View allAll Photos Tagged Snowflakes
Photographing snowflakes is much more fun that shoveling them! After clearing the driveway... again... this afternoon, I spend some time taking photos of individual snowflakes using my "snowflake studio."
It is rare to find perfect snowflakes. If the temperature is too warm the snow flakes will clump together. If it's windy, the snowflakes will get battered around and break apart. But today, with temps in the 20's and no wind, the conditions were almost perfect.
This snowflake has some clumpy bits but also some nicely feathered branches.
Submitted for my dearest SIL, Heidi... :-)
Another classic snowflake design, the stellar dendrite! However, there is something peculiar about this one. Can you spot the growth on at least four separate layers?
The first two are easy – the central hexagon is growing above the main body of the snowflake. The tell-tale sign is the central “dot” in the middle, signifying that a column-type snowflake grew plates out of both ends, and the bottom plate grew faster, eventually sprouting branches. You can even notice some asymmetry in the center; both the inner hexagon and the outer center appear to be growing faster towards the lower left. This type of asymmetry is quite common.
The other layers are hiding in plain view. Take a look at the top branch, and the two side-branches just up from the center. One is growing on a layer in front of the main branch, and the other is growing behind. Now that you know what to look for, visually navigate the rest of the snowflake and you’ll find many branches forming in this way. Snowflakes are not two-dimensional creations!
The small snowflake on the left branches is slightly turned to the camera, so it doesn’t get the full “glare” effect off its surface. How many details are missing as a result? Plenty! Who knows, the center of that smaller snowflake may have been vibrantly colourful from the effects of thin film interference and we would never know this.
Speaking of “missing information”, there is one side-branch that is missing from the larger snowflake. On the bottom branch, there’s a little indentation opposite the broadest side-branch. This would have been the location where another side-branch had emerged, but it broke off at some point and was never able to regrow. When you have layered growth like this, those connecting points tend to be quite fragile. A collision with another crystal, or with the ground, can have dramatic consequences that you would never otherwise realize.
In the end, it’s just another beautiful snowflake to add to the collection. And there will be many more of them to come!
eBook: Macro Photography – The Universe at Our Feet: skycrystals.ca/product/pre-order-ebook-edition-macro-phot... (fully instructive on all things macro, including how to photograph snowflakes)
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Real snowflake macro photo.
Ideas for home and office decor, interior designs and gifts (300+ macro photos of real snowflakes, 30+ different products: framed, canvas, acrylic, metal, wood prints; posters, greeting cards, and more): Artist website.
Collection of snowflakes in full resolution, lossless PNG format (with masks and isolated versions on transparent background) available at Patreon.
Here is licenses for commercial use.
As much as I hate shoveling, a shot like this makes it worth the time. :)
Macro shot of a snowflake
www.facebook.com/conradcastelophotography
Strobist info:
SB-800 shot through a 22" White diffuser on camera left and above, triggered via Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS).
It's incredibly cold right now in Northern Colorado........So, what to do.........I KNOW!! Go put on your arctic clothing and go outside and photograph snowflakes!! Its what we do!!! This was my first time attempting real snowflake photography. I must admit that its a bit addictive. I got very excited when I saw cool flakes land on my material. The conditions were just right yesterday morning, 2-11-2021. It was about 7 degrees outside and there was a very light snowfall with no wind. It was just perfect for catching individual snowflake crystals because the cold temperature helps keep the crystals sharp and slows the melting process. I used a black material phone case to catch the flakes. I didn't have much time as the falling snow didn't last very long. I used a tripod with a horizontal mount for my camera and had it very low to the ground where I was catching flakes. I used a Nikon D850 with a Nikkor 105mm F2.8 macro lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. I didn't want to focus stack these images so, I used a very small aperture of F16 to try and get the best depth of field. I had my camera lens mostly parallel to the material catching the flakes so that they would be flat and thus more in focus. Its important to keep everything on the same plane of focus if we aren't going to focus stack. I used only the natural light I had available. I hope to be able to improve on my technique moving forward....including using some external light and extension tubes to get closer to my subject. All of these images were heavily cropped. WHAT A FUN MORNING!!!!!
Rich fruit cake drenched with brandy, covered in marzipan and fondant with edible snowflakes and a generous dsusting of edible white glitter for that Christmas sparkle.
This photo of a snowflake atop a blue woolen scarf was taken at full magnification with a macro lens and two extension tubes of 36mm and 20mm (if you are not familiar with extension tubes, they allow you to get a closer focus on the subject, the snowflake in this case). A tripod and shutter release were used. Focus was manual, and achieved using Live View while zoomed in at 10x on the snowflake.
The first person to ever photograph a snowflake in detail was Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1865–1931). His work revealed the symmetry of ice crystals and the fact that no two snowflakes are alike. You can see his work at the Snowflake Bentley Museum (free) in Jericho, Vermont. Google it for details.
I must confess that I never cared about snowflakes too much ... until I read an article about the uniqueness of each crystal. So I took my gear to the balcony and made some „field stacks“. And yes ... if you are able to have a closer look these fractal shapes are pretty fascinating. Each snowflake is a small geometric miracle.
I’ve often referred to these snowflakes as “inner future” crystals, due to the appearance of a branched snowflake in the center of a hexagonal plate. What you’re seeing here is imply a collection of bubbles in the ice that allow for more reflective surfaces – therefore the bubbles appear brighter!
These larger bubbles form predominantly along the center of the prism facet where is less access to water vapour, and I had previously assumed there was a link with the outer edge of a snowflake growing with a cavity inside of it because there was fewer building blocks to go around. A new additional theory is this: valleys in the surface of the snowflake form via cascading growth, slowly thickening from the center. But what happens if the outer edge starts to thicken on its own, due to the crystal chaotically floating to a part of the cloud with slightly less humidity? This can thicken the outer edge – imagine a snowflake only as big as the darker hexagon in the center.
We now have a valley that can no longer fill in gracefully with shallow-slanted edges. The cascading valley transitions to a “cliff”, and the 90-degree edge of these geometric canyons grow a ceiling over top. This is similar to how the tiny bubbles at the base of each branch for as well. However, take a look at the lower branches and their leading edge of growth – you’ll see the “classic” theory at play; these bubbles form right at the leading edge of the prism facet, as the traditional model would have predicted. While the two models co-exist, I believe only the “new” way bubbles form can allow fore layers so thin that colours are evoked from this film interference.
There’s another angle to this – staring right at us on the left-most branch. What happens if a cavity growing on the edge of a snowflake grows so large that it cuts the snowflake into two parallel outgrowing planes? What if one of those thin planes gets a boost to grow slightly faster than the other? You’ll find that a snowflake branch can split itself into multiple layers! Also interesting on this branch is the partial ellipse, which is caused by a thicker wall of ice “backfilling” towards the center of the snowflake.
These subjects are a dance of physics, happening by the millions and billions every time you see a snowfall. They grow outward and inward with multiple methods to depict beauty within the chaos of our universe. The fun bit to consider here, is that this is just a tiny collection of organized water molecules. It simply “is”. We may find it beautiful, but the beauty is not contained within the subject itself; the beauty in a snowflake is found within our own minds and our perception of the universe around us.
eBook: Macro Photography – The Universe at Our Feet: skycrystals.ca/product/pre-order-ebook-edition-macro-phot... (fully instructive on all things macro, including how to photograph snowflakes)
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Merry Christmas! Wishing everyone a wonderful time with family and friends in the safest ways possible. There’s a lot for me to reflect on at this time of year, especially with all of the life-changing events that have happened in 2021. As I sit here in my home in rural Bulgaria, I realize this will be a Christmas like no other.
We are still settling in (we took delivery and assembled our dining room table today), but every accomplishment makes this feel more like home. There has been enough free time over the past week to edit and present to you this snowflake image – with a record-breaking number of images. Eighty eight focus stacked slices were utilized to bring this image to life, narrowly beating out my previous record of 87. There are complex interactions, missing pieces, and plenty of hidden details to explore!
There are at least three missing branch tips – two on the right large snowflake, and one on the bottom of the smaller left crystal. Snowflakes often grow with points that are far more fragile than others, and the larger they get the more fragile they become. Finding gargantuan snowflakes > 1cm in diameter fully intact is nearly impossible. Even with a few breaking points, it’s still a beautiful thing.
This snowflake also has a “dipped in diamonds” feel to it. At some point in its history, it encountered super-cooled water droplets that froze on impact; this creates little wart-like features on the surface – not exactly pleasing! However, if the snowflake returns to normal growth conditions in water vapour (not droplets), something magical can happen. Those warts start to grow facets. Each one of them turns into a beautiful hexagonal prism growing on the surface of the snowflake. Glittering across the surface of this complex crystal is a depth of volumetric detail almost never seen on a single snowflake.
I see that as a valid metaphor for this year, as well as the previous one. You won’t find anyone who lived through 2020 or 2021 that didn’t have moments of uncertainty. Unwanted events have impacted us all. Yet, we continue to grow and shape ourselves into something greater. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I wouldn’t have realized the path that I am currently on now, which I am incredibly grateful for.
So, this Christmas, I wish everyone a joyous time. :) Hopefully I will be able to continue this series as the winter progresses, and have time for other creative musings along the way.
Perfect snowflakes have been falling all day during the intense snowfall we've had. Photographed on the bristles of a broom.
19 degrees F (-7 C)
Jefferson, Wisconsin, USA
A fancy dessert plate? This tiny snowflake has some very cool features. Even though it lacks the complex branch formations of dendrite snowflakes, there is always a lot to explore. Can you spot the three waves of simultaneous growth?
The first is the easiest – the outer footprint of the snowflake. Whatever sticks out the farthest, grows the fastest. The second wave of growth is actually heading in the opposite direction, identified by a circle around the central hexagon. If an outside edge of the snowflake grows thicker at some point, this thicker edge can grow both outward and inward, with the inward growth adding the extra thickness back to the rest of the crystal. This type of growth becomes rounded as it gets closer to the center.
If the circle is on the front of the crystal, the other surface details are on the opposite side. For a reason I do not have the knowledge to explain, surface details on a snowflake only occur on one side of the crystal. The “details” side may flip around when side-branches form, but a snowflake will never have full surface details on both sides of the same area through natural growth. Inward circles on an otherwise smooth surface is all you’ll get.
The third wave of growth is hard to spot even though you’ve bee staring directly at it. All those surface details, lines and indentations near the outer part of the snowflake? Those are “filling in” as a second set of outward-facing growth. Sometimes this fills in completely, other times a “ceiling” forms over indentations to create bubbles in the ice. I’m still trying to figure out the exact mechanisms that drive this, but I believe this “ceiling” growth over previously-formed depressions in the surface topography of a snowflake account for a lot of the bubbles we see in these gems. Because the top ceiling of ice will be super thin, it can also more properly explain the vibrant colours seen in some snowflakes through thin film interference.
Shot on my Lumix S1R with the Canon MP-E 65mm lens at maximum magnification plus extension tubes (roughly 6x), this snowflake still wouldn’t fill the frame. Almost all plate-type snowflakes (prior to growing branches) measure 2mm or less. At that scale, it can be difficult to extract all the details I’m after. The image is shot at F/2.8 to minimize diffraction, though the effective aperture becomes closer to F/22. I’ve had some luck with Topaz Gigapixel AI with my recent snowflake images since the subject is essentially “geometry” to help things along a bit further as well. 35 images focus stacked from a handheld series of more than 200 frames. No small task!
If you’d like to learn more about the process of photographing snowflakes, the most comprehensive tutorial on the matter is found in my book on macro photography. A shout-out to my friends at The Camera Store that bought a bunch of copies prior to my relocation and currently have it on sale for less than I ever sold it for. It’s a steal: thecamerastore.com/products/don-komarechka-macro-photogra...
This bedraggled snowflake is fading away – the ends of the branches are all rounded as it sublimates back into thin air. You probably didn’t notice that, being captivated by the rainbow star in the center. Let’s talk about colourful snowflakes and how they form!
You don’t see crystals like this in every snowfall. In the snowy region of Canada where I used to live (Barrie, Ontario), we would get a few snowfalls a season that would produce colourful snowflakes; if you discover one, there are likely others nearby. So, what’s in the snowflake to give them colour? Air.
Imagine a red car. We see red because the paint absorbs all colours except red, which is then reflected to our eyes. There are more ways to perceive colour, including metamerism where multiple wavelengths combine to appear to be a different colour – this is how nearly all digital cameras and displays work. Human visual perception is a complicated thing! What we see in these snowflakes as colour is effectively multiple wavelengths of light some amplified and some diminished by optical interference. Imagine a soap bubble, an oil spot, or the wing of the Madagascan Sunset Moth.
In the case of the snowflake, the colour forms where there are bubbles in the ice. Since the presence of a bubble creates more surfaces to reflect light (each air/ice and ice/air boundary will be reflective), bubbles tend to be brighter areas on snowflakes when illuminated with reflected light off the surface. The magic happens when the bubble or ice layers are incredibly thin, thanks to the way light slows down when passing through denser material. It happens like this:
Some light bounces off the front surface of the ice. Nothing complicated there, but some of the light penetrates into the ice itself, and during it’s time inside the super-thin layer of ice, it slows down (ice is denser than air). Some of this light will reflect off the inside ice-air boundary where the bubble begins, heading back to the camera. It’ll quickly leave the ice and resume its regular travel at the speed of light in air, rejoining the light that has reflected off the first surface initially… but wait, it slowed down for a little bit, right?
The two reflections of light will be “out of sync” with one another as result. If the thickness of the ice is small enough such that these reflections can interact with each-other on a wavelength-of-light level, we get complex constructive and destructive interference. Some wavelengths get amplified, others get cancelled out, and white light no longer balances to white. We see a colour via optical interference and perceived via metamerism! The best part of this? The balance changes based on the thickness of the ice. Change the thickness and you change the way the two reflections of light interact, as the out-of-syncness will also change. The light from the internal reflection will be been slowed down for a shorter or longer time.
Now, back to the snowflake. The very center is solid, and thereby darker. Not all bubbles create interference colours – if they are thicker, or the ice covering them is thicker, we might not see colours at all; this true of nearly all snowflakes, as it is true for the center of this crystal beyond the coloured bits. However, if we get the right conditions, light plays a magic trick for us. The interference interaction can happen between any two reflective layers; with a bubble in the ice, there are four reflective surfaces in total. It could very well be an interaction between light from the 2nd and 3rd reflections internally, and the colours change based on the thickness of the bubble rather than the thickness of the “ceiling” ice on top of it. One might assume the ceiling ice that seals off the bubble is the same thickness, but I’m not sure how to concretely prove that through direct observations.
Anyhow, a rainbow star is born inside of a snowflake, thanks to some bending and interfering light coupled with how our eyes interpret information. Understanding the process makes it more beautiful in my mind, and I hope you appreciate the same beauty of understanding.
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I love the classics, but this one has a few unique twists to it! It all starts in the center, where multiple layers of geometry add beauty to this skyborne gem.
The central dot is a dead giveaway that this snowflake began as a column. Plates commonly grow from either side of a column as it transitions to a more humid environment. But then, we have a third layer? The branches are forming on a layer underneath the central plates – and even going so far as to create a fourth layer in the central top area.
A combination of “capped column” and “crystal splitting” can account for this, whereas the larger plate could have grown a cavity around the edge that split it into two parallel plates. This wouldn’t explain, however, the 18 or more elongated ellipses pointing back towards the center, forming a sort of “glue” between the larger hexagon and the underlying branches. One ellipse matches perfectly for each branch, but there are a heck of a lot more in between. They all radiate back to a mysterious origin point in the center: a vague circle. They all terminate there.
This type of structure interconnecting two parallel growths is the hallmark of a “skeletal form”-type snowflake. While crystals can be visually identified by these features, they are still difficult to explain and may be caused by multiple factors. I wish I could explain how these features were created; they remain headscratchers, even after consulting physicists.
This crystal has a few other interesting bits! Rarely do we see thin film interference colours occur outside of the central hexagon of a snowflake, but here we can spot it in the branches. Upper left and lower right! It’s the little details that make a crystal like this special to me, and we can see even smaller details worthy of a quick mention.
Notice how there are tiny black dots along the broad “spine” of all but the bottom two branches? These appear to be small dents in the ice, soon to be covered with an ultra-thin sheet of ice. On the bottom branch, they’ve already been covered over – can you spot the tiny bubbles in the same approximate location? These form into bubbles well after the snowflake has grown outward beyond that point. At least some of these details can be explained!
eBook: Macro Photography – The Universe at Our Feet: skycrystals.ca/product/pre-order-ebook-edition-macro-phot... (fully instructive on all things macro, including how to photograph snowflakes)
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The parts of a snowflake often fit together like puzzle pieces. What at first has the illusion of symmetry will break down into simple balance. This particular snowflake is very asymmetric, but everything still “fits”.
Things started to get weird in the center, when a droplet of super-cooled water froze on the 2 o’clock branch, disrupting what would have been a more symmetrical growth. The ripple effect can be seen all across the crystal from this, albeit maybe not the only element of chaos thrown in the direction of this snowflake.
Notice how the lower-right branch has no initial side-branches near the center? That space was taken over by faster-growing branches on either side. The most “normal” symmetric branch is found on the upper-left, and the oddest among them is at the top; somehow that branch started as two separate branches! There’s a bubble between them as a “clue”, but there is not enough information to unravel this particular mystery.
What I find fascinating about this snowflake is the regularity at which the surface contours “switch sides”. If you see dark / contrasting features, that’s the topography of a snowflake facing the camera. If you see similar features with lighter grey features, those same details are present – but on the other side of the crystal. They almost always “sandwich” each-other, for which I have no explanation in physics. If a branch is growing lower (further away from the camera), the features are on top. If the branch is growing on a higher plane, closer to the camera, the features are on the bottom. The surface topography always faces each-other.
Of particular note on the details, most branch tips have some very cool ridges and valleys, some of which have started to fill in as bubbles. If only I could have watched this snowflake grow, it would have provided so much information as to how these features form. The upper-right branch tip is different, likely because that part of the snowflake had attached itself to another crystal while still growing. It breaks the overall balance a bit, but it doesn’t tarnish the charm of this skyborne jewel.
Merry Christmas, everyone! This is the penultimate snowflake in the daily series this year. There will be another one tomorrow, and then sporadically as I can find the time between other projects until the end of winter. Each one of these images takes an average of four hours to put together, some of them much longer. Tomorrow’s snowflake is ready, after taking over 14 hours to edit. I hope you’ve been appreciating them, and you’ll be wowed by what Christmas Day will bring. :)
eBook: Macro Photography – The Universe at Our Feet: skycrystals.ca/product/pre-order-ebook-edition-macro-phot... (fully instructive on all things macro, including how to photograph snowflakes)
Buy Me a Coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/donkomphoto
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Real snowflake macro photo.
Ideas for home and office decor, interior designs and gifts (300+ macro photos of real snowflakes, 30+ different products: framed, canvas, acrylic, metal, wood prints; posters, greeting cards, and more): Artist website.
Collection of snowflakes in full resolution, lossless PNG format (with masks and isolated versions on transparent background) available at Patreon.
Here is licenses for commercial use.
I consider this gem special for a number of reasons, the biggest one being the clues it provides to how snowflakes grow bubbles from features inside their “footprint”. I’ll talk about that in a bit, but first let’s take a look at how this “split crystal”-type of snowflake began!
Split crystals are always multi-layered snowflakes which immediately adds a quirky volumetric quality to their design. You can even see shadows where the top half of the snowflake rises about the bottom half. These types of snowflakes usually start from a column that grows plates from either end, each competing for available building blocks: water vapour. As it tumbles through the air, one side of a plate might grow a little faster than the other, and vice versa, resulting in a portion of the branches growing from opposing plates. The portions can change, with a split of 1/5, 2/4 or 3/3 where one plate has more branches than the other, or we have an even split – this one’s an even 3/3 where the bottom plate grew the left three branches and the top plate holds the rest of the of them.
There are surface details also in opposing fashion, something I can’t quite figure out yet – but it’s incredibly consistent with these snowflakes. The bottom plate has surface features facing the camera, and the top plate has surface features facing away from the camera – these features always “face each-other” and not the other way around. I might be able to figure out “why” at some point, but lets’ look into the bubble formations here first.
Here’s a diagram ( skycrystals.ca/bts/PDKP3892.jpg ) with red arrows showing the direction of growth on the upper left branch. These arrows show the inward edges of a “ceiling” forming over valleys in the surface of the snowflake. Some of these have already completed to form bubbles, but it’s very interesting to see many of them partially formed. It provides some fairly clear evidence to how these intricate bubble patterns in snowflake branches actually form. Previously, it had been understood that these bubbles form on the leading edge of the snowflake as cavities in the prism facet. This however shows that they seal themselves off from the top (or bottom) basal facet.
I’ve outlined the one branch, but can you see the same happening on the others? Here’s a full resolution version of the image to explore in more detail: skycrystals.ca/full-res/PDKP3892.jpg . Note that it’s a heck of a lot harder to spot these growth patterns on the right side of the snowflake when the details are on the opposite side of the crystal!
Also, that colourful spot on the lower branch? Look closely and you’ll see indications that bubbles actually formed underneath it. This leaves only one prominent explanation: part of another snowflake had fused here, and was later broken off. This is supported by the sharp-but-curved line at the bottom as a break point. Snowflakes are fun physics puzzles to figure out! It often starts with observing “how” things happen, and I hope I can eventually understand why these features are forming as well. Always an adventure!
If you’d like to learn more about how these snowflakes are photographed, please check out my book on macro photography, the #1 bestseller on B&H Photo: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1637255-REG/don_komarechka...
Snowflake . 3 times macro. Hand held with VERY cold hands! They say no two snowflakes are the same and all snowflakes have six " arms ".
How about a small splash of colour to brighten your morning? And I mean small – the only notable colour here is found in the center of a snowflake “adornment” to the main crystal. Even still, it’s quite vibrant! As I like to question everything: why are some colours found in snowflakes more muted than others? Why are some colours more common?
Optical interference doesn’t produce a traditional “rainbow” of colours. The patterns and connecting colours are different from that you would see emerging from a prism. Because the same type of physics creates colours in soap bubbles, there’s a fair amount of “popular science” written about these colours, and there are charts: soapbubble.fandom.com/wiki/Color_and_Film_Thickness
You’ll notice that the more vibrant colours tend to be seen with the thinnest film. Dull green and magenta-type colours are also far more common because they readily repeat when these films become thicker. Some colours, such as the blue we see in this snowflake, are rare; blue only occurs twice, and only one instance allows this particular light-blue hue. That can also tell you the exact thickness in that area of the snowflake! Whichever ice / air layer responsible for the optical interference is roughly 250nm thick. 250 nanometers = 0.00025 millimeters.
Onto the larger snowflake, we see a lot of surface features that reveal the contours and texture this snowflake possesses, through the use of reflected light photography. Many of these features would simply appear transparent if I was lighting the snowflake from behind. It can appear chaotic on larger snowflakes, making it difficult to understand exactly how the various features form; this includes the center, which at first glance is a hexagon! But no. The geometry is fractured.
On a smaller snowflake, such features could be inspected and a hypothesis might emerge as to how the top left of this hexagon appears to break away from the rest. There might be clues on the outer edge, or details that we cannot see from this far away. The bubbles in the center also appear peculiarly asymmetrical, but these mysteries cannot be solved at this distance. We can still admire the overall beauty of the final form, however!
Oh, and can you spot the third snowflake in this image? Upper right branch, just hangin’ on. It’s tilted from the camera and doesn’t get the same sparkly “glare” effect as the other two crystals; this makes it appear transparent, but it’s a helpful remind that ALL snowflakes are transparent like glass. :)
eBook: Macro Photography – The Universe at Our Feet: skycrystals.ca/product/pre-order-ebook-edition-macro-phot... (fully instructive on all things macro, including how to photograph snowflakes)
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Part of my collection of snowflakes captured through out the day. This one was combined stack of 10 images.
A snowflake image from long ago, I remember this as my first attempt at snowflake photography. Taken late at night at -38 F (-39C) using a flashlight and a point-and-shoot camera.
From this day on, I have been fascinated with snowflakes; their unbounded diversity, their infinite beauty, their absolute natural purity.
A classic pair! This is what we imagine when we think of “snowflakes”, right? Pseudo-symmetry and balance in the shape of a star. While these are depicted in decorations, movies and cartoons, they are just one narrow example of how snowflakes can form – and the deeper you look, the stranger things can become.
The very center of the larger snowflake is a small dark dot. Is this what “nucleated” the snowflake? No, it’s the remnants of a column-type crystal that grew plates. Snowflakes do, however, need something to start their growth – a speck of dust smaller than a grain of sand is all it takes. It could be started with airborne bacteria! The central column here is the smallest feature we can see, but it illustrates that this particular snowflake is a “split crystal”.
Split crystals form when plates grow on either side of a column, with each set of corners fighting for building blocks. Six simultaneous battles ensue, one for each point on the parallel hexagons. If one of the two points ends up growing slightly larger than its competitor, it’s game over. Whatever sticks out the farthest, grows the fastest. In this specimen, the top plate won three (top, bottom, upper left) and the bottom plate won the remaining three plates. The snowflake is stuck together by a very fragile column of ice in the center; it wouldn’t take much to break it into two pieces, and snowflakes of this design after reach the ground in fragments.
There’s also the anomaly in the lower left branch. It appears like a sheet of ice is ground on top of the branch as it leaves the center. What gives? It’s hard to be certain just by looking, but I have seen some spines on branches reach a considerable height above the branch and shape into a near-90-degree edge. This, in turn, can cause outward growth from the top, like an anvil. It’s the basis for a rare type of snowflake referred to as a “skeletal form” crystal, but we see hints of it in more common specimens. Interestingly, the same reasoning can apply to the “sheet” behind the top branch. Since this branch has (most of) its surface features opposing the camera, the sheet of ice is also growing on the opposite side of the crystal.
The smaller stellar snowflake in the upper right is a fun example of growth conditions – these snowflakes formed in the same cloud, at the same time, yet they come out differently. Broad branches tend to mean stable, lower-humidity growth, but a cloud isn’t a controlled environment. The two primary variables of temperature and humidity are always fluctuating, and the tiniest change results in unique features. Each snowflake flies its own path in nature, which is why you’ll never find two identical snowflakes in the natural world. Even lab-grown crystals from my friend Ken Libbrecht at CalTech, in their attempt to be “identical twins” still have a unique fingerprint to them.
This image was photographed using my Lumix S1R with the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens, a combination I have used reliably for most of my snowflake imagery. Lighting is provided by a Yongnuo YN-14EX II ring flash, F/2.8, ISO 200 and 1/160 sec exposure time (this is the fastest flash sync speed of the camera). I could shoot at ISO 100, but the flash would be required to double the light output, and it wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rate of shooting. Even at ISO 200, an external battery back needs to be plugged into the flash to keep it firing for every image.
On average, I photograph 2-300 images of each snowflake gathering slices of focus handheld, and then choose an average of 40 images with different parts of the snowflake in focus to bring the entire image sharp from tip to tip. Even still, I sometimes miss a frame and there is a slight blurry area where the details of adjacent slices of focus don’t completely cover the gap. A trained eye can spot it – can you? There are two areas in this image where the details lack perfect sharpness.
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Sunday and yesterday light snow was falling so yesterday I decided to try my hand at photographing snowflakes even though I don't have the right equipment. I used tripod, 100mm macro lens, 25mm and 12 mm extension tubes combined, caught falling snow on a piece of glass that I left outdoors overnight (temp. about 16F), and put black construction paper under the glass. I also used a ring light. Getting proper focus and finding single snowflakes was a big challenge. What I thought were large snowflakes turned out to be clusters of several snowflakes.
The owners Wilson "snowflake" Bentley's images (snowflakebentley.com/bio.htm) do not need to fear competition from me, obviously. If you want to see good snowflake images check out the above link or better yet search "bentley snowflakes pictures." IMG_0315
Small star plate snowflake with short and broad arms, fine symmetry and complex inner structure. This crystal is one of my all-time favorites.
Ideas for home and office decor, interior designs and gifts (300+ macro photos of real snowflakes, 30+ different products: framed, canvas, acrylic, metal, wood prints; posters, greeting cards, and more): Artist website.
Collection of snowflakes in full resolution, lossless PNG format (with masks and isolated versions on transparent background) available at Patreon.
Here is licenses for commercial use.
May your day be filled with wonder.
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This wonder filled fairy is my submission into the Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team's Snowflake Fantasy contest.
Sunday and yesterday light snow was falling so yesterday I decided to try my hand at photographing snowflakes even though I don't have the right equipment. I used tripod, 100mm macro lens, 25mm and 12 mm extension tubes combined, caught falling snow on a piece of glass that I left outdoors overnight (temp. about 16F), and put black construction paper under the glass. I also used a ring light. Getting proper focus and finding single snowflakes was a big challenge. What I thought were large snowflakes turned out to be clusters of several snowflakes.
The owners of Wilson "snowflake" Bentley's images (snowflakebentley.com/bio.htm) do not need to fear competition from me, obviously. If you want to see good snowflake images check out the above link or better yet search "bentley snowflakes pictures."
IMG_0334
My best snowflake image to date. Happily no shortage of snow here in Southern Ontario so I'll have lots of opportunities to improve on it . Shot using a Nikkor 50mm enlarging lens, mounted on a Pentax Auto Bellows, attached to a Pentax *istDS.
Appeared in Explore 01/02/07
This is another creation that uses two kinds of pieces. All except 12 1x1 round plates (for the center frame) are 1x2 trans clear plates.
See alternate view here.
I keep the clear pieces at my desk so I can fiddle around with patterns every now and then. I was able to finish this one today!
No two snowflakes are the same!
Enjoy, and God bless!