The "Polar Vortex" is bringing some cold weather our way again. A few weeks ago, the last time we saw the polar air blowing south, we had just read about a woman in Washington State who was curious what happens to soap bubbles in cold weather, and who happens also to be an amazing photographer.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, according to Charles Caleb Colton. But really, most of the great things in our life are derivative -- was our favorite author the first person to write a book? Our favorite songwriter ignorant of the tradition that went before? So I prefer to think of our frozen bubbles as North Guilford, Connecticut's version of the famous Washington Bubbles.
Anyway - Amy is our expert bubble blower. Even though the temperature was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the bubbles did not freeze immediately. The early morning reflections were wonderful on the still-liquid bubbles.
But soon the bubbles did freeze, and started to form faint crystalline patterns visible with the light of the rising sun behind them.
When the bubbles broke, they didn't shatter as I would have expected; instead they had a kind of soft plastic consistency.
The autofocus on my camera was unable to focus on the bubbles, as if the bubbles were half in another dimension. So I had the opportunity to practice the old-fashioned skill of manually focusing camera shots of evanescent subjects. (The modern digital media does make manually focusing a lot easier, of course; you just keep snapping the shutter and figure you'll sort through the photographs later to find those that are in focus.)
This picture is my favorite - you can see the color of the morning sun, and the ice crystals forming on the surface of the bubble.
Our frozen bubble play was quite fun, and also quite cold on the fingers. We took 10 minutes to thaw before heading off to work.
To give genius its due, I urge you to take a look at the photos that inspired us to blow our own bubbles.
