Snowflake-a-Day #23
It’s all about the center. Symmetrical branches are beautiful, but without a large geometric center, many snowflakes lose their visual appeal. In this case we have a big, beautiful heart depicting what I call an “inner snowflake”. View large!
This “inner snowflake is created as a piece of solid ice, with its outlines defined by bubbles trapped in the ice as it grows. This pattern of growth is common, but it sometimes so closely resembles a snowflake itself that it echoes the future design of the crystal. Snowflakes grow in patterns that evolve from the center; they usually replace solid symmetry with balanced growth with an organic appearance… but something of the center always remains.
Finding snowflakes like this one is often my goal; I try to find the most beautiful specimens that a storm has to offer. Many ugly, broken, or unsymmetrical snowflakes are cast aside to find crystals like this. I’m perpetuating the stereotype that all snowflakes are beautiful by selecting the best-of-the-best to showcase in this series, but anyone who has attempted snowflake photography will know: the beautiful ones are hard to find.
They are especially hard to find when the temperature is rising to +8C at the moment. We haven’t had good snowflakes falling for quite some time! This crystal fell on February 10 of this year (2014), but only now has it been given the attention in editing to make it shine. There are still hundreds of snowflakes waiting for their day in the spotlight… and many that will never make it. When the temperatures get cold again I’ll be out shooting in full force, but I need to keep my sanity and limit this series to 100 images each year. :)
The science and photographic techniques of previous years is chronicled in Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ - well worth checking out if you have any interest in my work – from the perspective of beauty or with the desire to create your own!
Snowflake-a-Day #23
It’s all about the center. Symmetrical branches are beautiful, but without a large geometric center, many snowflakes lose their visual appeal. In this case we have a big, beautiful heart depicting what I call an “inner snowflake”. View large!
This “inner snowflake is created as a piece of solid ice, with its outlines defined by bubbles trapped in the ice as it grows. This pattern of growth is common, but it sometimes so closely resembles a snowflake itself that it echoes the future design of the crystal. Snowflakes grow in patterns that evolve from the center; they usually replace solid symmetry with balanced growth with an organic appearance… but something of the center always remains.
Finding snowflakes like this one is often my goal; I try to find the most beautiful specimens that a storm has to offer. Many ugly, broken, or unsymmetrical snowflakes are cast aside to find crystals like this. I’m perpetuating the stereotype that all snowflakes are beautiful by selecting the best-of-the-best to showcase in this series, but anyone who has attempted snowflake photography will know: the beautiful ones are hard to find.
They are especially hard to find when the temperature is rising to +8C at the moment. We haven’t had good snowflakes falling for quite some time! This crystal fell on February 10 of this year (2014), but only now has it been given the attention in editing to make it shine. There are still hundreds of snowflakes waiting for their day in the spotlight… and many that will never make it. When the temperatures get cold again I’ll be out shooting in full force, but I need to keep my sanity and limit this series to 100 images each year. :)
The science and photographic techniques of previous years is chronicled in Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ - well worth checking out if you have any interest in my work – from the perspective of beauty or with the desire to create your own!