Tag: Ice Crystals

Last Bubble Of The Season

We may still get snow. Maybe even some ice. Considering the weather this last year, either wouldn’t surprise me at all. What we won’t be seeing again, or at least I hope we won’t as green things are starting to poke out of the ground, are the crazy low temps required for me to be able to attempt another round of frozen bubble photos this season. That isn’t a bad thing and I’m so not complaining about that at all.

It would be nice if I didn’t have to bump up the temperature in the house just to be able to go work in the basement without needing 5 layers of clothes. Or work in the garage without the risk of frostbite.

I had planned on being able to do some of my work from the garage, but there has been no way to spend more than the 20 seconds it takes to run in there to grab something before sprinting back into the house because it has been so cold. Even on the warmer days, it isn’t comfortable for more than a few minutes.

My basement space has now become a full on tool shop. I think almost every single tool we own is now crowding up what little space was open in the basement, which is going to make working a little interesting. At least I’m not constantly running up and down the stairs all day.

Oh So Flaky!

I wasn’t going to go out. It was still stupidly cold. But… it was flurrying a bit and those flakes were the perfect kind to try and get actual snowflakes and the sun was out a bit and… of course I went out.

It really was kind of perfect conditions to get snowflake shots. The snow was so light and fluffy, I could scoop some of it up and still maintain the flake shapes. That kind of snow isn’t all that common here as our tends to be more wet and sticky.

I froze my butt and my fingers off, but dammit! I got snowflake pictures!

 

Visit From Jack Frost

Under normal circumstances, there isn’t any glass in this house that manages to form ice crystals. Mostly because everything is well insulated and the indoor temps are just too much for the ice to overcome.

Apparently that isn’t the case today with our front glass storm door.

I think it must be in part because Hubby was in and out of that door last night causing it to fog up when he was going to shovel the driveway and it just never got warmed back up after that. Whatever it was, when I went to open it this morning to look out front, there was no seeing out front. Just seeing an iced over door with a load of really pretty ice crystals clustering at the bottom.

Considering the thermometer was registering -9 this morning, it really isn’t all that surprising. Thankfully, we have finally broken back into the positive digits for the first time in more than 24 hours.

So far, we’ve been really lucky and haven’t been hit by any of the rolling blackouts that were a potential around here. I have a friend in another state that got hit by one that was only supposed to last maybe 30 minutes and was without power for over 2 hours and ended up with a frozen water pipe. And that was only one of the MANY times she ended up without power yesterday.

Our downtown voluntarily went dark for the night and almost every school in the area is closed today, even for virtual, both because of the weather and in an effort to not put a strain on the power grid. It’s kind of wild what’s going on right now.

I hope you all are staying in, staying safe, and staying warm where it is cold!

Frozen Soap Bubble

Yesterday’s attempt at getting some frozen bubble shots was pretty successful and I learned a few new things.

One of the bigger things is that I really need to be wearing my reading glasses when I’m taking photos anymore. I struggle more and more often to see if I’m actually in focus or I have to rely on the autofocus, which doesn’t always give me what I want. This is especially true if I’m using my viewing screen to frame my shot. Wearing glasses is still a long way from perfect or even from where I used to be, but it gets me a whole lot closer than I’ve been getting lately.

When it comes to doing the bubble photos, I’ve also learned that the angle you take these from is critically important and I don’t always get that right. One is the fact that you have to have the light hit it in a way to bring contrast to those crystal structures or you just don’t see them well.

The other issue on angle is the fact that these are transparent and as they freeze, you will get the crystal structures on the back overlapping with the ones on the front, which can make the whole thing look blurry. Many of the ones I tried to take yesterday didn’t look that great once they were fully frozen, but the partially frozen ones looked great. So you have to be at an angle to get the crystal structures to pop, but mainly the ones only on the front side of the bubble, which can be really tricky.

I also learned that I pulled off some of my best images from the videos I tried, but those files aren’t nearly as good a quality as a normal photo, so that is a good and a bad thing.

There are several really good ones I want to share over the next couple of days, but this one is probably one of my favorites (though I do have a few that come close for different reasons). This one is up there because it is one of the best at really showcasing those crystal patterns as they begin to form.

In some ways, I wish we had more days where I could practice, but… nope! It has to be way too cold to play, so I think I’ll be good with the once or twice a year opportunities.

New Year’s Snow

We are getting a really heavy snow storm today. Heavy for us anyway.

Even better, it seems to be on the dryer side so that means I get some detail on the flakes. These aren’t the really detailed crystalline flakes. These are more spiky, sharp flakes, but they are still cool to look at up close.

This is all great for photos, but it also kind of sucks because I’ve now had to cancel an appointment for a second Covid test. Still incredibly doubtful that’s what I’ve got, but the doctor wanted to be absolutely sure, especially since BG started doing her cough thing and that is what changed mine. She was also supposed to get one, so she is thrilled she doesn’t have to get a brain jab.

Not really sure where the timeline break is to no longer test positive if you had it, but I’m going to have to try and figure out how and when to reschedule since the guys will be back to work on the craft room on Monday and I’ll have to try and work around them a bit.

But hey! I finally got some snow, so I AM happy about that.

Frozen Bubbles

I first experimented with taking photos of frozen bubbles last year. At the time, I was somewhat pleased by the results, especially because I’d never done it before. But, I didn’t have my macro lens yet so what I got wasn’t actually all that good. When I went to play again the other day and seeing the images on my tiny camera screen or on my phone, I didn’t think these were going to come out all that much better. Until I got them on my computer. Dang! What a world of difference!

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