Soap Films

Takes me back to the days of my youth when at Rock Concerts (and local bands at the local hall) light shows of inks soap and oil mixtures were projected onto the stage.

 

Recently I came across photographs of soap films that were far stronger and varied than the old light shows.  I thought I would give it a try, and these are my second attempt. A bit of trial and error and difficulty of finding depth of field as to get the colours to appear on the flat soap film, the camera has to be at a slight angle to the perpendicular from the soap film, not helped by the natural movement of the film that can be quite fast.  So slow shutter speeds are out, meaning that the aperture on the lens is quite open.  Lack of depth of field can be seen in most of these cropped shots.

 

Still I am quite pleased.  A bit different to my usual subjects.

 

A bubble that stayed as the film dies....

 

....finishing with a bird-like shape!

 

More to come when I have time to set it up again and they are good enough to publish.

Scotland - Faraid Point, Durness - Puffin Numbers 1974 and 2015

2015

I have been visiting Faraid Point many times from the early 1970's. Last year I took photos in June of Puffins on the only part of the coast here that I can find these wonderful birds nowadays. The density of birds was such that I never saw more than a few birds together, with probably about a dozen birds visiting burrows in my short stay....

 

 

....Offshore there was a raft of 10 birds in the sea waiting to fly in, trying to avoid marauding Greater Black Backed Gulls and Great Skuas.

 

My viewpoint.  The puffins are right on the green headland in the foreground, whilst some braver souls are a lot closer, having walked the knife edge ridge to gain their positon. 

 

1974

Just over 40 years earlier, I photographed these Puffins with a small 125mm telephoto on the grassy slopes that can be seen in the background of the photo above.  They were all over these slopes. What a loss in that time to the wildlife in an area that has not changed that much in the intervening years.

 

I wonder if it is too late for them to survive with global warming and over fishing affecting the supply of sand eels.  I hope not.

 

Post Script: September 2016 - Closer Puffin photos were obtained in June 2016, and posted here on 19th September 2016.

Scotland Scourie - Reflections in the Loch

Last June, on a dull but calm evening, I came across these wonderful reflections in the small Loch a' Bhadhaidh Daraich just outside Scourie.  So many bizarre patterns.

 

Finally some skeletons of dead fallen trees on the bank.