More Frozen Soap Bubbles

We are having some more cold days, so this is giving me the chance to try some frozen soap bubble pictures again. My goal this time was to take them in  the air and hopefully catch one bursting. It's interesting watching the process the bubbles go through as they freeze and burst. The recipe I used calls for 6 cups water, 1 cup corn syrup, and 2 cups regular Joy dish soap. I cut this into fourths, so my recipe is: 1 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup corn syrup, and 1/2 cup soap (I used Sunlight). This worked much better than the commercial bubble mixture you buy in the store. These were much stronger, and did not burst as quickly in the air. However, they burst quite quickly when they touched something.

The first three pictures show the process. This first picture is right at the start when the bubble is beginning to freeze. You can see the beginning of frost spots.

The same bubble then burst. You can still see the outline of the air that was in the bubble.

You can also see the fragments of ice as it explodes. These three pictures were all of the same bubble, taken one after the other.

The next bubbles give a clearer picture of ice forming on the bubble.

Sometimes the sun started to melt the bubble before it burst. As you can see in this next picture, this bubble is starting to collapse and actually has a hole in it.

The last one is probably one of my favourites. You can see the ice starting to form on the bubble, and the bubble is still clear enough that it has the reflection of the porch in it. There is only one porch railing, but it is reflected in the bubble twice.

Isn't it interesting how God has made frost, and the way it works?

Winter in West Guilford

This has been quite the winter here in West Guilford. It seems we just keep getting more and more snow. We weren't hit too hard for the ice storm - just enough to make the trees look pretty, but we certainly have lots of snow.

 Since the snow has come so much heavier this year, we have had to have the roof cleaned off twice already. Our neighbours have all been shovelling too.

Our travel trailer is well covered, as well as the boat. It has been very beautiful.

The deep snow has made it harder for the deer. They have eaten a lot of the lower branches of our cedar trees and bushes. We often see them when we are out walking, or when we look at a window. This isn't usual, especially at this time of year. We don't usually see much of them until closer to March.

  

The lake is frozen pretty good now, and the fishermen are taking advantage of this. We have about 8 ice huts out on our lake. 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Frozen Soap Bubbles

I recently saw something on the internet that was interesting - frozen soap bubbles, so I decided to try it myself. I used the regular soap bubble liquid that you can buy in the store, and waited for a cold day. I believe it was below -10 degrees celsius. It wasn't easy. The soap bubbles often broke as soon as they touched something. I cooled the liquid down and this seemed to help, until the liquid might have been too cold to work properly.

This first picture is of the soap bubble sitting on the wand. You can see that it is frozen, and actually has a dent in it at the top (something you wouldn't see on a regular bubble).

You can see the frost in this next bubble. It was sitting on the snow.

Several of them stuck together, and you can see a "deflating" one in the background. I think at this point, I was also fascinated with how the snow looked when I took the photo.

It was interesting seeing how they looked when they were deflating a bit. 

My husband blew some bubbles into the air for me to take some photos. Often they would shatter, not like a regular soap bubble burst, but shatter with bits of ice breaking up. I wasn't able to catch a photo of this, but in this next photo, you can see that a bubble is shattering above this one.

I think this next one is my favourite. In this one, I kept the blue colour tint in it, instead of fixing it in Camera Raw, and I like it this way. It gives you a real chance to see the frozen ball. 

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him,

Speak of all His wonders.

1 Chronicles 16:9

Seashells

Last week I was experimenting with my 50mm lens again. My Dad had some seashells he and my Mom had collected when they were in Florida, so I thought they would make some good objects to photograph. I decided to try it with a wide aperture setting (f1.4) just so I could see the effects of it. I also used backlighting from a window.

I set my exposure on the bright side, which added to the photo.

And finally, for this one, I added a layer of colour and set the style of the layer to overlay. It changes the look of the photo.

There are so many different kinds of seashells, and I don't know what each type is or their names, but I can appreciate their beauty. God could have made a world that wasn't interesting or beautiful, but He did make it beautiful and we can enjoy it.

And God saw all that He had made, 

and behold, it was very good ...

Genesis 1:31(a)