Intriguing and Bizarre Art of Bubbles in Photography and Nature
The ethereal phenomena of bubbles have captivated people for hundreds of years. The fragile nature and beauty of colors that shimmers and swirls in soap bubbles enchants kids throughout the world, and brings out the child in most any adult. Let’s take a look at the fleeting, transient existence of bubbles of all sorts that have been captured by images in the art of photography and Mother Nature — the greatest artist above all.
Photo The 5th Ape
Photo Moonjuice
The Bubbleboy. Photo Ukaaa
See no evil. Photo Ucumari
Photo Ucumari
Photo Ucumari
Photo Greatestdancer
Soap Bubbles
A soap bubble is a very thin film of soap water that forms a sphere with an iridescent surface, usually lasting mere moments before bursting. Soap bubbles can help to solve complex mathematical problems of space, as they will always find the smallest surface area between points or edges.
Harbor in a bubble. Photo Johnnieb
Soap bubble capturing reflection of the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo Mila Zinkova
Reflection of a cloud in a soap bubble. Photo Mila Zinkova
A soap bubble can exist due to the surface layer of a liquid (usually water) that has a certain surface tension which causes the layer to behave somewhat like an elastic sheet. However, a bubble made with a pure liquid alone is not stable and a dissolved surfactant such as soap is needed to stabilize a bubble.
Soap does not strengthen bubbles — it stabilizes them by an action known as the Marangoni effect. As the soap film stretches the surface concentration of soap decreases, which in turn causes the surface tension to increase. So soap selectively strengthens the weakest parts of the bubble and tends to prevent them from stretching further.
Their spherical shape is also caused by surface tension. The tension causes the bubble to form a sphere, as a sphere has the smallest possible surface area for a given volume. The soap reduces the water’s surface tension to approximately one third, but it is effectively doubled since the film has an inner and an outer surface.
Photo Jeff Kubina
Photo Mila Zinkova
Interference and Reflection of Bubbles
The iridescent colors of soap bubbles are caused by interfering light waves and determined by the thickness of the film. They are not the same as rainbow colors, but rather more similar to colors in an oil slick on a wet road.
Thin film interference in a soap bubble. Notice the golden yellow color near the top where
the film is thin and a few even thinner black spots. Photo Threetwoone
Photo Lovingshiva
Bubbles on the beach. Photo Lance and Erin
As light encroaches on the film, some of it’s reflected off the outer surface while some of it enters the film and reemerges after being reflected back and forth between the 2 surfaces. The total reflection is determined by the interference of all these reflections.
A change in color can be seen while the bubble is thinning due to evaporation. Thicker walls cancel out red (longer) wavelengths, causing a blue-green reflection. Later, thinner walls will cancel out yellow (leaving blue light), then green (leaving magenta), then blue (leaving a golden yellow). Finally, when the bubble’s wall becomes much thinner than the wavelength of visible light, all the waves in the visible region cancel each other out and no reflection is visible at all. At this point it’s probably about to pop.
Photo Jurvetson
Photo Jason Ooo
Life and death of a soap bubble. Photo Giuseppe Bognanni
Interference effects also depend upon the angle at which the light strikes the film, called iridescence. Even if the wall of the bubble were of uniform thickness, one would still see variations of color due to curvature or movement. However, the thickness of the wall is continuously changing as gravity pulls the liquid downwards, so bands of colors that move downwards can usually also be seen.
Different patterns of soap bubbles. Photo Mila Zinkova
The colors are caused by Interference and reflection. Photo Mila Zinkova
Photo The Russians are Here
Bubbles Merging
When two bubbles merge, the same physical principles apply, and the bubbles will adopt the shape with the smallest possible surface area. Their common wall will bulge into the larger bubble, as smaller bubbles have a higher internal pressure — known as Ostwald ripening — which is caused by pressure differences in bubbles of different radii as predicted by the Young–Laplace equation. If the bubbles are of equal size, the wall will be flat.
At a point where 3 or more bubbles meet, they sort themselves out so that only 3 bubble walls meet along a line. Since the surface tension is the same in each of the 3 surfaces, the angles between them must be equal angles of 120°. This is the most efficient choice, which is why the cells of a beehive use the same 120° angle which forms hexagons.
Photo Fdecomite
Photo Fdecomite
Photo Jurvetson
Bubbles Just for Fun
17th century Flemish paintings show children blowing bubbles with clay pipes, revealing that bubbles as playthings date back at least 400 years. The London based firm of A & F Pears created a famous advertisement campaign for its soaps in 1886 using a painting by Millais of a child playing with bubbles.
2 boys in a tub. Photo Ernst Moeksis
Bubble monster. Photo Audi Inspiration
Photo Toronja Azul
Chemtoy in Chicago began selling bubble solution in the 1940’s, captivating children ever since. According to one industry estimate, retailers sell around 200 million bottles annually, perhaps more than any other toy.
Photo Krikit
Wall-E takes a bubble bath. Photo Bunnyrel
Photo Katiya Rhode
Photo Bunnyrel
Bubbles in Performance Art
In 1984 New York architect David Stein invented the Bubble Thing to amuse his daughter. It uses a very large flexible loop of cotton fabric and a bucket of soap suds to create enormous spherical bubbles up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter and tubular bubbles 50 feet (15 meters) long and more. Since 1985 the Bubble Thing has been marketed worldwide by David Stein Inc and Klutz Press.
Soap bubble performances combine entertainment with artistic achievement, requiring a high degree of skill and perfect bubble suds. Some artists create giant bubbles or tubes, often enveloping objects or even humans. Others manage to create bubbles forming cubes and other shapes or sculptures.
To add to the visual experience, they’re sometimes filled with smoke or helium and combined with laser lights or fire. Soap bubbles can be filled with a flammable gas such as natural gas and then ignited, but this of course destroys the bubble.
Bubbles in Nature
Photo FotoDawg
Photo Dawnzy
Photo Niffty
Photo Dragon
Freezing Bubbles
Soap bubbles blown into air below a temperature of 5 °F (−15 °C ) will freeze when they touch a surface. The air inside will gradually diffuse out, causing the bubble to crumple under its own weight.
At temperatures below about −13 °F (−25 °C), bubbles will freeze in the air and may shatter when hitting the ground. When a bubble is blown with warm air the bubble will freeze to an almost perfect sphere at first, but when the warm air cools and a reduction in volume occurs there will be a partial collapse of the bubble. It will freeze quickly and continuing to increase the bubble will shatter it.
Bubbles in Liquid
Photo Marky Bon
Photo Woodywonderworks
Photo ButterflySha
Photo Lepiaf.geo
Photo Woodywonderworks
Photo Woodywonderworks
Photo Clip Works
Photo Kevin Dooley
Photo Tearoom
Photo Aussiegall
Rose champagne. Photo Gaetan Lee
Photo Ordinary Guy
The illusionist David Blaine, spending a week in a water bubble in the Lincoln Centre Plaza
in New York. Photo Imaji
Photo Darkmatter
Photo Bunnyrel
Miscellaneous Bubbles
Photo Eddi
Photo Conor Withonen
Photo Keemz
Bubble wrap. Photo Osbock
Bubbles, a painting by Sir John Everett Millais; the subject his grandson.
Bubbles, originally entitled A Child’s World, is a painting by Sir John Everett Millais that became famous when it was used over many generations in advertisements for Pears soap. During Millais’s lifetime it led to widespread debate about the relationship between art and advertising.
It was modelled by his 5 year old grandson William Milbourne James and was based on 17th century Dutch precursors in the tradition of vanitas imagery, which commented upon the transience of life. These sometimes depicted young boys blowing bubbles, typically set against skulls and other signs of death.
The painting portrays a young golden-haired boy looking up at a bubble, symbolising the beauty and fragility of life. On one side of him is a young plant growing in a pot, and on the other is a fallen broken pot, emblematic of death.
Antibubbles
An antibubble is a droplet of liquid surrounded by a thin film of gas, formed when liquid drops or flows turbulently into the same or another liquid. They can either skim across the surface of a liquid such as water, or they can be completely submerged into the liquid.
Antibubbles
Antibubbles are a common but widely unrecognised phenomenon, in part because of their resemblance to air bubbles, and in part because of their typically transient nature. With certain soapy solutions they can be made to last much longer.
The behavior of antibubbles differs from that of air bubbles in 3 primary ways:
• Antibubbles are held in place by surface tension, and move rapidly across the surface of the water. They can also be seen to ricochet off other objects in the water (such as air bubbles) and off the sides of a container in a manner similar to that of billiard balls.
• Under ordinary circumstances, antibubbles are short-lived. An air bubble with a soap skin may last several minutes. They frequently have lifetimes of a few seconds or less.
• Antibubbles refract light in a different manner than air bubbles — light entering them is refracted back toward its source in the same manner as rainbows are produced, and have a bright appearance.
Photo Mitzy Boots
You can easily create them by allowing a tap to drip into a container of water to which a drop or two of soap has been added. The soap reduces the water’s surface tension and allows the skin of air surrounding the droplet to remain in place for more than just a fraction of a second.
Using a drinking straw to drop droplets of sugar solution onto soapy water will produce antibubbles that sink.
Antibubbles usually pop when they touch the bottom or the side of the vessel containing the liquid. This can be prevented by tipping a few teaspoons of sugar into the soapy water and giving it some time to dissolve (but without stirring it). Made this way they can last for several minutes.
Bubble World Records
The “World’s Largest Free Floating Soap Bubble” made the Guinness World Records on October 9, 2005, measuring 105.4 cubic feet — if filled with water it would hold 788 gallons and weigh 3.2 tons.
Photo Beeboo Big Bubbles
The largest bubble ever blown to make the Guinness World Records was created by David Stein of New York — a whopping 50 feet by 2 feet in diameter (15 by .6 meters) in 1998.
The world’s largest bubble wall is credited to Fan Yang of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada at 156 feet (47.4 meters) long and 13 feet high with a surface area of about 4000 square feet (370.4 sq meters) on August 11, 1997, at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington.
Photo Fan Yang
Fan Yang also holds a World Record on April 12 2006 by linking 15 pairs of people in a ‘bubble cage’ at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California.
The world record for the most people inside a bubble was burst by Sam Heath a.k.a. “Sam Sam the Bubble Man” at Chessington World of Adventures outside London in Surrey, UK on March 27 2006, using a 23 foot (7 meter) wand to encapsulate 19 children over 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, standing upon a 60 inch (152 centimeter) wooden platform.
Photos left BBC, right INS
It took a mere few seconds for ‘bubbleologist’ Sam Heath to encase 50 children in an iridescent, glistening bubble of soap and water to break his own Guinness World Record at the Science Museum in London at 11 feet (3.3 meters) across and more than 5 feet high. He dipped a metal wand hoop with a 36 foot (11 meters) circumference into the solution before raising it above their heads.
Photo Daily Mail
The largest bubblegum bubble ever blown was 23 inches (9 centimeters) in diameter by Susan Montgomery Williams of Fresno, California, set on July 19 1994, to make the Guinness World Records.
Dolphins Making Bubbles
Dolphins Play Bubble Rings
Source: Wikipedia
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Welcome back, Deb! Bubbles have long captured my imagination, especially as a young boy who would take his mix out to the backyard and try his hand at making the largest or most bizarre looking bubbles possible.
My favorite display of late are those dolphin bubble rings. It is good to see that our aquatic friends are making good use of the sport too!
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these are really cool. thank you so much for sharing them!
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Great writeup! I had tried shooting macros of bubbles and soap films before and was really interested in the thin-film interference effects you describe above. This is the most comprehensive bubble post I’ve come across so far. Thanks for researching all of this for us.
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I love the colors and the wonder of the photo!
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bubbles, bubbles everywhere!
and I love them all!
what great pictures of bubbles!
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These are all great pictures.
I love the ones of the kids and animals playing with the bubbles.
My kids are crazy about blowing bubbles.
I think it is because Sponge Bob likes them…
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Hi Deborah, a great post – as usual you provide a feast for the eyes as well as educating us. Bubbles are indeed captivating because they in turn capture the colors and sights around them.
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Thanks so much Matt. Oy, you’re really taking me back to my childhood
The dolphins are one of my favorites as well, they’re such amazing creatures 
Thanks Jessie.
Brad, from what I understand, bubbles can be very difficult to capture good shots of. I’m sure it was a lot of fun though
Glad you enjoyed them ForestWander. I happen to agree, which is why they hold top placement
Hi Sue
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it 
I actually had a lot of fun with this myself.
very beautiful picture
nice concept
i like your concept about bubble
Deborah, these bubbles are so beautiful and it reminds me of the wonderful moment, where I was playing bubbles with my schoolmates…
Sometimes, our life is like the bubbles, although it might be short, but at least we do have some unforgettable things happened to us. Hence, remember to sharing what we got with other, as “sharing is caring”…
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Hi Deborah,
The antibubbles was something I’d never heard of – very interesting stuff!
But the dolphin play with the bubble rings is an amazing view, it looks like they’re playing with hula hoops or something!
Robby
That was beautiful! They really are intelligent
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Deborah. Soooooooooooooooo great to see you back and what wonderful pics these are – especially that little girl with the hoola-hoop; she epitomises what youth and bubbles are all about. Lovely stuff – as usual.
Take care, Robin
Sometimes, our life is like the bubbles, although it might be short, but at least we do have some unforgettable things happened to us. Hence, remember to sharing what we got with other, as “sharing is caring”…
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Bubbles can create entertainment and are really a work of art for a short moment. These are some incredible photos here. Thanks!
Loved the picture’s.. i was looking for something which i could use for my cell phone and got some interesting images
specially the green bubbles.. Keep it up with your amazing work..
Best Regards,
Leif
Thanks for the nice pictures. Bubbles have always been the matter of attraction and curiosity.
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Phenomena of bubbles is still a great curiosity for many. Bubbles not attract children but engage adults also because of their transparency and nature. Thanks for forwarding well compiled information.
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Beautiful post! The photos are great, and the colors are exquisitely striking.
Found you from Stumbleupon, very interesting work. About as detailed a synopsis of one subject I’ve found in ages.
Beautiful and complete. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this.
Mike
this is superb, this is one of the best photography i have seen, these bubbles resembles to different things in every picture, some times they look like real diamonds, some of them like eye balls, some are like images of earth and some are like sun. these are superb. well done….
I’m thinking of buying the Canon EOS 30D but don’t know what lenses I should buy with it. My interest is in nature photography (mountains, beach, wildlife) but have never invested in a good camera. I don’t know a whole lot about specifications for different lenses and need some good recommendations for starting photography as a hobby.
This article gives the light in which we can observe the reality. this is very nice one and gives indepth information. thanks for this nice article
super pictures!! I am air bubbles fan from now!
Absolutely stunning collection of photographs. I think ‘Harbor in a bubble’ and the one showing ‘Thin film interference’ are particularly cool – and you can’t help but be impressed by the world record bubble wall!
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[...] Bubble photograph by Mila Zinkova, from a terrific collection of photos at Life in the Fast Lane. [...]
[...] Photo by the 5th Ape, found here. [...]
I wanted to know if I can use any of your pictures for my website? You have great Pictures!!
Thanks,
Annabel
Annabel, none of the images are our own property. Some are Creative Commons licensed, and others were published with permission by the artists. The direct links to the images and their authors are immediately below each image.
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Tom Noddy was one of the notable bubble guys of the last century. I believe he did the first smoke filled bubbles as well as curious structures such as a rotating carousel of bubbles.
Great collection. Very inspiring. Thanks.
Oh one more at night, this one i you will like
http://www.yoru.com/boom/#/content/LSD/harajuku.jpg/
I just love pictures, taking pictures and seeing wonderful images makes all my stress go away.
These pictures reminds me of my childhood, playing bubbles in the bath, turning my drink to bubbles and many more. LOL. Thanks for the great images!
Pictures with bubbles are of great attraction, thinking whether anyone can help me in finding a theme in photoshop that helps me make bubbles in the background. I am not talking about Texture, hope you understand. Thanks in advance.
That was cool! Nice pictures..very impressive! Those bubbles are refreshing to the eyes.
I love the bubbles!! I always used to make soap bubbles, thanks for your great pics!!
I love seeing photos of bubbles like this. I love playing and making bubbles when I was kid. Now that I’m all grown up, playing with bubbles brought me back to my childhood. Bubbles always captivated me.
Those are high quality photos. Nice post you have there. Thanks for this.
Again thank you for sharing some stunning pictures – this site is bubbling over with beautiful images!
This post reminds me of a rotund and bearded friend at university who was a bit of a physics boffin. He would pop with interest when discussing the bubbly froth on top of beer and how it was an example of chaos theory.
Those were the days!
[...] Amazing soap bubbles from Intriguing and Bizarre Art of Bubbles in Photography and Nature [...]
Bubbles are always beautiful & fascinating..
makes me want to grab my SLR & take some photo of bubbles as well .. :p
Hi,
Those are some really nice photos, my favorate is probably this soap bubble on the leaf with the relection in the bubble, but they are all pretty impresive.
Those are some truly inspiring Bubble photographs. My daughter is obsessed with Bubbles. She blows them for hours on end.
Those are some really nice photos….BUT my favorite is probably this soap bubble on the leaf with the reflection in the bubble,because I love playing and making bubbles when I was kid….and that’s remind me my childhood…… but all photos are really pretty impressive….thanks
That are some wonderful creation . I really liked the bubble boy picture.
thanks for inspirational content for other which will help to other to do start earning
thanks
I just love pictures, taking pictures and seeing wonderful images makes all my stress go away.
Dear Deborah,
What a superb article. It’s almost like a little movie! Long, colorful and visually very attractive. Your work is a delight for the eye! A bubbling Thank you!
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just blogwalking
Those photos are absolutely adorable. I love the creativity, keep it up!
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Bubbles can create entertainment and are really a work of art for a short moment. These are some incredible photos here. Thanks!
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super pictures!! I am air bubbles fan from now!
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Brad, from what I understand, bubbles can be very difficult to capture good shots of. I’m sure it was a lot of fun though
Bubbles are great fun and can make some awesome photos. Great way to keep the kids entertained during pictures. Great collection of photographs
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Absolutely delightful! I would love to feature you on Whopple! If interested, please email me. It comes with full publicity. I just love artists like you. So original, so breathtaking. Love it. Your bubbles photography just makes me instantly happy!
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I always whatted to know how much time you spent producing posts like these from exxprience it takes days just getting these sort of photographs together.
Brilliant post, can I befriend you on stumbleupon and other social media places?
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utterly beautiful and very interesting..like eating candies for the mind and eyes =)stimulating in the most pleasant way.. thank you for your beautiful art =)
I like the anti-bubbles and have never heard of them until today!
“An antibubble is a droplet of liquid surrounded by a thin film of gas, formed when liquid drops or flows turbulently into the same or another liquid.”
Learn something new everyday!
B.
Gif Blog
Daily Acid
hehe, are you SPONGEBOB ? cuz he’s the only one who’s crazy about bubbles. well taken pictures i might say hey mate’
Speak, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for even noticing the amount of work involved in creating this post. These mammoth-style posts, as I call them, typically take me 2 to 3 days from start to finish, working on them day and night. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I got rather burnt out over blogging
I’m fastfastlane on any social site I’m involved with, but mainly spend my time on Digg and SU. It’s unfortunate that SU doesn’t send email notifications for friend requests. Due to the nature of the site, I rarely think to check friend requests there. I mainly submit pages or stumble those which friends have sent to me.
Anne Marie, none of these works of photography are my own. Nearly all of them are Creative Commons licensed. Where ever possible, I have provided links to the originals where you will be able to locate the authors.
Wow excellent Pictures. First i would like to tell about pictures amazing collection! Not only for children it is very interesting to anyone.Here you have shown the importance of bubbles. I love playing and used to do making bubbles in my childhood.
There were some pretty amazing pictures there – a nice collection!
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bubbles, bubbles! very beauty photo.
and I love them all!
oh my ! this is so beautiful.
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Wow every picture is just beautiful
Cool…
really nice pictures
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WOW, these photos are awesome, i love bubbles from now on! it is an amazing thing to create art like this. i am wondering how can i make photos with bubbles?
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I’m still loving bubbles!
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Thanks for the nice pictures. Bubbles have always been the matter of attraction and curiosity.
that is a work of art thanks for sharing.
Wow, there are some amazing photos here! I really love the bubbles too, especially when dolphins are making those bubble rings. -Mike
Nice pictures, thanks for sharing them.
Excellent photographs..I do appreciate the way these are captured..this has become a sort of art in itself…You know some simple things can be transformed into a rare beauty and the same thing happen to these bubbles…lovely..I must say.
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awesome pictures dude.. thanks for sharing these with us..
Natural or man made bubbles are very beautiful . it always attracts children and elders too.
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very nice pics
thx for sharing
Terrific pictures…colors are so great. Nice post and Nice pictures, as well
Since childhood I’m so fascinated with bubbles. In fact, my little sister and I, used to play bubble guns when we were still young. Oh, how I miss those days
pictures are great. thank you very much mate