Bubbles

One of my favorite aspects of winter is that it has a knack for turning the ordinary into something extraordinary – a puddle of water or even a glass window can morph into a fascinating world of textures and patterns when frozen – if you take the time to be curious and investigate.

While wandering the shore of an unassuming local pond one winter morning, I was on the hunt for overlooked details in the icy surface of the pond when I discovered a patch of bubbles trapped in the frozen pond. When I zoomed in on the selection of bubbles captured here, my brain ran wild as I processed the various shapes and attempted to determine what they resembled, similar to staring up at the clouds on a lazy summer afternoon and seeing “animals” and “faces.” I settled on what I imagine the “primordial soup” – a hypothetical liquid that existed on Earth billions of years ago that was rich in organic compounds and favorable for the emergence of life – looked like (albeit frozen), and hence named this image “Frozen Origins.”

Stay tuned for the third and final installment of the Frozen Bubbles series next week!

Bubbles

Over the course of the next three weeks, I’ll be sharing one image per week of bubbles frozen just below the icy surface of a local pond that’s near and dear to my heart.

The first image presented here is, in my opinion, one of the most unique and bizarre photos I’ve ever captured. When viewed at just the right angle, these bubbles demonstrated incredible aqua and magenta coloration which served as a welcome reminder during a string of cloudy and snowless days that the world still holds vibrant colors beyond shades of drab brown and muted green.

The colorful display seen here is due to a phenomenon called iridescence. When light hits a bubble, part of it reflects off the front surface, while another part enters the bubble’s soapy film and reflects off its back surface. Depending on the viewing angle and the thickness of the bubble, different colors will be visible at different viewpoints due to the interactions between the reflected light. While I was photographing these bubbles, it was fascinating to experience this firsthand, and if I moved just a few inches to either side, the colorful iridescence captured here vanished entirely.

Photo of the Week

Sometimes a photograph comes to fruition at the spur of the moment, with little to no planning or previsualization. Other times, however, much preparation and just the right circumstances are required for a vision to become reality. This photo of sunset from the snowy alpine zone below the summit of Mount Marcy falls squarely into the latter category, as I had been wanting to make this image for the past three winters before everything came together in early March 2020. After the Adirondacks got covered in 3 feet of snow from possibly the last snow storm of the season, I set off from the Adirondack Loj hopeful that I would finally be able to make the images that I had long sought. The trail conditions were fantastic, as other hikers and skiers had thankfully packed the powder down the previous day. As I gradually crept closer to the summit, my excitement grew as I realized that I’d finally have a chance to capture the photo that I sought for so long. I arrived at the summit area later than I had hoped, as I stopped often en route to the summit to photograph the snowy paradise that I hiked through. The quiet serenity of the forest was abruptly replaced by the howling winds of the alpine zone, and I searched out some compositions while struggling to stay warm. As the sun went down and the landscape was bathed in soft light, the beauty of the scene and the fact that I was capturing the photos that I had sought for so long made me forget about the cold and wind and the long hike out in the darkness. As the sky began to darken and I packed up for the journey down the mountain, I took one last look towards the summit of Marcy, and it dawned on me that in that moment, I was the highest person in the state. In elevation, as well as spirit. Prints Available.

Fine Art Prints

To truly appreciate the colors and details of a stunning photograph, nothing compares to a fine art print. Prints not only provide a means to display a photograph at a much larger scale, they also allow for the photograph to be printed in an expanded color space beyond the sRGB of the Web. The result is a piece of art that fully captures the details, colors, and beauty of the scene as I experienced it. For any questions regarding prints, please send me a message me, and I will get back to you shortly. Prints are typically delivered within 2-3 weeks of ordering.