Floating Ink

I'm currently staying at a Marriott hotel a bit outside of Chicago. I was hoping to get a bit of sightseeing done, but its extremely cold outside and I have been stuck in bed with a high fever for most of the week. However, I did spend some time playing around with some colored inks in the bathroom sink.

There is nothing new about taking pictures of ink in water, but I was quite surprised at the results I was able to achieve under bad lighting in the bathroom with one hand holding the camera and the other the ink.

Ink floating in water

Later I fetched a couple of buckets of ice to try taking some pictures of ice with ink dripped on it. I was hoping the ink would flow smoothly around the ice, creating a stunning visual of colors being reflected and refracted in the ice. Instead, the porous surface of the ice from the machine here at the hotel, made the ink collect itself in little lumps giving it an almost dirty look.

Ink dripped on ice

The inks I used for these experiments are from Sennelier. I suspect you could get similar result with just about any kind of inks, however the higher the viscosity of the ink, the more easier it will probably be to get good pictures of it before it completely blends with the water. You might also successfully be able to add some thickening agent to the water before adding the ink :-)