A few weeks ago Angela Kelly became famous with her frozen bubble photographs (you can see her stunning bubble work here at https://www.facebook.com/AKellyImages). I was fascinated by her idea and wanted to try it out. You can see my results below.
Since we were in the midst of a single digit cold snap I thought this would be a fun way to get outside to take some pictures without having to venture too far from home. From my front porch actually. Seriously, it was REALLY cold outside.
The cool thing about freezing bubbles is that the crystals can form in various ways – the tricky part is getting good depth of field for the bubble and a nice blurred background.
Here’s what I did and what I learned…
I decided to blow my bubbles one at a time on my porch railing to try to control some of the variables (like how cold my fingers got) while I figured out the process. While this works, it doesn’t give the same “lightness of being” that you will see in Angela Kelly’s bubbles. I used a bubble solution made up of equal parts of Dawn dish detergent and water with some sugar thrown in. I’m not sure of the purpose of the sugar – maybe it thickens the mix, provides a way for the crystals to form, or just helps offset the absolutely disgusting taste of the dish detergent when you accidentally suck it into your mouth (don’t ask).
The first day, I had the bubble mix at room temperature when I went outside. Not good. It freezes pretty quickly into a slushy ice ball. I was also on my back porch which doesn’t get any sun so the bubbles had a grey appearance to them. I dropped my straw into the snow twice, sucked in some Dawn (and not in a “hey – great sunrise” kind of way), and had too small of an aperture so my neighbors shed was fairly visible in the background. I also forgot that bubbles are reflective so you could see both me and my house in the bubbles.
My subsequent attempts were better.
This time I put the bubble solution in the microwave and got it close to boiling and put the bowl into a second bowl with a paper towel in between for a little insulation. I went to the front porch which faces the sunrise so I had some nice light coming through the bubbles. I used a larger aperture so I got a nicer blurred background. I sucked in a little more detergent and it still tasted bad. I hoped that my new neighbors didn’t notice me since I’m relatively certain they couldn’t see the bubbles and it looked like I was pointing my camera at their house…
The crystals form from the base of the bubble because it’s sitting on the cold railing. It takes about 5 or 10 seconds for the bubble to cool enough to start freezing but once it starts it goes fast. The crystals will start small and feather-like and then grow bigger and faster. The above picture is a close up of the crystals forming at the base of the bubble as it sits in a pool of detergent.
Sometimes you get two bubbles like in the picture above. I struggled with getting the proper depth of field. It was so cold that my breath would fog my view finder and I had a hard time seeing exactly what I was getting so I just tried lots of different settings. I think my bubble solution has a bit too much detergent in it given the sort of “thick” appearance of the bubbles near the bottom and the swirls of liquid mid-bubble. Could be the pool of soap they are sitting in too. I think blowing them into the air would fix this.
This is a really fun and interesting way to get yourself outside on really cold mornings. You get a little fresh air, some science, some art, some cold fingers and, if you’re lucky, you get your mouth washed out before the day even begins! And remember to bring a bag of some sort outside with you that you can put your camera into before going back in the house so you don’t get condensation all over the inside of your gear.
If you decide to try your own frozen bubbles leave me a comment and let me know how it went.
Photo information: Canon 5D MkIII, 100mm macro lens, generally a high ISO (> 1600), a fast shutter speed (should have been faster), and a largish aperture (f/5.6 – f/9) which probably should have been around f/11 if I wasn’t so close to my neighbors…
Such interesting photography going on while I am still asleep in my warm bed! Great close-up of those ice crystals, and I really like the bubble igloo.