first of all its hard to explain this one.
water drop particle only shown as blinking if its in-front of foot and shown normally drop if its in-front of player camera (doesn't show up if its up to 2 block far)

sorry no screenshot for blinking particle effect cause its impossible to take screenshot. its only shown for 0.5 sec
screenshot below is in-front player camera and im standing beside the wet sponge

btw im on high setting