Dusty mirror

Snowflake photo: Dusty mirror (1456 x 1092)

Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
License for commercial use - at Shutterstock.com, 500px.com.

This small snowflake with turtle-like shape really unusual, and i can't remember anything similar. It have high detailed rim and branches, and big, flat and empty center. But not completely empty: this central hexagon contains ring pattern of tiny dots, and this pattern also do not remind me any snowflake i've seen before.

This snow crystal was captured at glass plate with LED back light, with additional lens Helios 44, in January 2015, Moscow, Russia. 7 identical RAW photos was averaged to radically treat noise and reveal subtle details of this image. Central ring pattern of dots looks really bad without averaging.

One year after, i've captured another snowflake, which slightly reminds this one: Sunflower. It also have large, flat and empty central hexagon with pattern of tiny dots, relief outer rim and short arms, containing many details:

If you want to see more snowflakes, you can browse through all snowflake pictures.
Here you'll find snowflake photo wallpapers in numerous resolutions and screen proportions, up to Ultra HD 4K.
And here is article about snowflake macro photography.

New snowflake wallpaper: gardener's dream

One of my favorite snowflakes, Gardener's dream, now available as Ultra HD wallpaper:

Wallpaper available in screen proportions 4:3, 5:4, 16:10 and 16:9, resolutions from 800x600 pixels (SVGA) to 3840x2160 (Ultra HD 4K).

Forget-me-not

Snowflake photo: Forget-me-not (1200 x 900)

Prints of this snow flower available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use - at Shutterstock.com, 500px.com.

This snowflake definitely one of most beautiful specimens from all my catch of January 2015 (and one of my personal favorites). This is very small snow crystal, slightly bigger than 1 millimeter, but it contains unusually complex and dense inner pattern for such tiny size. It reminds me small flower Forget-me-not. In Russia, we call this flower незабудка (niezabudka), which means the same: forget me not.

Processing of this jewel was quite easy. I captured it at large sheet of glass, using LED back lighting and additional lens Helios 44M-5, attached in front of my camera for bigger magnification. 8 identical RAW photos was averaged for much lower noise and better details.

You might also like this tiny snowflake with simple shape, but complex pattern: Flower within a flower. That snowflake was also captured in January, three weeks before:

Here you'll find realistic vector version of this snowflake and simplified version in two colors (in EPS / SVG formats and high resolution rasterized PNGs). Of course, vectorization process simplifies snowflake details and reduces number of colors, but still, i like how it turns out, and ability to stretch it to any size without further loss of details is really great!

Also, this snowflake available as ultra HD wallpaper:

If you want to see more snowflakes, you can browse through all snowflake pictures.
And here is article about snowflake macro photography.

New wallpaper: bluebells 2 (lightpainting)

Still life picture Bluebells, created in light painting technique, available as Ultra HD wallpaper:

Wallpaper available in screen proportions 4:3, 5:4, 16:10 and 16:9, resolutions from 800 x 600 pixels (SVGA) to 3840 x 2160 (Ultra HD 4K).

Enigma

Snowflake photo: Enigma (1200 x 900)

Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use - at Shutterstock.com.

These "triangular" snowflakes are not very common: i have only few shots of them from 8 winters. In fact, these crystals are hexagons, with 3 long and 3 short sides. Sometimes i see some specimens among ice dust crystals (very small snowflakes, much lesser than 1 millimeter in size), but this crystal was relatively big: around 1.5 millimeters.

This snowflake have really weird and extraordinary "design": i can't remember anything similar to these three big slopes at edges. Central triangle with volume surface looks interesting too, as well as thin "carvings", which form the outer pattern, interleaved with slopes.

This unusual crystal was captured on large sheet of glass with LED back lighting, using additional optics Helios 44M-5 as magnifier. 11 identical RAW photos was taken as fast series, and averaged for improved signal/noise ratio of this picture. It was not easy to process, because almost all background around was covered by piles and clusters of other snowflakes, and cleaning them out was hard work.

That day, 9 January 2015, i've captured another triangular jewel - Four directions:

If you want to see more snowflakes, you can browse through all snowflake pictures.
Here you'll find snowflake photo wallpapers in numerous resolutions and screen proportions, up to Ultra HD 4K.
And here is article about snowflake macro photography.

Gardener's dream

Snowflake photo: Gardener's dream (2212 x 1659)

Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use - at Shutterstock.com, Marketplace.500px.com.

This snowflake is one of my all-time favorites. This is large stellar dendrite snow crystal (around 5 millimeters from tip to tip), slightly melted and partially covered with small bubbles of rime. It looks unusual, with it's massive tree-like branches and big central hexagon, divided by six sectors. This crystal remind me tiny planet of The Little Prince, which is teared apart by roots of six overgrown baobabs.

I was lucky with lighting of this crystal, and even drops of rime (usually i do not like them) looks not too bad on these "baobab branches". This weird crystal was captured December 2014 in Moscow, Russia, on glass surface with LED back light, using additional lens Helios 44M-5. 11 identical RAW photos, taken as fast series, was averaged to boost signal/noise ratio of final image. After averaging step, i've done my usual post-processing work with the crystal.

Also, i processed this snowflake in different colors:

Snowflake photo: Gardener's dream, alternate colors (2212 x 1659)

Prints available at Artist website (mirrors at Pixels and FineArtAmerica), RedBubble.com.
Licenses for commercial use - at Shutterstock.com, Marketplace.500px.com.

Here you'll find realistic vector version of this snowflake and simplified version in two colors (in EPS / SVG formats and high resolution rasterized PNGs). Although automatic vectorization process simplifies snowflake structure and reduces number of colors, but still, i like how it looks, and ability to stretch this snowflake to any size without further loss of details is really great!

This interesting crystal also available as ultra HD wallpaper:

Snowfalls of that day, December 26, 2014, bring us good amount of interesting crystals. I've already processed two more snowflakes: Winter technologies and High voltage and have many other good specimens to work with!

If you want to see more snowflakes, you can browse through all snowflake pictures.
Here is article about snowflake macro photography.