Thursday, January 8, 2009


Snow Crystals (January 2005)

I took this, and several other, snow crystal images with the same digicam I used for the Yosemite image. I had recently read Kenneth Libbrechts's excellent The Snowflake, Winter's Secret Beauty and was primed to recognize the different types of snow crystals. In this image we have several types including capped columns, ridged plates, split stars, spatial dendrites, and triangular crystals. Who knew there were so many different types?

These flakes were on the driver's side door window of my car. I took them while stopped at a light on my way home form work. There were some rather large flakes mixed in and I was recognizing the different types. I remember thinking how cool that was. So I grabbed my camera, set it on macro mode, and shot away (until another car drove up behind me). I've not seen similar conditions since.

None of my images hold a candle to those in Libbrecht's books. But I was very excited to get any recognizable flakes at all.  And I keep hoping for snow.

Click here to visit Libbrectht's site if you'd like to see what a real snow photographer can do.

10 comments:

Chesney said...

This is amazing - never thought about shooting snowflakes in macro mode - now all we need is some snow to try it with! The book looks really interesting - might have to purchase that one! Creativity at it's best!! NICE

jo said...

And I never thought to take photographs of the car windows while stopped at a light.

Nice shot.

Allison said...

WOW! That is amazing! I would love to see such flakes. I've seen some in Colorado, but never in this detail.

Thanks for the comment, too -- I love snow also. Don't live around any of it anymore, though, sadly!

Ron a.k.a. Danudin said...

It's so hot here that the minute I opened your file the snowflakes melted, now I have a wet screen, I can't compete with that!!

mljrbg said...

Great photo. Interesting explanation.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photo and thanks for the link.

DART said...

WOW is right! What a neat image...such distinctive shapes---incredible! Nice capture!

Kerri said...

This is such a neat photo. I love the star shaped one nearly in the middle. I'd love to try to get shots like this, but down in Georgia our chances for snow are few and far between! :) Well done!

BobbieCoughlin said...

Really lovely. With all the volume of snow we've been having, it gives one a different perspective to look at it more intimately.

terricreates said...

Great shots, love the detail of the flakes, I love forcing the camera to go against its own will to focus. Great job.