The “Dewdrop” as Mini Fish-Eye Lens

ne of my most fascinating discoveries in the world of close-up photography was made long ago: Dewdrops can act as mini fish-eye lenses. I made this discovery after waking early one morning and seeing one of the heaviest blankets of ground fog I had ever seen on my farm. I headed out the door to the large backyard flower garden and came upon three huge dew-covered spiderwebs. It was one of those rare moments when not only were the dewdrops large but the air was dead calm, too. As I made quick work with my Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens, I noticed with great delight a fish-eye view of my flower garden within each of the individual drops of dew, and thus began a love affair with dewdrops the world over. And, since you can generate your own droplets at home, this is an idea that’s not limited to outdoor work or by the need for specific weather conditions.

Since it’s easy to make your own “dewdrops,” from the moment I discovered the mini fish-eye effect, the Oregon winters never seemed as long. I have since adopted as a piece of “my equipment,” one particular bedside table that has two pieces of glass (the main surface and a shelf below) on which I am able to create countless droplet compositions.

    The process goes something like this: With a large syringe, I place individual drops of clear massage oil in a somewhat random fashion atop the upper glass surface of the table (the box in the first image below). I’ve found that Johnson’s Baby Oil is too thin and the drops spread out and go flat; but others report that Karo syrup works quite well due to its thickness. So, based on the principles of close-up photography, when I focus on these “dewdrops,” whatever I place on the lower shelf will record inside each of these “fish-eye lenses,” as I like to refer to the droplets.

    The idea here was, of course, to create an image of rain, and what I chose to do to further support this was really quite simple, so simple, in fact, that I found myself saying, “Duh!” when it finally occurred to me what was needed. I looked through my file images of clouds and skies and made an 8 × 10–inch print of one. I then came upon a shot of a simple red umbrella that was part of an ad in the local newspaper, cut it out, and placed it on my clouds-and-sky print. Sure enough, as soon as I placed this on the lower shelf, I was soon immersed in recording one of the more exciting close-up photos I had made in some time.

    With this idea in mind, why not consider doing the same thing with the theme It’s Raining Cats and Dogs? Make an 8 × 10-inch print of one of your own sky/cloud compositions and then make a number of really small prints of your cat and dog. Cut these out, lay them on the sky print, and you now have a great shot of it raining cats and dogs!

f/11 for 1/125 sec.

One of the great things about making discoveries in the world of close-up photography is that other discoveries are soon to follow—one thing leads to another. After spending the better part of a day shooting varied subjects with my massage oil “dewdrops” on my glass table, I got out the bottle of Windex and sprayed the table down, ready to clean it off; but then I noticed the interaction between the Windex and the oil, and that’s all it took to get my camera back into position. I quickly grabbed my daughter’s large collection of colored pencils and placed them on the lower glass shelf, as I knew this random setup would provide multiple tones of background color. Within minutes I was once again immersed in a close-up world of “dewdrops” and the liquid effects generated from combining an ammonia-based liquid with massage oil.

    The first image was taken within minutes of spraying much of the table with the Windex; this accounts for the many bubbles seen floating atop the once-clear droplets of massage oil. The second image was the result of having made several swipes across the table with a paper towel and having left behind a thin layer of massage oil. When I again sprayed the Windex across the top of this thin layer of massage oil, more bubbles developed. At this point, I moved in much closer, as close as I could focus, in fact—which, once again, meant that I was able to record images that were 1.5X life size due to the smaller sensor size of the Nikon D300. Among the many photographs I made at this 1.5X size, this one in particular stood out as one of my favorites, and I now use it as a screen saver on my Mac. You’ll notice that, unlike the previous image, the background colors are not nearly as defined, and this has everything to do with my distance. Remember, the closer I focus, the farther away and less defined my background becomes, and that is, of course, the case here. The background of colored pencils may be easier to see in the first image, because my distance from the subject is greater. But again, because I was focused much closer in the second photograph, those same pencils are rendered as a wash of out-of-focus tones and hues.

Top: Nikon D300, Micro-Nikkor lens, f/11 for 1/250 sec.; bottom: Nikon D300, Micro-Nikkor lens, f/11 for 1/90 sec.