Day 179 - Splashes and Sky (for Elizabeth)

My sister-in-law, Elizabeth, has kindly let me know that she loves the shots of water drops and wants many more of them to appear on this blog throughout the rest of the year.

Well, Elizabeth, this one's for you.

Another brilliant, sunny day gave me the chance to return to the fountain in front of Fredericton City Hall to experiment some more with the challenges posed by the combination of moving water and auto-focus camera. This time, I positioned myself so that the water jet jumped up between me and the noon sun. This made the water sparkle, used the beautiful blue sky as background and filled the camera with light, allowing me to push the shutter speed (1/1000th) while still keeping the aperture fairly tight (f5.6).

The big question mark was the auto-focus. Could it "find" the water?

Apparently, yes. This time there was sufficient mass to the water for a consistent enough period of time that the camera found it and focused on it. And the sunlight coming through the water makes the drops look like diamonds, dancing against the gorgeous sky. I find that these shots make me feel happy. If water can feel joy, then this water's feeling it.

These two shots also gave me the chance to experiment a little bit with iPhoto's photograph editing functions: notice how much lighter the lower photo is, how much less dense the blue of the sky is and how much softer the water looks. I've posted both because I can't decide which look I like best. What do you think?