Q Is For Quick (And For Quilly)

Thank Goodness For The Inner Child In Us All

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Some weeks ago, Quilly challenged me to shoot a butterfly in flight but our summer was such a scorcher that I didn't see a single butterfly in the garden. Rest assured I shall pick up her gauntlet as soon as they start to flutter by once more, but in the meantime here are the results of a self-imposed challenge that was infinitely more difficult.

These photographs of airborne bubbles were shot in our back yard recently. That's a pretty tough (but very interesting) assignment at the best of times, but there was a complicating factor that evening. The wind was so strong that when my trusty assistants (the Authorbloglets) dipped the wand into the bubble mixture, they didn't even need to blow the bubbles out.

The breeze whipped so strongly that the bubbles raced out at breakneck speed. So there I was thinking: "Just figure out which way it's blowing and then stand downwind. Simple." No, not so simple. The breeze, always a capricious factor in Melbourne, was swirling around constantly.


Some bubbles blew south, some bubbles blew north. Some flew down. Some flew straight up. Yes, my trusty assistants thought this was very funny.

The problem was complicated by the fact that I needed to shoot the bubbles against a dark background. Normally that would have been the rich, lush green grass. But after the dry, scorching summer we've had, there is precious little grass.

This left me two (very narrow) fields of opportunity. One was to shoot a flying bubble against the brick wall; the other was to shoot it as it whipped past the covered outdoor barbecue.

These images, like everything else I publish, are uncropped and unedited. Yes, they could have been in sharper focus. But what you see here are the best offerings from 29 frames shot very rapidly, with hilarious results.


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