(or maybe a Jetson mobile…) Walking along a frozen pond where there was Beaver activity leaving bubbles underneath the ice as they swam, I found this one bubble showing good birefringence because the ice was very thin. Besides the ice, there is a lot of duckweed floating on this pond. (R5, 100-500 @ 451, 0.5 s, f/16, iso 100, tripod, polarizer and 2 s timer, a 5 shot stack)
This is really interesting. I’ve never heard about this effect. The color and patterns are beautiful.
Birefringence is formally defined as the double refraction of light in a transparent, molecularly ordered material , which is manifested by the existence of orientation-dependent differences in refractive index.
Well now, that makes sense.
What ever is causing the refraction, it’s beautiful!! This is a very good mind bender and I love it. Space ship surrounded by duckweed. What a great catch. Now I’ll be looking for this in every pool of frozen water. Thanks for making me smile.
@Donna_Callais @Chris_Baird Thin, clear ice is birefringent because it is molecularly ordered (thick, white ice is disordeered so there’s no birefringence). You need a polarizer to see the birefringence and I’m starting to think that it may need an air gap under the ice…that’s something that I’m still watching carefully, when I can find the right ice conditions.
That makes more sense. We’ve had very little ice here, but the temps. are starting to drop. I’ll have to look for one of these. I have a small pond and a couple of streams that freeze over. It would be fun to find one. Thanks for the education. I really enjoy your ice images.
Mark …love the contrasting composition here, Love your craft
Balan Vinod
Mark, another great ice picture. I had not heard of birefringent until you introduced it to me. No water near me, and usually not that bad cold. Christmas weekend was very cold, and I had the opportunity with the ice from the neighbor’s dog bucket, but didn’t realize until later when you told me to use a polarizing filter. So I have that saved in the memory bank, now waiting for the next freeze and watch for ice from the dog’s water bucket. Not a lot of opportunities, but you have to learn to make make lemonade when the lemons are around.
This is really another wonder and colorful image. I like the duckweed floating around framing the beautiful ice bubble. Keep’em coming!
Wonderful, Mark. Sometimes when I look at the ice formation it looks like a frog. Fun stuff and great shot.
Amazon photo and great color, Mark. I have never seen this effect before. Well done.
Beautiful contrasting colours and textures, Mark. Would love to catch birefringence one day. Plenty of ice around me, but no beavers!