

Hate to inform you bur, those photographs are actually 3D renders.

[palindrom]

05:41 PM on 02/11/2012

Could you elaborate?

[Lori Ladybug]

04:13 PM on 02/10/2012

Beautiful! Reminds me of Dr. Seuss drawings and Dale Chihuly sculptural glass.

[Roxs Bourgeois]

01:40 PM on 02/10/2012

Water droplets absolutely stunning - I would love to see these made into glass sculptures.

[America why you so no]

05:42 AM on 02/11/2012

Great idea.....