Bubbles in a Puddle

On finding images in the most unlikely of places

Very early one frosty, clear Sunday morning in winter 2010 I met up with Paul Moon in the Yorkshire Wolds. We had met a couple of years earlier and together we had been visiting and exploring the Yorkshire Wolds at weekends. This particular morning we visited Bailey Dale. The lack of cloud cover meant that I wasn’t too optimistic of making a successful image but I went anyway as it was my first visit there.

We wandered out onto the dale and before the sunlight got up I found a nice frosted leaf composition to set up in the shade. It was lit by the blue sky above so I knew that Velvia would pick up that blue colouring due to its fixed white balance. We are used nowadays to our cameras automatically adjusting the colour of light to a uniform neutral colour. But it was the blue I was after which rendered beautifully on transparency film.

Shortly afterwards, the sun got up and image making looked like it might be over for the day. Nevertheless we had a nice wander around the dry valley and eventually made our way back to the car.

I put my bag down close to my car and I suddenly noticed a puddle close by. It was a tyre track made in the mud from a Land Rover that had been filled with water from the rain and then frozen solid. What’s more it had trapped some air bubbles as it froze. I immediately saw the potential for the main image and set up. I enlisted Paul to assist and he used my dark cloth to cast a shadow over the scene so that the ice turned blue when lit from the sky above.

It is amazing how often remarkable images come from the most unremarkable of places if one’s mind is open to the potential.