Picture of the day - December 2, 2006

A Soap Bubble Resting On A Stalk Of Grass

Photo courtesy of Winston Rockwell.   Today's picture was taken by master photographer Winston Rockwell, a frequent contributor to our "Picture Of The Day" series. Here is his very interesting story concerning the circumstances under which this spectacular image was captured: "This is a photo of a soap bubble perched on a stalk of wild grass. It's been a pretty popular photo, and some of you may have even seen it in the "Your Shots" feature of the October 2006 edition of National Geographic Magazine, where it was selected from among several thousand photos submitted for that month... I was at a local park, planning to do some bird photography, and happened to be walking behind a young couple on my way to the water's edge. The young woman was blowing bubbles as she walked, leaving a trail of floating, iridescent spheres in her wake. Most popped or drifted off, but one landed on a stalk of grass and didn't burst immediately. Just for a lark, I thought I'd try to get a decent photograph of it, so I hurried to where it perched, composed the shot to achieve a nice, contrasting background, and got off 3 shots before it popped. When I got home, I was amazed at how clear this shot was, and at the marvelous detail revealed in the reflection. The vertical and horizontal inversions of the reflection are also fascinating. I was a bit surprised at the fact that my own reflection isn't visible, but because of the small size (< 1 inch) and curvature of the bubble, and the fact that I was shooting from a bit over 6 feet away (minimum focal length for the lens I was using), my reflection in the sphere is so small as to be all but invisible even in a 16x20 print. I took this shot with a Canon 30D and a Sigma EX 80-400 lens handheld at 350mm, 1/250 second at f5.6."                                                                          - Winston Rockwell Submit a photo                       Picture of the day archives