A lot of photographs of moving water use a long exposure to bring out the silky smoothness of the flow.  Here for instance, the exposure was .6 sec.  That’s pretty long for a normal exposure.

This one was even longer at 1.6 sec.

We’re used to seeing nice smooth flow.  That is a trick of the camera and also of  our brains.  We interpret the scene as smoothly flowing.   Photographing water up close and at more normal photographic exposures shows something quite different:

Dimples.  This is a function of surface tension.  Once again, enter a different world than the one we think we inhabit.

Most of these pictures were shot at 1/100 sec. or faster and a  different picture emerges.

That looks like a hole in the water.

Would you expect to see something like that?  I wouldn’t have.

Surface tension.

When I see this, I wonder what else we are missing.  It’s all right there in front of us.  All we need to do is look with a camera.  And wonder.