So Many Little Rings in the Strange Ring

Photo date: June 5, 2018. Photographer: Mark Mahin.

I took the photo below while photographing nothing but ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling against a dark background. We see one of the strange things I call an orb ring. Inside the orb ring we can see many tiny rings.

On this day I experienced again and again what I have experienced countless times before when photographing water drops: a kind of cloning effect in which I would see the same inexplicable feature showing up many times in the same photo. Here is one example. Note that five of the orbs have both a hole on their right top, and a smaller hole in their center bottom.

Here is another example: four orbs with a hole in the same place, with all holes the same size.