So many possibilities, but just five photos allowed for this (and every) month’s theme: liquid! We all need liquid to live. We also need to be liquid (i.e. flush with cash) to pay our bills! 😉 In phonetics, liquid is a consonant produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, and able to be prolonged like a vowel (typically l and r ). Who knew? Liquid is also a phase of matter, where particles are free to flow – which means while a liquid has a definite volume, it does not have a definite shape. Have I convinced you yet there’s a lot of scope to be creative with this one?

I aimed to create a good mix of subject matter, and had lots of fun exploring various characteristics of matter in the liquid state, things like density, polarity and refraction. Here are my favourites:

1. Coffee, elixir of life

If you’re a coffee drinker, you know exactly what I mean! If you’re not, there’s no explaining it. 😉

2. Flowing

Out for a Saturday morning walk, we spotted two sets of footsteps in the fresh snow. Mr GeoK opted to go with the flow and follow them. End result? We discovered a new-to-us hiking trail in Canmore. For several km, the trail roughly parallels Stewart Creek, climbing upstream, before turning sharply right up a steep screen slope, eventually reaching the summit of the middle peak of Three Sisters. We turned back after 90 minutes, so didn’t even make it to the spot where the creek emerges from an underground karst system. But we did see several waterfalls, of which this was the tallest.

3. Density/polarity

The instructions for this home made “lava lamp” are pretty easy. Fill a container about 3/4 with some kind of cooking oil. Add water to bring the level up to about 7/8. Add a few drops of food colouring. Drop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet and enjoy the show!

I posted a BTS video on my Instagram here.

The oil and water start out in distinct layers (oil on top, water on bottom) because of their relative densities. And what prevents the oil and water from eventually blending together as a result of all that Alka Seltzer-induced action is that they have different polarities, so the oil and water molecules also repel one another.

4. Refraction

Water – a liquid by definition – has the abilities to reflect and refract. I posted some water droplet refraction images for the August 2018 PBC and I haven’t tried them since. This is one type of photography that definitely improves with practice. In my option, the guru of water droplet refraction macros is Canadian Don Komarechka. He’s going to be in Calgary next month for a workshop and a Q&A. I’m hoping to make it to at least one of those events.

5. Walking water

In this set up, water appears to defy gravity. But it actually moves because of capillary action. The adhesive forces between the water and the paper towel are stronger than the cohesive forces inside the water. As a result, the water travels up and across the paper towel out of one glass and into another, until the water levels are equalized.

I procrastinated a bit this month, so I didn’t set up the colour-changing, walking water experiment until late morning on October 30th. I let in run for 28 hours, popping downstairs to check on things every few hours during my usual awake time. After 28 hours, the water levels were not fully equalized and the colours were not fully blended in glasses 2 and 4. I am going to leave it set up for one more night, and hope that by morning the result will be closer to what I expected. Regardless, I’ll post a comment with the final result before I clean everything up.

I’m going to break the five photo limit here by showing the end result…

…and a slide show that shows from start to finish (photos taken at random intervals):

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That’s it from me! I’m excited to what other photo blogging challenge participants did with this month’s theme. And I’d like to hear from you! What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of liquid? Please share by leaving a comment (photos welcome).

Finally, please consider joining the photo blogging challenge! I think of it as a low-stress photo assignment – a regular prompt to hone my camera skills. For each month’s theme, you’re asked to share five photos snapped with your choice of camera. The amount of accompanying text is up to you. The next theme will be posted at a ‘lil Hoohaa in early November.