FundyBrian’s Explorations

FundyBrian

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Real Name
Brian Townsend
Device
iPhone 8 Plus
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Project Page
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
Watermarked1(2018-01-01-1707).jpg

What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warming to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.
 
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Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warning to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.

This is fantastic. Is it your own invention? I don’t think I would have the patience to try this out, but it would surely work up here in Sweden.
 
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warning to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.
Very impressive effort, Brian! Really amazing photos.
 
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warning to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.
Definitely worth all that effort. :thumbs:
 
This is fantastic. Is it your own invention? I don’t think I would have the patience to try this out, but it would surely work up here in Sweden.

Yes, some patience is needed. I spent about two hours outside trying to make good bubbles and trying to photograph. No, not my invention. It’s a topic that comes up when it gets very cold. At least -15°C. If you do a search online for frozen bubbles you will find more info by other people. My first attempt last year was less successful. Making the bubbles and then operating the camera is too much juggling. Next time I will either get a helper to blow the bubbles for me or else set up my camera on a tripod and make a stage to place the bubbles. I’ll make the stage to be moved into the correct position for the camera rather than moving the camera. Also, shelter from any breeze is essential.
 
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Yes, some patience is needed. I spent about two hours outside trying to make good bubbles and trying to photograph. No, not my invention. It’s a topic that comes up when it gets very cold. At least -15°C. If you do a search online for frozen bubbles you will find more info by other people. My first attempt last year was less successful. Making the bubbles and then operating the camera is too much juggling. Next time I will either get a helper to blow the bubbles for me or else set up my camera on a tripod and make a stage to place the bubbles. I’ll make the stage to be moved into the correct position for the camera rather than moving the camera. Also, shelter from any breeze is essential.

I think someone who’s sitting here next to me would love to give this a try. If we get colder weather that is. Warm winter yet.
 
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warning to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.

Awesome experiment!!
 
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warning to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.
Wow! That is really cool!!
 
Photographic vs paint colour mixing.
IMG_5637.JPG

Once upon a time, like 30+ years ago, I used to make colourgraphics on Cibachrome print material. I can’t say “paper” since it was plastic. I still have a couple around somewhere.
In my darkroom I would put a colour slide in my Zone VI 4x5” enlarger and I would make a series of exposures on high contrast Litho 4x5” sheet film being sure to keep all the films exactly in register. This was accomplished using a (home made) register punch to punch 2 - 2mm holes on one edge of the film (in the dark). The film would be placed on a pair of register pins under the enlarger before exposure. This allows the series of films to each be exactly in the same place during exposure.
After they were developed I would select a pair, or sometimes 3, of the films that looked to contain useful areas of the image. The films had solid black and clear film base with no in between tones.
I was using a tricolour printing method which is like the very oldest way of making colour prints by exposing the paper to 3 exposures using 3 B&W negatives, one through a red filter, one through blue and then green. When you had the exposure balance of the three colours correct you got a good colour print.
I would expose one film in my enlarger through the red filter, switch to the next film and expose through a green filter. I had modified the negative carrier in my enlarger with register pins and the negative carrier could be removed and replaced and stay exactly in the same position.
Everybody knows that in photography red + green = yellow, although this seems to upset painters. My finished print would have some black areas, some red and some green, and where red and green overlapped I would have yellow. Adding blue to the mix created cyan and a much higher level of complexity so I usually stuck with 2 exposures.
For many years I have occasionally wondered if I could do something similar digitally and yesterday I started working on it. I took my chosen image in Leonardo and made 4 copies of it, each on their own layer. To each layer I applied a different degree of threshold transformation, which made them black and white. Then coloured the white parts red, green and blue. I abandoned the blue soon enough because I didn’t like the results. I think I ended up inverting one layer. There could be a huge variation in outcomes depending on which layers I coloured, etc., but this is what I got with this combination. I would need to try more layer combinations to see what else could be done. My chosen set of 3 layers was each given a blending mode, mostly lighten, and other choices gave other results. I ended up doing some hand work on the layers to fine tune the black areas.
It was sort of fun reliving the old colourgraphic days and I didn’t miss not having to develop multiple films to do it. I would have to do a lot more work with this to fine tune things better and I’m not sure I want to. Another interesting experiment.
 
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Photographic vs paint colour mixing.
View attachment 104387
Once upon a time, like 30+ years ago, I used to make colourgraphics on Cibachrome print material. I can’t say “paper” since it was plastic. I still have a couple around somewhere.
In my darkroom I would put a colour slide in my Zone VI 4x5” enlarger and I would make a series of exposures on high contrast Litho 4x5” sheet film being sure to keep all the films exactly in register. This was accomplished using a (home made) register punch to punch 2 - 2mm holes on one edge of the film (in the dark). The film would be placed on a pair of register pins under the enlarger before exposure. This allows the series of films to each be exactly in the same place during exposure.
After they were developed I would select a pair, or sometimes 3, of the films that looked to contain useful areas of the image. The films had solid black and clear film base with no in between tones.
I was using a tricolour printing method which is like the very oldest way of making colour prints by exposing the paper to 3 exposures using 3 B&W negatives, one through a red filter, one through blue and then green. When you had the exposure balance of the three colours correct you got a good colour print.
I would expose one film in my enlarger through the red filter, switch to the next film and expose through a green filter. I had modified the negative carrier in my enlarger with register pins and the negative carrier could be removed and replaced and stay exactly in the same position.
Everybody knows that in photography red + green = yellow, although this seems to upset painters. My finished print would have some black areas, some red and some green, and where red and green overlapped I would have yellow. Adding blue to the mix created cyan and a much higher level of complexity so I usually stuck with 2 exposures.
For many years I have occasionally wondered if I could do something similar digitally and yesterday I started working on it. I took my chosen image in Leonardo and made 4 copies of it, each on their own layer. To each layer I applied a different degree of threshold transformation, which made them black and white. Then coloured the white parts red, green and blue. I abandoned the blue soon enough because I didn’t like the results. I think I ended up inverting one layer. There could be a huge variation in outcomes depending on which layers I coloured, etc., but this is what I got with this combination. I would need to try more layer combinations to see what else could be done. My chosen set of 3 layers was each given a blending mode, mostly lighten, and other choices gave other results. I ended up doing some hand work on the layers to fine tune the black areas.
It was sort of fun reliving the old colourgraphic days and I didn’t miss not having to develop multiple films to do it. I would have to do a lot more work with this to fine tune things better and I’m not sure I want to. Another interesting experiment.

Wow, that's really fascinating and quite a striking result.
 
My first drawing in my new sketch book.
IMG_6037.JPG

I sat down with my new pencils and new sketch book with no idea at all of what I was going to draw. I had been thinking to try the squiggle exercise. To make a random line shape on the page and see what ideas I might get from that and what I could make it into. As soon as I started to make a curved line I thought “snail” and kept going with that. I haven’t checked in a book yet to see how realistic it is just from memory.
 
This is a drawing from a few days ago, before I bought my new sketch book. I never had a sketch book before.
IMG_6040.JPG

Again, I started without any idea what I was going to draw. I think I started with the vase and placemat and then I added the table and when I started the flowers I realized I was in trouble. Remember the “plan ahead” sign? Either that or start in the middle of a big piece of paper. This wS just 5x5” (12.5cm). Really a telephone message pad. I never finished the view of the placemat through the glass since I could see I had hit a dead end.
 
My first drawing in my new sketch book.
View attachment 104761
I sat down with my new pencils and new sketch book with no idea at all of what I was going to draw. I had been thinking to try the squiggle exercise. To make a random line shape on the page and see what ideas I might get from that and what I could make it into. As soon as I started to make a curved line I thought “snail” and kept going with that. I haven’t checked in a book yet to see how realistic it is just from memory.

This is a drawing from a few days ago, before I bought my new sketch book. I never had a sketch book before.
View attachment 104763
Again, I started without any idea what I was going to draw. I think I started with the vase and placemat and then I added the table and when I started the flowers I realized I was in trouble. Remember the “plan ahead” sign? Either that or start in the middle of a big piece of paper. This wS just 5x5” (12.5cm). Really a telephone message pad. I never finished the view of the placemat through the glass since I could see I had hit a dead end.
These are both just wonderful!! I love the snail... can't believe you just did that from memory. :inlove:
 
Something’s brewing. I will refine this title and description once I figure it out.
Jan-1-2018. Happy New Year!!
View attachment 104313
What to do when it’s really cold outside, like -15°C? Make frozen bubbles!
This was a learning experience. Regular bubble solution isn’t ideal for frozen bubbles. The special recipe includes sugar and corn syrup which makes the bubbles more durable. The solution works best when it is close to freezing. Place your bubbles on a frozen surface and hope there’s no breeze at all or the bubbles keep breaking. A straw gives more control making the bubbles than a regular bubble wand. Once the bubble has formed freezing starts to take place quickly so as soon as the bubble is formed pick up your phone. By the time you get ready the freezing may already have advanced too far leaving an overall dull surface. Partly frozen gives better patterns. My straw, or plastic tube, got frozen several times and needed warming to clear it. My biggest issue was seeing when I was in focus!
By the time I was done I had used most of a cup of bubble potion and what was left was mostly frozen.
This is wonderful Brian. We had cold enough weather just recently, but too much wind. Then we had a still morning, but the temperature was not low enough. Lol. As you said, it’s a learning thing. What is the mix you used?
 
I’m doing too many things at once. I’m trying to integrate a meditation practice into my daily routine (shenpas are us), as well as following drawing courses, plus my other stuff.
Today with 20cm of fresh snow i started out clearing the driveway, shovelling off the deck, etc., and I kept looking at the snow on the trees thinking how unusual it was that a wind had not come up and shaken the snow off the trees. So, once I was done with snow clearing, I put everything else aside and went out to photograph.
Watermarked(2018-01-18-1927).jpg

One of my favourite things is photographing water surrounded by snow, or ice with flowing water. The water really should be frozen, too, but there’s enough current to keep it flowing.
I usually photograph with HDR, it’s a process I think can expand the limited dynamic range of the small sensor camera.
Today, for whatever reason, I photographed everything with DNG (In PureShot, as usual) and developed either in the Camera+ DNG Lab or in Snapseed RAW develop - that part is a complete departure. I just wanted to see the current state of RAW processing on the iPhone. I ended up preferring the Snapseed layout but it lacks the noise reduction suite that Camera+ has.
I’m looking forward to trying Affinity on the iPad Pro for DNG development. I have the feeling working on the the small causes me to go too far with some settings. I’ve had the experience that sometimes it looks great on my iPhone but not on my 27” 5K iMac screen.
 
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