BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography

Subject: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 02:12 AM

A year ago when I was in Jasper, Alberta, I went to a photo exhibition at a local gallery. I had met the photographer on the train - Michael I've-forgotten-his-last-name-although-I-could-look-it-up was exhibiting some of his photos.

A unique and fascinating feature of his photography was that he used chunks of ice for his lenses. He gathered blocks of ice and kept them in his freezer until needed. He formed each lens through carving and warming it to shape. Each lens, he said, might last three or four hours depending on the temperature and its thickness.

It gave his photography a muted look that was almost dreamlike.

Another image that has stayed with me is what he does with ordinary soap bubbles. When the temperature is at 20 degrees or so he takes a bottle of soap bubble mixture outdoors. Each bubble freezes instantly and sometimes he catches it and puts it in a box that he can keep indefinitely in the freezer.

He said the bubbles don't stay clear, of course; freezing makes them cloud up.

Think I'll take some soap bubbles outdoors tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 06:56 AM

Phrooarrrr.... that sound amazing... Can you just not blow bubbles into your icebox?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 12:57 PM

No, Liz, she explained patiently. You'd have to climb in first.

:)

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 03:50 PM

How kewl! Will try this with the grandson,; he loves bubbles!

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 04:04 PM

If you could look up Michael's name, Ebbie, it might turn up on the net sometime.

Here's what came up with in flickr when I typed in ice + bubbles in the tags option.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 04:16 PM

His Name is Michael Wheeler

Take a look at some of his photos there.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Helen
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 04:30 PM

Matthew, not Michael. The memory plays tricks, eh, Ebbie. :-)

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 08:04 PM

hahahha. Sure does. I saw the name 'Matthew' but it didn't sink in.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 12:45 AM

I used gylcerine soap mixture for picture purposes. They do well even in a light rain.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 01:37 AM

Early laboratory microscopes consisted mainly of a tiny hollow tube. You dribbled oil (clear sperm oil was prefered for the first century) down the tube until a lens "happened" at the bottom end.

Some of these kind were still in a few pharmacy (drug store) "labs" when I was a kid, so they must have worked reasonably well, although the old town doc claimed they were the reason he learned to "cuss." (He probably used a stronger word with the older folk - I know that he knew a lot of them.)

A gallery in my area was touting a display for a guy who specialized in "pin hole pictures" recently. There appear to be several "names" in that field who are currently or recently active.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 02:29 AM

Did you guys take a look at Wheeler's photos? A very different effect than from pinhole.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Grab
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 09:53 AM

The ice lens thing is a nice idea. But I hate to point out that you could get exactly the same effect simply by screwing up the focus on your camera...

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 10:37 AM

Soft focus photography can be interesting. I have a very soft 50mm f0.95 uncoated lens on a Canon rangefinder. I just wish I could use it on an slr, so I could SEE what I was taking!

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Alba
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 12:55 PM

I really like the thought of this is how "ice" sees the world....**smile**

Thanks Ebbie
Love
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 01:59 PM

Thanks for telling us about this, Ebbie. I enjoyed the pictures, especially the one of two people walking on a highway.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 01:21 AM

I like the idea of the frozen soap bubbles! Here in the Washington DC area it probably won't go down to the low 20's for another month, so I have time to have a jar handy.

Your post reminded me of the time when I lived in Western NY, a few blocks from a lake that froze over every year (thick enough for ice-fishing and for small airplanes to land on). One of my favorite things was in spring when the ice cover began to melt, and it would break up into zillions of shiny, beautiful 3-inch "sculptures", where the sun had softened the edges into clear and interesting shapes and the wind would push these on shore into piles several feet thick. You could walk on these heaps of ice, and it sounded like tinkling crystal chandeliers. I would collect and bring home some of these frozen shapes to keep in my freezer to take out and look at later. Sometimes I would walk around looking through one. It never occurred to me to try to use them for photography.

Summer visitors from New York City would often wonder aloud "What do you DO here all winter!?!" Answer, "We watch the lake freeze ---- we watch the lake thaw....."

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 02:13 PM

lol, Linda. When put that way, it sounds very exciting.

I remember the same phenomenon happening in southern Michigan. When a wind storm would come along, the wind would push the breaking up ice on the surface of the small lakes and push them onto shore. After the storm was over, often the sun would come out creating amazing views through the clear ice.

Subject: RE: BS: Wintertime Bubble Photography
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 07:41 PM

And Linda,
in the Autumn, you watch the leaves fall, in the Summer, you watch water evaporate, and in the Spring, you watch paint dry,