Bubbles
I don't have specific subjects I like to photograph. I just drag the camera along and snap whatever is in front of my lens. People are always good (but also the most difficult). Besides that, I did have the lightning obsession a few years back...
That subsided when my vantage point disappeared. I could still shoot lightning if I wanted to, but in much more dangerous conditions (outside without good shelter in the open field... not a good idea for an amateur)...
Then there are of course the group portraits I like to join in...
And although I wouldn't call it an obsession (yet) I did recently (since a few years back) acquire an interest in a new subject: soap bubbles.
...
It happened after discovering a square (actually it is round, but not sure how to call that) in Putrajaya, where every Sunday evening Malaysians hang out with their kids, relaxing, chatting, walking, sitting... just 'hanging'. For the kids the big thing are the vendors that sell the necessary fluid and equipment to blow soap bubbles. It's also fun to see the kids enjoy it and to see the humanity in their behaviour: they like to destroy what they create. Some kids are more one-sided: either they only like to create and watch it float away, or they only like to destroy: smash the bubbles of the creators. And some kids do both... create, then run after it and destroy.
You can still see the drops of the destroyed bubble...Of course there's more groups: the children that just sit and watch the creators and the destroyers, or those that don't care about bubbles at all and rather speed...
Electrified... don't worry, she didn't go that fast...And if the kids are too small to create their own bubbles, sometimes the parents become the creators...
Dad being the creator...So on a regular basis I now try to shoot the perfect soap bubble. If there's kids in the shot, that's mostly a coincidence... I'm focusing on the bubbles.
And that's where the trouble starts...
Because the problem with the soap bubble, from a photography point of view, is exactly that: the focus.
First of all, as we all know, bubbles float. And most of the time they float too fast. Manually focusing on a moving subject isn't easy (note that I'm not using an automated camera, but some old technology invented somewhere early 1900). The second problem - that I still haven't solved: when the bubble comes close (for that perfect shot), when is it actually in focus, if the plane of focus (I'm shooting usually at a very low aperture) is smaller than the diameter of the see through bubble? Do you focus on the edges? On the reflection within the bubble? And that all in a split second? Of course, I could go f/5.6 or so (to capture the total bubble within the then much larger plane of focus), but in the evening, with not much light, that's not really an option. Besides, that won't give the more spectacular shot I'm after: a separated soap bubble. Separated from the background that is. So in low light a higher aperture is a blurry bubble, or a very noisy one if I up the ISO too much. Then consider, there's multiple reflections within the bubble. That's what attracts me the most: they reflect the surroundings, twice. One up, one down - probably the front and the back of the bubble. Which means there's two options if I would focus on the reflection. So... most of the time I just 'try' to focus and hope for the best.
Then there's additional problems: for a good reflection, the bubble needs to be perfectly round. Out of shape and the reflection becomes warped. And there's different kind of bubbles: small and big, but also clear or more oily. The clear ones are usually not that interesting.
Boring bubble...For the snippet photo I used a more oily one.
...
You can probably imagine by now that 'the perfect bubble' will also be 'a lucky shot'...
I'll post it here if I ever manage...
Leica M9 and Leica M-D with Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4
Malaysia - 2011, 2017 and 2022
I don't have specific subjects I like to photograph. I just drag the camera along and snap whatever is in front of my lens. People are always good (but also the most difficult). Besides that, I did have the lightning obsession a few years back...
That subsided when my vantage point disappeared. I could still shoot lightning if I wanted to, but in much more dangerous conditions (outside without good shelter in the open field... not a good idea for an amateur)...
Then there are of course the group portraits I like to join in...
And although I wouldn't call it an obsession (yet) I did recently (since a few years back) acquire an interest in a new subject: soap bubbles.
...
It happened after discovering a square (actually it is round, but not sure how to call that) in Putrajaya, where every Sunday evening Malaysians hang out with their kids, relaxing, chatting, walking, sitting... just 'hanging'. For the kids the big thing are the vendors that sell the necessary fluid and equipment to blow soap bubbles. It's also fun to see the kids enjoy it and to see the humanity in their behaviour: they like to destroy what they create. Some kids are more one-sided: either they only like to create and watch it float away, or they only like to destroy: smash the bubbles of the creators. And some kids do both... create, then run after it and destroy.
You can still see the drops of the destroyed bubble...
Of course there's more groups: the children that just sit and watch the creators and the destroyers, or those that don't care about bubbles at all and rather speed...
Electrified... don't worry, she didn't go that fast...
And if the kids are too small to create their own bubbles, sometimes the parents become the creators...
Dad being the creator...
So on a regular basis I now try to shoot the perfect soap bubble. If there's kids in the shot, that's mostly a coincidence... I'm focusing on the bubbles.
And that's where the trouble starts...
Because the problem with the soap bubble, from a photography point of view, is exactly that: the focus.
First of all, as we all know, bubbles float. And most of the time they float too fast. Manually focusing on a moving subject isn't easy (note that I'm not using an automated camera, but some old technology invented somewhere early 1900). The second problem - that I still haven't solved: when the bubble comes close (for that perfect shot), when is it actually in focus, if the plane of focus (I'm shooting usually at a very low aperture) is smaller than the diameter of the see through bubble? Do you focus on the edges? On the reflection within the bubble? And that all in a split second? Of course, I could go f/5.6 or so (to capture the total bubble within the then much larger plane of focus), but in the evening, with not much light, that's not really an option. Besides, that won't give the more spectacular shot I'm after: a separated soap bubble. Separated from the background that is. So in low light a higher aperture is a blurry bubble, or a very noisy one if I up the ISO too much. Then consider, there's multiple reflections within the bubble. That's what attracts me the most: they reflect the surroundings, twice. One up, one down - probably the front and the back of the bubble. Which means there's two options if I would focus on the reflection. So... most of the time I just 'try' to focus and hope for the best.
Then there's additional problems: for a good reflection, the bubble needs to be perfectly round. Out of shape and the reflection becomes warped. And there's different kind of bubbles: small and big, but also clear or more oily. The clear ones are usually not that interesting.
And that's where the trouble starts...
Because the problem with the soap bubble, from a photography point of view, is exactly that: the focus.
First of all, as we all know, bubbles float. And most of the time they float too fast. Manually focusing on a moving subject isn't easy (note that I'm not using an automated camera, but some old technology invented somewhere early 1900). The second problem - that I still haven't solved: when the bubble comes close (for that perfect shot), when is it actually in focus, if the plane of focus (I'm shooting usually at a very low aperture) is smaller than the diameter of the see through bubble? Do you focus on the edges? On the reflection within the bubble? And that all in a split second? Of course, I could go f/5.6 or so (to capture the total bubble within the then much larger plane of focus), but in the evening, with not much light, that's not really an option. Besides, that won't give the more spectacular shot I'm after: a separated soap bubble. Separated from the background that is. So in low light a higher aperture is a blurry bubble, or a very noisy one if I up the ISO too much. Then consider, there's multiple reflections within the bubble. That's what attracts me the most: they reflect the surroundings, twice. One up, one down - probably the front and the back of the bubble. Which means there's two options if I would focus on the reflection. So... most of the time I just 'try' to focus and hope for the best.
Then there's additional problems: for a good reflection, the bubble needs to be perfectly round. Out of shape and the reflection becomes warped. And there's different kind of bubbles: small and big, but also clear or more oily. The clear ones are usually not that interesting.
Boring bubble...
For the snippet photo I used a more oily one.
...
You can probably imagine by now that 'the perfect bubble' will also be 'a lucky shot'...
I'll post it here if I ever manage...
Leica M9 and Leica M-D with Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4
Malaysia - 2011, 2017 and 2022
I'll post it here if I ever manage...
Leica M9 and Leica M-D with Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4
Malaysia - 2011, 2017 and 2022