I’ve really wanted to start blogging but I’ve been lacking ideas for subjects….so I thought, why not use some of my photography and tie it into the weather? In this case, we are currently in our coldest weather pattern in at least a few years! Lows have dipped down into the 20’s and teens for many areas in Western Washington. This morning at 8:30am, it was a balmy 20 degrees Farenheit in my backyard. The sun was just peeking through the trees so it was the perfect time to try some frozen bubble photography.

Obviously, you need sub-freezing temperatures to cause a bubble to freeze when it hits a cold surface. If it was REALLY cold, like, below 0 cold, the bubbles might even freeze in the air before they land. In Western Washington, temps in the 20’s and teens can be hard to come by. We usually need an arctic front, or cold air from the Fraser River Valley up in British Columbia. Add some cold winds, and that cold air gets pushed down into Western Washington, and boom, cold snap. For us, a cold snap usually means blue sky and sun, which can also be nice when you’re trying to do something like photograph frozen bubbles. A hint of sunshine can be just what you need to make the photo pop.

First off, while regular bubble solution will work, it’s ideal to create a mixture at home that is a little bit stronger. I tested this with regular bubble solution and the bubbles had a tendency to pop before they’d land, pop as they hit something, or pop mid-freeze. So, back inside I went, to make a new solution. It’s recommended that you use Dawn dish soap, water, and glycerin. I don’t have glycerin hanging around in my house, so I went for the next best thing I could think of, corn syrup. You want about 2 cups of water, a tablespoon of dish soap, and a tablespoon of corn syrup. You may have to adjust the ratios as needed. I ended up adding just a little bit more corn syrup in the end. It makes the walls of the bubbles a bit thicker and they tend to not pop as quickly. Any bubble blowing wand will work…good thing I had plenty handy thanks to my 3 year old. With the bubble solution finished, back outside I went.

At 20 degrees, it took about 50 seconds for the bubbles to freeze solid. I took a video that I am going to attempt to embed in this blog, if not I’ll link to the Facebook post that I shared it in.

This first image I took on the windshield of my car. The bubbles froze quickly here because the glass was already frosted and very cold.

Once the sun fell onto the snow in my backyard, I went back there to grab some images with sunlight on them. I loved how the light reflected off the bubble in this image.

My camera had a really hard time focusing on the fine detail on the bubble itself, but I still liked how this image came out. You can see the tiny holes on the top, which further prove that the bubble is, in fact, frozen!

This final image is actually my favorite out of the bunch. The bubble in this shot is no larger than the top of a pencil eraser, resting on a vine. I had to pull out my 10x magnification Diopter filter to grab this image. The sun was just the right touch to make this look really nice.

All in all, this is a really fun project. You don’t necessarily need a fancy camera to do this, a point and shoot would work just fine as well. Having a macro mode for smaller bubbles could help in some cases like the last image I posted. Kids enjoy watching the bubbles freeze, and popping them is almost more fun than popping regular bubbles, because you can see it happen!

To see more of my photography, please visit: JB Hawkins Photography