Snowflake 963 - a photo on Flickriver

Snowflake 963

This one is truly special for a number of reasons – most importantly, it was photographed a few days ago in our backyard in Bulgaria! It’s been four winters without the right conditions for beautiful snowflakes, and we finally – almost – got what we needed. The temperatures were hovering around the freezing point, which makes my work far more difficult than usual; it is melting as I photograph it.

Temperature is a key element of photographing snowflakes. Ideally, you want to be at least -5C (23F) for best results, and a few degrees colder is always helpful. Even if you are just below freezing, the heat from presence will kick off the melting process, as any light source is going to increase the temperatures. I use a ring flash for this work, which outputs enough heat to move the needle a few degrees warmer. If you find yourself trying to photograph snowflakes in warmer weather, welcome to my nightmare.

Time is critical – you must find a snowflake within seconds after it has fallen, in my case on to a black mitten; the mitten has been left outside to acclimate to the ambient temperature. Using a small artist’s paintbrush, clear off any debris you can. This is harder when snow begins to melt, as the pieces of ice tend to “glue” themselves together with thin layers of water. If you can locate, isolate, and find the right shooting angle within 10 seconds, you might have a chance.

These images are focus stacked, and usually 200-300 images are taken of a single snowflake. I’d be lucky if I could get a third of that number with a melting snowflake, which increases the odds of missing some slices of focus. The quality of the images from the beginning of the shoot varies dramatically when compared to the last images taken, when the crystal is mostly molten. This also brings up a challenge in editing, where the puzzle pieces don’t fit together very well. This makes the editing process arduous. Still, these challenges can be overcome.

The result isn’t a very pretty snowflake; the pristine prism facets are often faded and the surface of the crystal has obvious degradations. If you look closely (and here’s a link to highly magnified sections: donkom.ca/bts/melting-closeup.jpg ) you can see the surface of the crystal “sweating” whereas outer branches have nearly completely disintegrated. It’s a unique look into the life cycle of a snowflake – some of them evaporate back into thin air, some reform into a droplet of water.

It's unlikely that I’ll get another chance at photographing snowflakes at home this year, the weather is warming and the spring flowers are already starting to bloom. Thankfully I still have over a thousand unedited crystals that require my attention. This series will continue for many years to come. :)

2024 Snowflake coin I designed from the Royal Canadian Mint: www.mint.ca/en/shop/coins/2024/fine-silver-hexagon-coin-w...

Taken on: January 15, 2025

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Sets appears in: • Snowflakes & Frost

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Camera: Panasonic DC-S1R, 1/160 sec, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DC-S1R
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 26.2 (Windows)
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