I've been messing round for most of this afternoon trying my hand at photographing the ripple effect from a dripping tap. Some of the images came out quite well but I was really surprised by this one. I think a faster shutter speed would've helped sharpen the image up but I doubt if I'll ever be able to capture the flash reflection again. Shear luck that one.

Good catch with your camera, Caz. Must have taken a lot of patience and trials to catch. That would be really cool in a slow motion movie.

caz: amazing image! i don't think i've ever seen the reflexes in a water drop caught like this before, congratulations!

Excellent photo.

That's a one in a million shot right there.

Nice one Caz.

Assuming you're only lighting this with the flash, then the shutter speed isn't having any effect on the sharpness - it's all down to the duration of the flash. If you can control the power of the flash, then setting it to a lower power should make for a shorter flash duration.

Kevin

Thanks everyone. I must've taken fifty or so pictures over the space of a hour, changing the f-stops quite a lot to see how it affected the depth of field, but that drip was just good luck. I had the camera on a tripod and was using a remote control to trip the shutter and all the time watching the drip grow on the underside of the tap and hoping that I could hit the remote's button a the right moment. Lots of patience needed.
I will have to take a look and see if I can turn down the power of the flash. It's the built in one that comes with my 450D and stops me using any speed higher than one two-hundredth of a second which is a bit of a pain. I'll have to check the manual and see if a separate flash will let me increase the shutter speed.