Beads On Ice

In which my ice photography adventures continue, indoors!

"Oh, tell us the secrets of how you make those cool ice abstract photos," said Nobody Ever. Okay, thanks. I WILL!!!

I work on the bathroom sink, where I have a good surface at a decent height, and adequate light. Sometimes I use a base with a color-changing LED lights. Other times (like this one), I use a simple headlamp with white light.

On the right is my fresh ice in a square Pyrex pan. I pick up the ice (glurk glurk, that's water inside it), I carefully dump the water out into the sink, and I turn the ice upside-down in the Pyrex pan so the fresh crystals are on top. The ice pan goes on top of the light source (carefully). I turn off the overhead lights. I get the camera, I set it on super-saturation, and then I take photos!

This morning's ice was full of little ice bridges with ripples that made fun reflections and refractions. I used my mom's set of colored beads that gave me such good and colorful results last time. Here's one of my favorites. There are more on Instagram.

My soundtrack song is Sugarland, with Shine a Light.