Frozen Flowers

[SarahSaurus]

What better way to enjoy this fun time inbetween winter and spring than to combine the 2 seasons in photography? I'm starting to experiment with photographing frozen flowers, and here are some of my favorites from the first batch:

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[Painkillerz]

These are really good. I might try something like this.

[SarahSaurus]

These are really good. I might try something like this.

If you do, freeze it in layers. A little bit of water, then add a flower(s), add a little more water, etc. That way everything freezes in the way you want it to, instead of the flowers just floating on the top. I did mine in a bowl so that I got a nice curved side. I also had a light underneath it when I took pictures, so that light went through the ice instead of just reflecting off the top.

[LetitiaWilson]

Oh wow, these are so pretty!
Do you mind if I show this to a non-forum friend of mine? She's interested in photography and is always looking for new experiments to try.

[SarahSaurus]

Oh wow, these are so pretty!
Do you mind if I show this to a non-forum friend of mine? She's interested in photography and is always looking for new experiments to try.

Sure

[Technetium]

/applaud

[alouvre]

Very pretty! Your photography in general is pretty amazing really; I saw your pictures of your fish and they were just as beautiful.

I never froze flowers before, but I do press them sometimes. It's a really nice hobby, I think. What kind of camera do you use?

[SarahSaurus]

Very pretty! Your photography in general is pretty amazing really; I saw your pictures of your fish and they were just as beautiful.

I never froze flowers before, but I do press them sometimes. It's a really nice hobby, I think. What kind of camera do you use?

Thanks!
Oh pressed flowers are really pretty! Tried to do it once and failed. Idk what I'd do with a bunch of pressed flowers anyway. I have a Nikon D5200 with a kit lens (saving up for a nice lens).

[alouvre]

They are. My first was an orchid from four or five years ago, and last time I checked, it was as thin as tracing paper. Maybe even thinner. I can't find it now though, for some reason. And I can't think of any use for pressed flowers either, but they make nice pictures and perserves neat stuff you'd otherwise just throw away.

I had a Nikon too; forgot the model but it worked pretty well for a hobby. It took a hell long time to focus, though, and one day after a trip to the beach I guess sand got stuck in the lens and it stopped working. I just switched to my phone's camera after that. It's surprisingly not bad with close ups and works rather well with flower photography too.

[VucubCaquix]

Those are some really nice pics I like them. Freezing flowers is a cool idea, might try it out...

I like photography but not enough to spend tons of money on it. So phone camera it is for me. As long as you're close to something and it isn't moving it works fine.

[SarahSaurus]

Took some more shots today, and then let it all melt. I decided to try freezing little peppermint candies next, but they're just turning the water/ice pink, so not sure how that's going to work out....

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Edited to make the images smaller.

[alouvre]

That's so awesome. I love this one, especially:

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It looks like it's in a glass bubble of some sort, real pretty. How exactly do you take these pictures? What do they look like from afar?

[SarahSaurus]

That's so awesome. I love this one, especially:

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It looks like it's in a glass bubble of some sort, real pretty. How exactly do you take these pictures? What do they look like from afar?

I just freeze the flowers in some water. I used a regular bowl for the mold, just poured in a little water, froze it, then added the flowers and a little more water, and just kept adding layers of water until it was full. When it was fully frozen, I took it out, ran cold water over the bowl to sort of warm it up a little bit so that the ice would loosen up and fall out of the bowl. I have an empty 10 gallon fishtank, so I stood it on its side so that it's standing tall, I put the ice on top of it, and put a small lamp inside the fishtank, under the ice. For the second batch of photos I also had it set up next to a window, so for some of the photos I didn't use the lamp and just had natural light coming in from above. Because I used a bowl, the ice block is kind of a dome, and I took pictures both with it flat-side-down, and round-side-down. For the second batch of photos, I also took a small sprig of these little white flowers from my vase, and laid them on top of the ice and next to it, etc. I use a Nikon d5200 with a kit lens, and I had a +10 inch macro filter on the lens for these. I was always pretty close to the ice when taking pictures, and the camera settings varied as I moved things and the light changed.

After the first batch, the ice had melted quite a bit, so I put it back in the bowl, added more water (which made the existing ice dome float on top, so the new layer of water/ice was added onto the round side), and I added in a little thing of those baby-breath flowers. I think with the second batch, the ice was melting more quickly, and it seemed to have more bubbles in it on the round side, where the new layer was.


This is the most zoomed-out picture I have, if it helps give you a better idea of what it looked like:
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[alouvre]

Ah, yeah, I see what you did. That's great, I definitely need to try it sometime. Thanks for sharing your stuff with us too, by the way — it's inspired me to pick up photography again.

[Lisq]

Beautiful!