253 - Bubble(s) - April 15-21, 2018
Kevin-
The theme felt essential. Recently Palm Springs feels a little like it has been taken over by some kind of giant bubble machine or machines. Now to be clear there is no real harm in them. And these bubbles do have benefits. For example if one impacts your car it pops and does a half decent job of washing the vehicle. The same thing applies to your hair, or your pets. And kids love it when a bunch of these enormous bubbles land in the pool they are splashing around in. The problem is that no one knows the source of these almost sky-filling bubbles. There is plenty of speculation of course. Are they drifting up from the music festival at Coachella as some odd replacement for traditional beer, drugs and sex of a music festival? Is this previewing the Marilyn Monroe sculpture that is coming back in to Palm Springs in 2020 by hinting at the deleted bubble-bath scene with Marilyn from The Seven Year Itch, much like the initial sculpture display hinted that giant Marilyn would be back permanently? Or is this simply an ongoing promotion by a something like a restaurant or Native American casino that is overstaying it’s welcome? Regardless I felt that the bubbles should be photographed before it’s too late. I spent about an hour photographing them as the blew in every conceivable direction, and then spent more time cleaning lenses, filters and other camera equipment that bubbles splashed on as they popped.
Nikon D850, mounted to a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead and using a Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 zoom lens set to 48mm, ISO 400, 1/1000th of a second at f/11.
The theme felt essential. Recently Palm Springs feels a little like it has been taken over by some kind of giant bubble machine or machines. Now to be clear there is no real harm in them. And these bubbles do have benefits. For example if one impacts your car it pops and does a half decent job of washing the vehicle. The same thing applies to your hair, or your pets. And kids love it when a bunch of these enormous bubbles land in the pool they are splashing around in. The problem is that no one knows the source of these almost sky-filling bubbles. There is plenty of speculation of course. Are they drifting up from the music festival at Coachella as some odd replacement for traditional beer, drugs and sex of a music festival? Is this previewing the Marilyn Monroe sculpture that is coming back in to Palm Springs in 2020 by hinting at the deleted bubble-bath scene with Marilyn from The Seven Year Itch, much like the initial sculpture display hinted that giant Marilyn would be back permanently? Or is this simply an ongoing promotion by a something like a restaurant or Native American casino that is overstaying it’s welcome? Regardless I felt that the bubbles should be photographed before it’s too late. I spent about an hour photographing them as the blew in every conceivable direction, and then spent more time cleaning lenses, filters and other camera equipment that bubbles splashed on as they popped.
Nikon D850, mounted to a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead and using a Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 zoom lens set to 48mm, ISO 400, 1/1000th of a second at f/11.
Paul-
This is getting up and personal with a near-solid sphere of blown glass about 4” in diameter. I bought it about 15 years ago while on business in Seattle and gave it to my daughter who was of an age at that time where bring presents back from the road was mandatory.
The globe is a light rose color which I think is imparted to glass by the addition of manganese during the firing process. The artist in this case choose to leave in a flowering of internal bubbles (which, in turn, contain smaller collections of bubbles). ‘Probably an intolerable thing for use at a séance, but it made for a nice picture in this context.
I included a quick sketch of how I set this up—mostly because it was a pleasant break from things I have to do today that are no fun at all. (Ignore the Diet Coke and spelling errors.) I put the globe directly on the open circle at the middle of my ring light and set it at its brightest illumination. The result was a very unsatisfactory washed-out color. So I had a brilliant idea (a rare event, but it happened a couple of times back in the 1980’s). I took a red (25A) filter and placed it between the glass and the ring light. The whole thing went in a light tent with black illustration board at the back as well as some at the top of the tent to cut down on the light bouncing back. Shooting down at about 45° above the midpoint of the globe seem to give the best effect.
I decided not to clean up all the inclusions, scratches, and tiny abrasions. It didn’t seem important.
Avoiding (bubble) gumming up the whole thing: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 40mm; ISO 1000; 1/6 sec at f/8; -1/3EV; Auto WB; and matrix metering. The camera was mounted on a tripod. Most post-work was done in Lightroom 4. (For the first time I used it’s “Defringing” feature which provided a nice definition to the shape.) I also used PhotoScape for its Auto-Balance option to get the globe from looking too muddy and the “Deepness” option to make the tones appear a bit richer.
Yeah, I could have bumped up the ISO to cut the exposure time, but I feel I have been shooting at relatively higher ISO's too much lately…and the tripod didn’t seem to mind.
This is getting up and personal with a near-solid sphere of blown glass about 4” in diameter. I bought it about 15 years ago while on business in Seattle and gave it to my daughter who was of an age at that time where bring presents back from the road was mandatory.
The globe is a light rose color which I think is imparted to glass by the addition of manganese during the firing process. The artist in this case choose to leave in a flowering of internal bubbles (which, in turn, contain smaller collections of bubbles). ‘Probably an intolerable thing for use at a séance, but it made for a nice picture in this context.
I included a quick sketch of how I set this up—mostly because it was a pleasant break from things I have to do today that are no fun at all. (Ignore the Diet Coke and spelling errors.) I put the globe directly on the open circle at the middle of my ring light and set it at its brightest illumination. The result was a very unsatisfactory washed-out color. So I had a brilliant idea (a rare event, but it happened a couple of times back in the 1980’s). I took a red (25A) filter and placed it between the glass and the ring light. The whole thing went in a light tent with black illustration board at the back as well as some at the top of the tent to cut down on the light bouncing back. Shooting down at about 45° above the midpoint of the globe seem to give the best effect.
I decided not to clean up all the inclusions, scratches, and tiny abrasions. It didn’t seem important.
Avoiding (bubble) gumming up the whole thing: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 40mm; ISO 1000; 1/6 sec at f/8; -1/3EV; Auto WB; and matrix metering. The camera was mounted on a tripod. Most post-work was done in Lightroom 4. (For the first time I used it’s “Defringing” feature which provided a nice definition to the shape.) I also used PhotoScape for its Auto-Balance option to get the globe from looking too muddy and the “Deepness” option to make the tones appear a bit richer.
Yeah, I could have bumped up the ISO to cut the exposure time, but I feel I have been shooting at relatively higher ISO's too much lately…and the tripod didn’t seem to mind.
Jerry-
I started by taking photos of beer bubbles, then moved to bacon bubbles, and finally ended up in the kitchen sink with Bubbles, the Panda duckie floating in a sea of bubbles. I used the Nikon D750 with 105 Micro Nikkor set to 1/125 @ f16, ISO 6400. Light was from the window over the sink, coming from the north of course!
I started by taking photos of beer bubbles, then moved to bacon bubbles, and finally ended up in the kitchen sink with Bubbles, the Panda duckie floating in a sea of bubbles. I used the Nikon D750 with 105 Micro Nikkor set to 1/125 @ f16, ISO 6400. Light was from the window over the sink, coming from the north of course!
Don-
Bubble machine at work
Focal 24-70mm 2.8 Lens @ 24mm
Exposure 1/6th second; f6.3; ISO100; Pattern metering.
Tripod mounted
Bubble machine at work
Focal 24-70mm 2.8 Lens @ 24mm
Exposure 1/6th second; f6.3; ISO100; Pattern metering.
Tripod mounted
Elroy-
I am traveling to Iowa and found this sign in Tucumcari NM. The store was closed. This was taken with my iPhone 5s at 6:00 pm after a rain storm had moved on.
I am traveling to Iowa and found this sign in Tucumcari NM. The store was closed. This was taken with my iPhone 5s at 6:00 pm after a rain storm had moved on.
Byron-
When I was a young man, early teens, I hated an hour every Saturday night. That hour was when my Dad had to watch The Lawrence Welk Show. Even though I thought that was the dumbest show ever, some aspects of it have stuck with me. One aspect is that bubbles and dancing go together. I used one of my M&M dispensers along with a backstage assistant producing the bubbles. I found a device that looks like a squirt gun but it has 5 bubble producing tips with a fan behind them. You dip the tips, pull the trigger to start the fan, and you get lots of bubbles. I used a flash shooting into an umbrella on each side so the surface of the bubbles would reflect light instead of being invisible.
ISO 200, 50mm lens, f8, 1/100 sec
When I was a young man, early teens, I hated an hour every Saturday night. That hour was when my Dad had to watch The Lawrence Welk Show. Even though I thought that was the dumbest show ever, some aspects of it have stuck with me. One aspect is that bubbles and dancing go together. I used one of my M&M dispensers along with a backstage assistant producing the bubbles. I found a device that looks like a squirt gun but it has 5 bubble producing tips with a fan behind them. You dip the tips, pull the trigger to start the fan, and you get lots of bubbles. I used a flash shooting into an umbrella on each side so the surface of the bubbles would reflect light instead of being invisible.
ISO 200, 50mm lens, f8, 1/100 sec
Darin-
I've got a big ride tomorrow, so I guess I better clean a bottle.
Shot with the Nikon D-40 and the 18-55 lens. I was still wearing my cycling kit from my ride earlier. No shoes were worn at the time of the photo. Helmetless.
I've got a big ride tomorrow, so I guess I better clean a bottle.
Shot with the Nikon D-40 and the 18-55 lens. I was still wearing my cycling kit from my ride earlier. No shoes were worn at the time of the photo. Helmetless.