Snowflake-a-Day #45
Potentially the largest snowflake photographed this season to make it into the series, there is unending complexity in the branches and as always, a few curiosities. View large!
Snowflakes like this fascinate me, but they often get a mixed reception from the public. The more complex the design, the deeper you need to look to find the same level of beauty as a “simple” snowflake. Maybe the same could be said for most things in life? The details here are quite fascinating, and understanding them makes the snowflake even more beautiful.
For five of the branches, you can clearly see surface details facing the camera. Ridges and ribs on the surface of the snowflake create an almost mountainous terrain as the topography casts shadows due to a very deliberate angle of light. A curious fact about snowflakes is that these features will only ever be on one side of a snowflake in any given place. In normal circumstances, a snowflake will pick a side for these details and stick with it… but this is not an ordinary snowflake.
The upper right branch has these surface features on the opposite side of the snowflake, facing away from the camera. The features can still be seen, but you’re seeing through reflections on the front surface of the snowflake. This branch grew out of a “capped column” type of snowflake from a different plate, and this creates additional complexity to the design that can easily “flip” the chosen side for these details. We see this same flip happening on many of the side-branches, and even the main branches by the end of the lower right and lower left branches. These contours are on the opposite side of the snowflake.
I can explain how, but I’m not sure I’ve grasped why these features form only on one side. When the tip of a branch splits in two because a cavity forms on the end, this is a great opportunity for a flip in surface details. This creates branches that are growing a step below the main level of the snowflake, and you’ll often see multiple “cascades” as snowflake grows. If you look closely, some shadows around the points where these flips happen will tell you that they are growing on a different level.
There is no end to the depth of a single snowflake. When I’m out photographing these beauties and I look around me to witness millions more falling from the sky with equal beauty, it becomes impossible to realize the true magic of nature around is. The numbers get too large and our imaginations just aren’t big enough to see it all at once. Looking at the one at a time however, we get to find that appreciation. It’s one of the reasons for this series!
If you love thinking about how nature works, and if you like discovering it for yourself with a camera in hand, the perfect winter companion is Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/book/ - a 304pg hardcover book dedicated to the beautiful physics of snow and the photography used to capture images just like this. It certainly makes winter a little more tolerable!
Snowflake-a-Day #45
Potentially the largest snowflake photographed this season to make it into the series, there is unending complexity in the branches and as always, a few curiosities. View large!
Snowflakes like this fascinate me, but they often get a mixed reception from the public. The more complex the design, the deeper you need to look to find the same level of beauty as a “simple” snowflake. Maybe the same could be said for most things in life? The details here are quite fascinating, and understanding them makes the snowflake even more beautiful.
For five of the branches, you can clearly see surface details facing the camera. Ridges and ribs on the surface of the snowflake create an almost mountainous terrain as the topography casts shadows due to a very deliberate angle of light. A curious fact about snowflakes is that these features will only ever be on one side of a snowflake in any given place. In normal circumstances, a snowflake will pick a side for these details and stick with it… but this is not an ordinary snowflake.
The upper right branch has these surface features on the opposite side of the snowflake, facing away from the camera. The features can still be seen, but you’re seeing through reflections on the front surface of the snowflake. This branch grew out of a “capped column” type of snowflake from a different plate, and this creates additional complexity to the design that can easily “flip” the chosen side for these details. We see this same flip happening on many of the side-branches, and even the main branches by the end of the lower right and lower left branches. These contours are on the opposite side of the snowflake.
I can explain how, but I’m not sure I’ve grasped why these features form only on one side. When the tip of a branch splits in two because a cavity forms on the end, this is a great opportunity for a flip in surface details. This creates branches that are growing a step below the main level of the snowflake, and you’ll often see multiple “cascades” as snowflake grows. If you look closely, some shadows around the points where these flips happen will tell you that they are growing on a different level.
There is no end to the depth of a single snowflake. When I’m out photographing these beauties and I look around me to witness millions more falling from the sky with equal beauty, it becomes impossible to realize the true magic of nature around is. The numbers get too large and our imaginations just aren’t big enough to see it all at once. Looking at the one at a time however, we get to find that appreciation. It’s one of the reasons for this series!
If you love thinking about how nature works, and if you like discovering it for yourself with a camera in hand, the perfect winter companion is Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/book/ - a 304pg hardcover book dedicated to the beautiful physics of snow and the photography used to capture images just like this. It certainly makes winter a little more tolerable!