Blowin’ Bubbles and Bubbles ain’t a Person

This damned cold weather is keeping me cooped up inside and I need to find more ways to keep myself busy, lest I rot on a couch.  I tried out some other macro photography this weekend. This time it was images of bubbles floating on a piece of glass.  However, it was not quite the effect that I was looking for as the lighting proved to be difficult.  A soap bubble acts like a 180 degree mirror and regular lights would show up as white dots and nearby objects and the room are reflected in the bubble.  I attempted to circumvent these difficulties by creating a setup that would use a diffused lighting source and the camera had to be a few meters away so it would not to be reflected in the bubble.

My setup consisted of an 8″x10″ glass plate placed on top of a black cloth, a light tent raised about 12cm on top of some books and an off-camera flash bounced inside the light tent.  The camera was aimed under the gap between the light tent and the table.  I had to use a close focusing telephoto so the camera was not too close to be obviously reflected in the bubble.  These shots were taken in a darkened room.

Now I need some sunny and warmer weather so I can get my butt outside and do some street photography!

Taken with a Pentax K-5 and a cheap vintage film era Cosmicar 70-200 f/4 zoom lens.  You can see this lens is not the highest quality for close up shots.

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