Assorted frozen bubbles

I thought it was time to upload a few pictures of my second favorite hobby again.

It’s winter here in Sweden at that means that, when the temperature drops under a minus 15 degrees Celsius, you wills find me outside trying to catch the beauty of soap bubbles that are freezing while in the air.

Some people asked me how it is done and here is the short explanation. Lower than a minus 15 degrees, no wind, sunshine, a camera with a good and fast autofocus, patience and a lot of luck.

“Spray and pray” which means that you just take a lot of pictures and hope that some are good is the key.

In my opinion you get the best results when the bubble is in the freezing process and in a near angle to the sun. My autofocus is not able to focus on the bubble when the sun is directly behind it. It’s basically a lot of trial and error.

I use common soap bubble fluid, sometimes I add a little sugar. That makes them a bit more stable, but it has an effect an the clearness of the bubble.

Depending on how low the temperature is, it might be necessary that the temperature of the fluid adapts a little to the temperature outside. That means that you gave to stay outside for a while. It is not usual that the first bubble freezes very fast and beautiful… quite like pancakes, the first one us not going to make it.

After a while the fluid is going to be to cold and the bubbles might freeze to fast to take pictures. You can just change fluid and start all over again, all day long.

And one thing is for sure… sooner or later the bubble bursts and the beauty is gone.

All pictures taken with my Canon 70d