Tag Archives: strobist

Self Portrait with Bubble (Bubble Lights 2.4)

by Bob Venezia

Self-Portrait with BubbleOur fearless leader John has suggested we all enter self-portraits. So here you go. A couple years ago I was preparing to have a photo session with my friend (and master bubble blower) Tom Noddy. I wanted to work out the kinks before Tom came over so I experimented. Can’t remember if I had a digital slr at the time but that would have been invaluable. I’m sure I took readings from a flash meter plus I did some tests for DOF with a tape measure running away from the camera. My memory is that the tape measure showed focus on the inch numbers 28 through 32 but the notes on this image indicate a wider range.

This is shot with the TL-120 with Provia 400X, 1/60th of a second at f22. The focus was cranked to the .8 marker. The notes indicate that my face was at 32″, the bubble at 24″. There was a large potato masher style flash aimed at the ceiling and a Vivitar 283 equipped with a lightsphere (yes, I bought one of those silly things). There was black velvet draped behind to limit the depth in the scene. Shot in my dining room.

Tornado Bubble #10

by Bob Venezia

Tom Noddy and the Tornado Bubble

Tom Noddy and the Tornado Bubble

In the last loop, I included a shot of my friend Tom Noddy with one of his marvelous bubbles. That was shot with the TL-120 and some bounce flash, but when I tried to figure out the exposure, I made some gross errors. So why did the pictures come out okay? I apparently made a whole bunch more errors in making my settings. Yes, I’m an idiot. But I’m an extremely lucky idiot.

This year I did some test shots before inviting Tom over again. There’s black velvet hung behind, because the DOF is extremely shallow. I think we had sharpness between about 28 and 32 inches. I had several flash units triggered by slaves, mostly bouncing off the ceiling here. (I’ve been reading the strobist blog a lot lately, and trying to learn more about the use of flash.)

To create this, Tom blows a bubble and catches it on the wand. He blows a second bubble below it, filled with smoke, so the smaller smoke bubble is attached and hanging below the clear bubble. Tom sticks a wet straw through the wall of the top bubble and blows gently, so the air is swirling inside. Then he break the membrane between the 2 bubbles, so now the smoke is inside the bubble with the swirling air, and the smoke is still somewhat concentrated. Finally, he opens a  hole in top of the bubble, so the bubble deflates like a balloon, forcing out the swirling smoke. I shot a bunch of these. Every time you shoot one, you watch what it continues to do, and you think, “Dang! It got even better after I fired!”

I like the detail of the swirling smoke, and the saturated colors on the top of the bubble.