People love to enter hibernation during the winter. Especially when a snowstorm is causing havoc on the roadways. All it takes is an incredible snowflake landing on my sleeve and I’m addicted. During the cold months of the year I keep much of my camera gear cold so that I can be out taking pictures in an instant. Photographing these little ice crystals is fun but what’s even better is seeing them up close and exploring each ridge or crevice. Many are incredibly beautiful when viewed in detail. I keep trying to get some great photographs of them but have yet to succeed. Viewing snowflakes in a photograph is enjoyable but also disappointing. There’s always an area that’s out of focus and I can never seem to capture. The 3-D aspect capturing each detail that makes them so captivating to me continues to elude my pictures.

The snowflake above is probably the best one to fall in front of my camera over the past few snow falls. I love the clear, symmetrical center and all of the patterns radiating out from the center. I just keep studying each ray and wondering how they formed, fell from the sky with the high winds accompanying that snowstorm, and landed on the purple glove I was using all without breaking.

This was another ice crystal that I couldn’t wait to examine up close and capture with the camera. The frosted edges created a beautiful outline of the petals in this snowflake. Again the clear and symmetrical center is so amazing to me. I know the hexagon shape is the base for many snowflakes but it always has me wondering why. What forces cause this to be the most stable formation for ice crystals whether it’s flatter flakes like this or even columnar ones or the multiple combinations in between?

The group of snowflakes above appear to be incomplete. Like they fell before finishing their design. What could have scared them out of the sky early? More likely they were evaporating before I could capture the complete flake. Most of the time these little pieces of ice art show up better with a darker background but once in awhile I like to see them as a sort of x-ray. It’s just a little different way to view them. Often a single flake makes a beautiful photo but sometimes there are too many interesting snowflakes and the only way to photograph more is to take a picture of a group of them.

Another snowflake that captured my attention when I first spotted it was the one above. It also has the frosted edges which seems to really highlight the clear ice closer to the center. Such an interesting contrast to me. It also makes it so much more visible against the background. I love the curvy lines in between each ray. What causes that during the formation in the clouds? These make each ray of this flake unique like they were all in slightly different parts of the cloud when they were created.

Below is another group of beautiful ice crystals. Each one different from the one it’s touching. I was experimenting with different backgrounds to see what I like and if I can come up with something different that might still provide an interesting contrast to these snowflakes. Ice crystals are something I’m hooked on. Since these couple of snowfalls the temperatures have warmed just enough that we’ve been experiencing more rain in central Minnesota so I haven’t had more subjects to work with as often. But when I do you can be sure I’ll be out trying to capture better photos.

As the snow really started to pile up in February there were several opportunities to examine these little ice crystals and become mesmerized by their unique shapes and patterns. Often times I would be concentrating on things I needed to get done, one of which was shoveling all of this fresh snow, and if I took just a moment to look at a few snowflakes I was distracted for hours. I would drag out the camera and shoot away trying to capture each little detail of each flake among the never ending supply falling from the sky. Eventually the cold and the clock would end my session forcing me to wait until the next snowfall.

Once getting them on a computer I could examine each one even closer and study how they formed. What conditions were needed to create these? Were the conditions changing while a snowflake was being made? When multiple snowflakes landed together were they connected or just collided in the sky before settling down on my surface? I was constantly amazed at how different snowflakes look depending on what the temperature was outside.

Even within the same snowfall the snowflakes would change in appearance multiple times. Sometimes they would be large, branched crystals with ice drops frozen on the edges while other times they would be clear with amazing patterns and at different times they would be fairly non descript pieces of ice. In most forms they are fascinating to look at up close and very challenging to photograph because of their typically small size. Trying to get the entire snowflake in focus is often extremely difficult, if not impossible, unless the snowflake and camera are completely parallel to one another. Still, most of the time, they can be looked at in fine detail and their patterns can be interpreted.

One of the challenges with snowflakes is trying to figure out if there is just one or if there are multiple snowflakes stacked on each other. Which layer is currently in focus? A slight adjustment in focus can be the difference in seeing the snowflakes detail or having it be slightly blurry. Once everything appears sharp than keeping the camera and snowflake perfectly still is required. Hopefully the wind does not blow while taking the picture. All of this needs to be done outside in order to keep the ice from melting and losing any of its detail. While snowflakes are a challenging subject, the results are often worth the effort for each one. Usually over the course of an hour I can photograph four different snowflakes so it is not a quick process.