Macro Photography : Snowflake: Balanced Branches by donkom

My thoughts go out to everyone in the Buffalo area right now, and as beautiful as a single snowflake is, trillions of them can certainly be deadly. Buffalo, NY and the surrounding area is currently under a state of emergency, so this one’s for you guys, digging out from 1.2 meters of snow!

I was supposed to teach a Lightroom class this evening, but we’re getting some nasty lake-effect snow here too and classes were cancelled. This kind of snow is not beautiful – it’s swirling broken pieces of ice. For this snowflake, I went into the archives and found a beauty from March of this year that I hadn’t had the chance to process. Four hours later, and you can enjoy the results. :)

Snowflakes are rarely symmetrical clean crystals in weather like we’re currently seeing. I think I spotted one amidst the blizzard, but they are very hard to admire in these conditions. Calm weather produces the best snowflakes for photography – calm wind, low clouds and cold temperatures. We haven’t seen these conditions yet this season, but they are fast approaching… and so is this year’s Snowflake-a-Day project!

Photographically, this image is 44 separate frames combined and shot handheld with a high magnification macro lens and ring flash. It’s not an easy task, but one I encourage everyone to try this year. If you’re curious about how I make these images, check out Sky Crystals: skycrystals.ca/ – roughly 100 pages of the 304 page hardcover book is dedicated to the photographic workflow, from shooting to editing in exhaustive detail. A third of the book is dedicated to the science of these airborne gems too, and it’s worth checking out!

See the little hexagonal gem in the center of this crystal? That’s the remnants of another “plate” type crystal that formed in conjunction with the branches. Earlier in this snowflake’s life, it was a “capped column” which resembles a column with two tiny plates on either end. If conditions allow for one plate to grow slightly faster than the other, the growth of one side will accelerate and steal the water vapour away from the other side. This results on one plate growing branches, while the other plate remains small. You can tell the history of a snowflake simply by identifying features like this, and there are quite a few in each crystal!

Are we ready for winter yet? I don’t suppose it matters – it seems like it’s here to stay!

For those in Canada, be sure to check out the CBC documentary “Chasing Snowflakes”, part of The Nature of Things. I’m profile in the episode and I’m at the beginning and end. Link: http://ift.tt/1xObBm5

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