Incredible Footage of Soap Bubbles Freezing in Winter Weather and How to Do It Yourself

Photographers all over the world have found something absolutely incredible happens when you blow soap bubbles in the freezing winter temperatures. As these delicate bubbles freeze almost instantly, inside each one a unique universe of patterns and shapes comes to life right in front of your eyes. If you're lucky enough to be enduring the worldwide cold front we're having, give this a shot to make the brutal winter more fun and beautiful.

I'm going to be bundling up and giving this a shot this weekend here in Michigan. I was surprised to hear that actually photographing them is the easiest part, getting the bubbles on the right surface to freeze however can be a little tricky. If you're willing to bear the freezing temperatures with me, here's a great tutorial with the tricks you'll need to successfully capture some of these miniature magical snow globes. 

Here are some of the best frozen soap bubble photographs I found on Instagram for some inspiration. 

This project is awesome because each bubble comes out looking completely different from the next one. As long as it's cold enough, you can take them anywhere for a diverse range of backgrounds to photograph your creations. If you have done this already or try this soon share your images in the comments.

Gabrielle Colton's picture

Gabrielle Colton is a portrait and editorial photographer with a passion for change. She is from Oregon and is currently in Louisville, Kentucky. She focuses on empowering women with her vivid metaphysical portraits. She often uses ordinary everyday places as her backdrop and transforms them into magical spaces to show how beautiful life truly is.

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10 Comments

Wow, these are beautiful. Time to break out my macro lens.

Aren't they!? YESS do it! I was thinking of trying it with food coloring to make colored ones.. ;) It's too warm now here though, dangit

I really wanted to down vote this for your, "It's too warm now..." remark. :)
It's so cold here! I have to stop letting my wife make all the moving decisions. :P

Haha we had 2 weeks straight of below 10 degrees, it was rough. Now it's 30 and feels like heaven compared to what it was. Get a better jacket Kenn. And yes you have to be harder on your dang wife lol

Given that it's -26ºC here, I'd have to get a Phantom Flex to capture this. :/

What is that?

A camera that shoots 10,000+ frames per second. The joke being that it's damn cold here and shit freezes fast.

lol oh! Yeah I know nothing about gear oops. It's not that bad :)

Very 'cool'! I tried this experiment based on an article in Outdoor Photography Canada by Don Komarechka which suggested the temperature be between -8c and -20c. I am going to try this again with different settings on my camera for various effects. This is my first attempt. Cheers! I have posted this in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digitguys/

Wowww this is gorgeous, can't believe this was your first try, great job!!