YouTube is a bit like an endless rabbit hole. You poke your nose in because it looks interesting, follow it a short way, and before you know it you’ve been wandering aimlessly for what seems like hours. If you’re having trouble finding focus (as I have been over the last couple of years), a brief diversion can become a serious waste of time. That’s not to say there’s no useful information to be found. It is in fact a great source of educational, informative and entertaining material.
Random browsing led to me finding a curious surprise down one branch of the rabbit hole, and I ended up following it for quite a distance. It involved the common everyday soap bubble, and the remarkable psychedelic colours and patterns revealed given the right conditions. I ended up spending quite a bit of time fiddling with dish-soap solutions, light sources (a large softbox and flash) and light blocks, camera angles and settings. It became a fascinating way to waste a few hours when we could hardly leave the house, and the results were fascinating. The bubbles lead rich, varied and tragically short lives. No two are ever the same, and following their swirling forms and colours from their incarnation to their final pop was mesmerizing.
I don’t know what the physics of the effects are, but it probably has something to do with refraction. It doesn’t matter in any case, and it did keep me away from YouTube for a while.
