Brave New (Bubble) World

I've had a massive amount of fun this afternoon working on my Macro module. Inspired by pro-photographer Steve Hermitage's "Bubble Worlds" I set about creating my own....

Bubble World

The setup is really simple: a dish with very soapy water with black food dye added to it to get good colour contrast, a straw to blow bubbles in it, a flashgun and a macro lens.

The lighting was the hardest part, and it took me a few hours before I started getting the sort of thing I was looking for. The rainbow reflections are created by diffuse light, and Steve fired his flash through a soft box. I ran into difficulty with this because my Nikon SB600 can't be triggered off-camera without being slaved to the on-camera flash. The full frontal flash from the on-camera totally kills the rainbow reflections, so I had to use the SB600 on camera and angled to bounce off a diffuser. The problem this caused was that my bubbles were only lit from one side. The next time I do this I might try to rig up some reflectors. In addition to this I had to figure out the right combination of flash power/underexposure/aperture to get vibrant colours. It was frustrating because I could see it through the lens, I just couldn't capture it!


In the end I found a combination that worked with the setup. I blew hundreds of bubbles and had a whale of a time. I finally figured out the the most exciting bubble colour combinations come just when the bubble is getting ready to burst; the oil slides off the bubble surface into the liquid and then it pops. If you blow on the bubble with a straw it mixes the remaining oil with the black water and you get some gorgeous mixtures. The final image here was taken when there was virtually no oil left, just milliseconds before it popped.

A Bubble Moon perhaps?... Just before the bubble popped

In the end the battery ran out on my camera, if it wasn't for that I'd probably still be at it now. Grab some soapy water and a straw and give it a go! Although beware, huffing on bubbles with a straw does make you pretty light-headed.....

Making a splash

My latest assignment for my distance learning course is to capture 'Motion'. The brief has left me pretty uninspired - I have to take three shots of the same subject, one with motion blur, one where the action is frozen, and a panning shot. I can think of plenty of subjects that could produce an interesting picture for the first two shots, but don't lend themselves to panning. So for now I've decided to ignore the assignment and just take some motion pictures that I like....and that's what these shots are.

Armed with a bowl of water, a desklamp, and a dripping tap I took these shots with my Macro lens and my spiffy new flash. Using the flash and the desklamp I had enough light to push the exposure to 1/250, which was fast enough to freeze the action. After that it was just a case of taking enough shots to get lucky.....

I love the sharpness of this lens, and the results are some of my favourite shots in a long time. Is it just me or does this last one look a bit like an alien? It's like the Abyss but in my own kitchen... :o)

I'm no closer to finishing my assessment, but I am starting to really enjoy this topic. It's the most success I've had in the kitchen too!