Colourful ice

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:08 am

Some shots of an ice sheet propped up against a bottle of kitchen cleaner to provide some colour. The ice was from a cat dish of water i put out for the birds the previous day. Taken with an MPE-65 around 2:1 to 4:1 mag with some focus stacking of 2 to 4 shots with zerene stacker.

Brian v.

augusthouse · Post by **augusthouse** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:02 am

Beautiful abstracts Brian!

Particularly like the second one.

Craig

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:21 pm

Images to lose yourself in. An interesting experiment Brian with exceptionally pleasing results.

A friend of mine who's into scrying would just love these as full screen wallpaper.

Bruce:)

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:09 am

Thanks for the comments

Bruce- had to look up scrying but you don't need much imagination to see all sorts of odd things in these once you start looking. Oddly- they are a bit like fractals - as you increase the viewing size of the original you see more and more repeating detail appearing.
Funnily enough one of the problems I have with normal composition rules is I love what I call chaotic composition where you can gaze at a picture for a long time finding all sorts of new things in it rather than the instant impact "clean" composition which holds my interest for only a few seconds.
Your friend would have liked the one below - a crop of the shot shows messages in the image.
Brian v.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 1:53 am

These are very interesting pictures! I had to look up "scrying" too.

LordV wrote:Oddly- they are a bit like fractals - as you increase the viewing size of the original you see more and more repeating detail appearing.

I think this is a lot like what happens with dewdrop images. With the dew, every drop creates another image of the same background, sized to match the drop. The ice is not so regular, but still every bubble and ripple will create another image of the same background, sized and warped to match the feature that creates it.

I must say, this is wonderfully complex ice you've found. Was the wind blowing, or do you have some idea what else prevented the ice from being smooth?

--Rik

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:45 am

rjlittlefield wrote:These are very interesting pictures! I had to look up "scrying" too.

LordV wrote:Oddly- they are a bit like fractals - as you increase the viewing size of the original you see more and more repeating detail appearing.
I think this is a lot like what happens with dewdrop images. With the dew, every drop creates another image of the same background, sized to match the drop. The ice is not so regular, but still every bubble and ripple will create another image of the same background, sized and warped to match the feature that creates it.

I must say, this is wonderfully complex ice you've found. Was the wind blowing, or do you have some idea what else prevented the ice from being smooth?

--Rik

Thanks for the comments Rik.

Some of the irregularity is caused by the dissolved gas coming out during freezing but suspect more is caused by some freeze/thawing cycles going on with some snow melting onto the surface and then freezing again making the top surface very irregular.
Brian v.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:06 am

Very appealing images.
New photographic kit?

Funnily enough one of the problems I have with normal composition rules is I love what I call chaotic composition where you can gaze at a picture for a long time finding all sorts of new things in it rather than the instant impact "clean" composition which holds my interest for only a few seconds.

Couldn't agree more Brian.
When lecturing photography, the question of "What makes a good photograph" is a perennial.
The old maxims of
"Impact and Interest" are succinct.

The notion can be developed. The human analogy doesn't quite fit, but is thought-provoking!:
Impact....... "Wow"
Interest..... Curiosity, wonder, cognitive engagement
Lust........... I gotta see look at that again
Marriage.... I have to keep that one.

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:42 am

Chris- thanks for the comments- was going to say I've never lusted or wanted to marry an image then I remembered about the M&S ad over christmas

The extra photographic freezing kit certainly isn't needed at the moment

Brian v.

g4lab · Post by **g4lab** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:59 pm

Funny about the Freeze Master.
It was minus 3 Fahrenheit here last night and yesterday my kitchen sink lines froze. After using the hot rod 1800watt heat gun on all exposed areas I only succeeded in getting the cold water line to run.

I was considering hooking up my new 225 amp battery charger/starter to the copper and running some current through it just like the freeze master does.
Most of those units run at five or six volts and some 300 amps. But I think I will try the heat gun for a while longer. Discretion being the better part of valor in this case.

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:24 am

g4lab wrote:Funny about the Freeze Master.
It was minus 3 Fahrenheit here last night and yesterday my kitchen sink lines froze. After using the hot rod 1800watt heat gun on all exposed areas I only succeeded in getting the cold water line to run.

I was considering hooking up my new 225 amp battery charger/starter to the copper and running some current through it just like the freeze master does.
Most of those units run at five or six volts and some 300 amps. But I think I will try the heat gun for a while longer. Discretion being the better part of valor in this case.

A bit OT but I'm confused- does that machine freeze pipes or thaw them ?
I know some plumbers do use freezing to temporarily block pipes sometimes.
Brian v.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 4:02 am

LordV wrote:I'm confused- does that machine freeze pipes or thaw them ?
I know some plumbers do use freezing to temporarily block pipes sometimes.

It freezes them. The machine costs about 100 times as much as aerosol kits. For the latter, you have to know exactly what you are doing, be very organised and work very quickly, as thawing can soon catch you out.

http://www.freezemaster.co.uk/instructions.pdf

http://www.ukcopperboard.co.uk/literatu ... eezing.pdf

The main stop-cock for the mains water supply to this house needs servicing but even the water board could not find the street stopcock for this property, so I may have to freeze the rising main to deal with this. In the meantime, a bypass tap in the water softener circuit acts as a stopcock for all but the garden tap.

Harold

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:00 am

I was considering hooking up my new 225 amp battery charger/starter to the copper and running some current through it just like the freeze master does.
Most of those units run at five or six volts and some 300 amps. But I think I will try the heat gun for a while longer. Discretion being the better part of valor in this case.

The FM has refrigerant pumping through the clamps. Could be used on a microscope stage.
For thawing pipes, boiling water's pretty good if you don't mind a local skating rink. I used to regularly thaw pipes in the stable by "simply" connecting a car battery with Jump Leads.