Ice Cold Racer

(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)

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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. :thinking:

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.

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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! :grinning:

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!