For more than 20 years, I have worked as a photographer. Very often, I use special effects to create photographs that are intended to look as if improbably or impossible things happen. To do this, I modify cameras and lights, build sets, and construct models. I also experiment with a variety of materials, and make careful observations to learn how things work. Consequently, the technical challenges of this art form have led me toward a greater awareness of science.
Out of curiosity, I began to collect old science books. Most of them were written for children about 100 years ago. I became fascinated with the way these books used illustrations to depict simple, but clever, science experiments. And there was something else I noticed about these illustrations. Even the simplest experiments appeared as if improbable or impossible things were happening. Intrigued, I recreated some of the experiments and photographed them with my camera. The results seemed magical, but not because of any photographic trick; it was only the forces of nature at work. It was from these explorations that the idea for this book emerged.
The photographs in this book were made by conventional methods and are faithful to the science described in the text. The photographs of snowflakes are of real snowflakes, and no substitute for water has been used. With the exception of a few minor colour adjustments, no photographs were altered.
Many of the experiments in this book are the same as, or similar to, those used in the books that introduced science to children nearly 100 years ago; in particular, Soap Bubbles and the Forces That Mold Them, written in 1896 by the ingenious British scientist Charles Vernon Boys; A Study of Splashes, written in 1908 by A.M. Worthington, who was the first person to make stop-motion photographs of water splashes; and The Fairy-Land of Science, written in 1878 by Arabella B. Buckley. Also, techniques for photographing the snowflakes in this book were obtained from the published work of W.A. Bentley, of Jericho, Vermont, who made the first extensive photographs of snowflakes, beginning in 1885.
