Bubbles

A week or so ago I was enjoying a gin and tonic in an airline lounge while waiting for a flight and, feeling contemplative, was staring into the glass watching the bubbles clinging to the lemon wedge nestled between the ice - it gave me the idea of trying to see what I might be able to photograph using bubbles and this is what I got.

They're not great, there were issues, but it as enough to pique my interest and I'll give it another try at some later date. I thought to share these though, and explain what went wrong.

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The number one thing that went wrong was that I'm a shit photographer, I'm getting that out there first up. But there were other issues as well.

I had it in mind to have really crisp white images with the pop of colour coming from the berries but I didn't count on colour coming out of the berries, particularly the blackberry, so there's a tinge to the water. You may note some reddish lines below that berry which is the colour trailing down through the water I thought that looked cool and will experiment with that a little more, but I wanted clear water and didn't get it. Note to self, don't start with the blackberry in the water, do that last.

I also had the issue of the berries (and bubbles) moving.

The bubbles would form on the berries and as they did the berry would become more buoyant on one side or the other and it'd move, always at the wrong moment. This made for some very blurry images, but I persisted. I had to shoot at a fast shutter speed also to avoid the blurring effect of the bubbles coming up off the bottom of the glass. Just on that glass, it's not the right thing for shooting this sort of thing, but was the only clear (non patterned/etched) glass I had.

I found a lemon which I thought I'd try out also...it wasn't the best lemon I'd ever seen in my life, but was all I had so it got used. There's a few marks on its skin which I don't like and next time I do this I'll find a better lemon. These two shots below are all I got out of about twenty I took; sort of ok for a knucklehead like me I guess.

I wasn't really prepared for this shoot...I only had one small bottle of soda water and the berries were frozen ones which was not ideal. The lemon was sub-standard too. It gave me a taste of what to expect though, I learned something, and next time I'll make sure I have the right things. With fresh berries, or other fruits, it'll come out much better as there will be more definition and detail in the actual fruit which will (I think) balance out the shots better between the interest of the bubbles and fruit.

That's it though and as always you are invited to comment if you'd like.