Phyllis,
Its not so hard to get good water drops. I use a little thing designed for giving people eye drops so I can release a single drop of water quite precisely. Just have the camera ready (pre focused with a half shutter press) and fire when the drop drops. You can then alter the height you are dropping from to get different stages of the impact.
The most tricky part (for me) is to drop in the right place and to get enough dof so that the drops are nicely in focus.
I often use reflective things to try and get more light on the situation (e.g a cd in the pool of water or tin foil to reflect more flash onto the scene). Also just tried milk for the first time which behaves quite differently.
http://www.pbase.com/keiththomson/drops