Macro Photography : Snowflake-a-Day #30 by donkom

Some interesting physics creates the awesomely geometric center of this snowflake. Solid lines and symmetry are the quintessential “magic” contained within the most beautiful snowflakes. Take a closer look!

There are telltale signs that the brighter hexagon ring around the center is caused by a bubble forming all around the snowflake. The bubble would start growing in the center of the sides and then quickly overtake the corners. See the inner corners and how they are indented into the brighter area? There’s your evidence. When the corners are overtaken, the snowflake has effectively split itself in two new plates.

It’s common that one side will become dominant after a short time and sprout branches, while the other half will remain trapped in a hexagonal shape due to the lack of accessible water vapour (the larger half blocks its growth). This leaves a remnant of the snowflake at an earlier stage in its growth cycle, and retains the symmetric beauty found in many smaller snowflakes.

I wish the outer branches had a chance to grow a little larger, offering balance to the final design. This might have happened to a greater degree than we see here, because the tips show clear signs of sublimation – the snowflake has already started to deteriorate and vanish back into the air. This is the typical state of most snowflakes, unless the clouds are very low in the atmosphere and the ground-level humidity is higher than usual.

It’s also one of the reasons I work very fast to photograph these snowflakes! Without a tripod, I handhold my camera to get in position as quickly as possible and find the right flash angle. Getting the light to hit the surface at a precise angle is as important as the speed in which I take these images. A few degrees off and the center will appear completely flat, or only the edges will show. This usually means my focus-stacking process, combined with all of my other editing, takes hours – usually around four solid hours to complete one image.

And to think I can do 100 of them in a row throughout the winter? This is the fourth year I’ve done so, with no signs of stopping soon. :) Check out the results of this project in the book Sky Crystals: www.skycrystals.ca/ – 304 pages of beautiful images strongly coupled with scientific knowledge and a detailed photograph process. Book sales allow me the time to continue bringing these images to you, so please take a look if you appreciate the series!

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