Photo Advice for Snowflake Photos
Hopefully, this lens will enlightened you on the compelixity of capturing a great snowflake shot. After you read this give it a try and see if you are able to capture a unique and beautiful snowflake.
Snowflake Photography Complexities
- Finding the snow.
Are you living in a region where it snows.
What season is it now, when will it snow. - How do you pick up a snowflake without damaging it?
What will happen to the snowflake if it touches my finger or if the flake touches any warm surface.
How do I not break it? - How do you prevent the snowflake from melting while shooting?
It will take time to shoot the crystal how long will it last? - Will my camera stand up to the freezing temperature needed to shoot the snowflake. Most cameras can not withstand extreme cold and perform as expected.
- What kind of backgroud do I need to get the detail of the snowflake?
A snowflake is white, it can be a challenge to capture detail.
Finding a Photogenic Snowflake
Sometimes it can be difficult finding a snowflake. If you are not in a geographical area, at the right season you could be hard pressed to find a natural occuring snowflake to photograph.You could of course, make your own snowflakes, if you knew how. But it could be expensive to make your own snowflakes. Here is one method for Making Snow Crystals and it is no easy task.
I would prefer to wait for winter and just catch a snowflake landing on a tree limb or a flat cold surface. The best time to catch a natural falling snowflake would be during a gentle snowfall with no wind to blow the flakes. A day that is not extremely cold, just under 28 degrees fahrenheit, and a day that has been preceeded by days that were well below freezing.
The cold preceeding days assure that the surfaces outside are pre-chilled and not too warm for a snowflake to survive.
Capturing Just One Snowflake
There are different approaches to isolating your snowflake.If you are going the all natural route, you can wait for a snowflake to drop on a dark evergreen limb and snap a picture holding the camera within about 2 inches of the snowflake. But you must have the correct lens to allow focusing at that range. You will need a macro lens or a lens with macro capability.
Another method you could use; have a pre-chilled piece of black or very dark colored constuction paper and place this on a flat surface. Wait on a snowflake to fall, you will probably need your macro lens or macro capable camera lens.
There is also an indoors method if the weather is too cold or windy. Capture the snowflake on a very cold towel or paper(frozen) and carry the snowflake into a cold room, below freezing.
Transfer the snowflake, using a very cold plastic straw or toothpick, onto a pre-chilled clear microscope slide or piece of glass. Have a piece of colored paper or a piece of colored material under the glass to give a beautiful background for your snowflake. You can decide on the color of the background, but make sure it is dark enough to set off the white snowflake.
Camera and Equipment on Amazon
Pentax DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED IF SDM Lens for Pentax DSLR Cameras
Amazon Price: $927.56 (as of 07/10/2009) 
Magic Lantern Guides: SONY DSLR-A200
Amazon Price: $14.96 (as of 07/10/2009)
Solid Full-Body Sling: Medium
Amazon Price: $107.39 (as of 07/10/2009)
Underwater Case for the Following Olympus Evolt Digital SLR Cameras: E3, E420, E520, E510, E410, E500
Amazon Price: $108.00 (as of 07/10/2009)
CANON DSLR: The Ultimate Photographer's Guide (Digital Workflow)
Amazon Price: $26.24 (as of 07/10/2009)
My Photo Blog
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Snow Crystals
Wilson Bentley Photographer of Snowflakes
What is the Most Difficult Thing About Snowflake Photography
Tell me what you think. What is the toughest thing about capturing a great snowflake photo?
Please add your own ideas let me know what is the most difficult task for you.
Photo Credit
- photos were provided by Snow Crystals.com
- shareapic.com
Give Me Some Feedback
Let me know if you have tried, or plan to try some snowflake photography. Let me know what else you would like to see on this lens.
enslavedbyfaeries wrote...
This sounds like a fun challenge to try! Great info. :)
Posted March 05, 2009
julcal wrote...
Very interesting idea for a lens! I must not be normal :) *****
Posted December 28, 2008
elishadavis wrote...
in reply to Jimmie funny comment "normal" people. but i agree. it requires some talent doing something like this. an interesting lens. *****
Posted December 26, 2008
spirituality wrote...
Finding that room that's below freezing might just be a challenge beyond me... Though I guess a garage would work :)
Posted November 27, 2008
Directory for Your Squidoo Lens
- Directory for Squidoo Lenses
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Snowflake Dinner Plates
Snowflakes look great on dinner plates. Here are a few snowflake plates from ebay to decorate your dinner table.
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Snowflake Patterns
This site is great fun for kids!
- Paper Snowflakes for Children
- Free instructions for making paper snowflakes for holiday gifts and ornaments.
