Snowflake-a-Day No. 58 - a photo on Flickriver

I love this little pair, showing that hand-in-hand, they have a direct impact on each-other’s growth and formation. On many scales in the universe, you have a direct impact on the things closest to you!

A mid-air collision and they were stuck together. Based on the design of these snowflakes, the branch of the large one could have easily wedged itself between the branches of the smaller one – the first time I can actually see how two crystals could have physically stayed attached. Both of these crystals are “split crystals”, starting as a column and then plates (and eventually branches) formed out of the sides. You don’t get two full sets of six branches however, there isn’t enough room for that. With building blocks in short supply, when one corner of a plate grows larger than its parallel sibling corner, it overshadows it and takes all of the building blocks for itself.

This can happen where one plate stays tiny on all corners, making a button-like gem, but all other combinations are possible. The larger snowflake has two branches for the top plate, four for the bottom. On the smaller crystal we have five branches on the top plate, one on the bottom. Since there is a small gap between them (the height of the column that connects them), this gap is where the branch from the larger snowflake is nestled.

The smaller crystal effectively collected all of the building blocks that would have gone to the larger snowflake in this area – you can see how the branch tip stayed smaller, giving all of its growth potential to the new family member. There’s a certain balance that this image seems to hold as a result, and it’s one of my favourite images because of the offset visual anchor on the left.

This snowflake is also a great example of surface details only being on one side! It’s also easy to spot a fun correlation: the surface detail is pointing towards the middle. This might be easier to spot on the smaller crystal: see how five of the branches have low-contrast textures and only one is high-contrast? Higher contrast means that the surface features are facing the camera. This is on the lower branch, facing towards the center column. The remaining branches are low-contrast because their surface features are seen through the ice which makes them less detailed and the light hits them differently. These are facing down, toward the center column. I don’t know why this happens, but the detail on a “split crystal” snowflake very commonly faces towards that center column.

The same is true for the larger snowflake, with the exception of some side-branches that have flipped back over again – and if you look closely at near the tip of the bottom branch you’ll see two sets of side-branches: the top one with details down, the bottom one with details up, facing each-other. Snowflakes are weird, wonderful examples of molecular physics in the form of natural art.

Want to learn more snowflake science and how to photograph them? Check out Sky Crystals: skycrystals.ca/product/sky-crystals-unraveling-the-myster... - everything you’d want to know on the subject! If you’d like to check out my upcoming 2019 workshops, you can do that here: www.donkom.ca/workshops/ - macro here in my studio and award-winning gardens, and landscape / astrophotography in Iceland!

Also, this image was taken with the Lumix GH5S. 12 megapixels goes a long way in extreme macro photography!

Taken on: June 2, 2018

Tags:

snowflake

snow

snowflakes

crystal

crystals

nature

natural

ice

sky

winter

macro

MP-E $Everybody's photos tagged with fractal$ fractal

focus stacking

science

physics

meteorology

weather

water

frozen

mineral

mineralogy

pair

lumix

GH5S

LumixGH5S

lumixstories

balance « less

Sets appears in: • Snowflakes & Frost

Groups appears in: • Winter Wonderland • Canadian Beauty more » • Snowflake • Ontario: Yours to Discover • PHOTOGRAPHERS OF CANADA • Tips from the Top Floor Podcast (tfttf) • Beautiful Ontario • SNOW !! • Canada Nature & Wildlife • Northern Ontario Scenery • Northern Exposure • The World Up-Close (Nature Macro) • Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo • Our Sky • Macro in the Snow • Science! • Canada from Sea to Sea to Sea • Winter Flickr • Awesome Snowflakes • DIYPhotography • **Snow, Snow, Snow!** • HIDDEN WORLD. • This Week in Photo • SLR Macro Photography • Fall And Winter Around The World ❀ • Simcoe Country, Ontario • CANADA >>> 1 Million Canadian Photos (56,062 Photos) • Wonders of Winter • Snow Pictures Around The World • Photofocus • I am Canadian! • ***Flickr Global • Snow show - Neve - Nieve, ice, gelo e hielo • snow from the northern hemisphere to the south pole • DPExperience • Snow Porn • Snowflakes, Snow & Winter • Winter/Snow Pictures • Natur und Umwelt • Panasonic DMC GH Camera Club (GH1, GH2, GH3, GH4, GH5) • The Nature Photography • Enthusiast Photographers Magazine « less

Camera: Panasonic DC-GH5S, f/4.0, 1/160 sec, 65mm (=130mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DC-GH5S
Lens:	#124 65/2.8
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	65mm (35mm equivalent: 130mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Fine Weather
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 12,713 views / 4 comments

go back