Frozen Bubbles, Take 2: Crystal Visions

A second cold morning in a row had me back out again, making more frozen bubble pictures. Ideal conditions would include very cold temperatures, no breeze, and good light. It was a few degrees colder than the day before (around 17 degrees F, or minus 8 C), the breeze was negligible, and the morning sun was golden in my eyes.

I stayed out for about 25 minutes, which is tough with bare hands. But frozen bubbles are a sticky mess, and I have not yet figured out how to do all of that and juggle a camera with gloves on. Making these pictures is a test of endurance, in a way: how long can you stay out before your fingers freeze off? (When I go back inside, I run warm water on my hands to bring them back to life, and boy, do they THROB!** Oh, the sacrifices I make for my Art!)  ;-)

My own personal method is to blow the bubble onto a round, plastic Christmas ball, which has been placed atop a little container to stabilize it. During the time I was out, I photographed a dozen or more bubbles in this manner. I snap a photo about every 5 to 10 seconds, from various angles. (Believe you me, with frigid, sticky hands, there is NO messing around with the camera settings! And you'll want to be sure you start out with a good battery.)

The bubble starts to form crystals within about 10 seconds. The photo above was taken at about 20 seconds, with half of the bubble full of crystals; I've found this to be about an ideal amount of crystals. At around a full minute, the bubble is completely frozen, and occluded, with the crystals no longer individualized and sparkling. It is also best to have the bubble between you and the good light, so that you are shooting through the crystals into the light.

A dark background, like I got in this shot above, makes for optimal contrast, and really sets the crystals off to their best advantage. As far as post-processing goes, you might want to amp up the brilliance, black point, saturation, and definition.

I did get a little breeze near the end of my photo shoot, and my bubble started to try to leave me. No, no, don't go! But then it snapped back into place, and continued building crystals that shone white and blue in the morning light. You may see that shot in the extras.

I hope that if you try this yourself, you have fun, keep your fingers warm somehow, and get some pretty pictures! My soundtrack song for these two images is this one: Tommy James and the Shondells, with Crystal Blue Persuasion.

**Bonus tip, added 2 days later: Also, after you come back inside and wash your hands and warm them up, put on some decent lotion, as your skin may become quite dry from being exposed to the extreme cold.