Majestic crystal

Snowflake macro photo: Majestic crystal, very large fernlike dendrite crystal with complex structure of arms and lots of small details, sparkling on smooth gradient background
Snowflake photo: Majestic crystal (3800 x 2850)

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

This is very big snowflake, approximately 8 millimeters from tip to tip. It is bigger than these two large snowflakes of same type: Silverware / Neon and Cloud number nine:

Closeup snowflake photo: Neon, very large fernlike dendrite crystal with complex and symmetrical structure, glowing on dark cyan backgroundSnowflake image: white snow crystal of fernlike dendrite type, standing on edge against clear blue background, with reflection in glass

This is fernlike dendrite snow crystal. This type can be seen often, and usually these crystals bigger than snowflakes of other types. I have seen crystals slightly bigger than 1 centimeter from tip to tip! These snowflakes can be seen by naked eye in full details, especially on contrast dark backdrop. These snowflakes reminds stellar dendrites, but have more complex and "random" structure: they have more "side branches" and "leaves", and they grows with not too strict symmetry.



Also, these crystals are fragile: their branches are big, but central hexagon is small, compared to other snow crystals. Often they can be seen with lost arms, and it seems that they can broke in air, before they fall, when they grow big enough.

If you ever seen one fernlike dendrite crystal, you have seen them all: their "general design" is the same for every snowflake of this type, though they are all different in details.

8 identical shots was averaged to boost signal-to-noise ratio of this image. Crystal captured on glass surface with LED back light, using Canon Powershot A650is with additional lens Helios 44M-5, in January 2013, Moscow.

This photo was chosen as cover for magazine Makrofoto - ausgabe 2:

Snowflake photo Majestic crystal was chosen as cover for magazine Makrofoto - ausgabe 2 (/makro-treff.de)

Also, i processed this crystal on pure black background:

Snowflake picture: Majestic crystal, very big and complex fernlike dendrite crystal, glowing as neon lamp on clear black background

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.