Water wonderful world! Photographer captures amazing images in a single droplet


These incredible images are little drops of magic - capturing iconic images within a single droplet of water.

Photographer Markus Reugels spends hundreds of hours painstakingly trying to capture the impressive and beautiful images.

Mr Reugels, from Schweinfurt, Germany, can spend weeks agonising over snapping the image just at the right moment - but the results are stunning.

The stuff of life: This image of the globe from space looks uncannily true to life when pictured through a droplet of water. Photographer Markus Reugels spends hundreds of hours painstakingly composing these shots. This image has been flipped upside down due to the reversing lens-like effects of the water droplet



Another world: This image of the moon is given incredible clarity seen through the natural lens created by dripping water. Mr Reugels began taking the photos after he saw similar ones posted on an online forum. This image has also been flipped

In one of his images, an image of the earth from space sits neatly inside the water droplet.

In another, the moon is brought into focus by a single drop of water, the flat image of the background distorted into a spherical result that appears uncannily true to life.

And in other humorous images, the Batman and Spiderman silhouettes are projected through the water.

The wealth of nations: This fleeting glimpse of a map of the world showing borders shows how the process can take flat images and make them look spherical

Stuck in the bath tub? The Spider-Man logo is reflected through a droplet. It can take up to 500 frames just to get one or two shots that are up to scratch, Mr Reugels says

Mr Reugels began his career as a family portrait photographer but began to take more artistic and adventurous images three years ago.

He said: 'My pictures of the water drops are all taken with my self made setup rig - all handmade out of wood.

'I fix all my valves and flashes tot he contraption, and can put the image I want to project behind the dripping water.

'Sometimes I take 500 pictures and only a couple of them are really perfect in my opinion.



Painstaking: The setup that Mr Reugels uses to capture the stunning images is pictured left. Mr Reugels, right, says there are almost countless factors that can influence the end result

'I start each series with a goal in my head, but every time is different, so you can plan much but usually it turns out differently.

'There are so many factors who will influence the result - the viscosity of the water ,the height of the drops, the nozzle size even the temperature of the water.