Photo Advice for Snowflake Photos
It is that time of year again when snowflakes become more attainable. At this this time of year(December), it becomes a lot easier to capture and shoot a snowflake, so now is the time to give snowflake photography a try!
Have you ever wondered how to take a great photo of a snowflake? Taking photographs of a snowflake is not an easy task, think about the difficulties. Read over this lens and maybe you will get a better appreciation for the difficulties involved in snowflake photography.
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.
Have you ever wondered how to take a great photo of a snowflake? Taking photographs of a snowflake is not an easy task, think about the difficulties. Read over this lens and maybe you will get a better appreciation for the difficulties involved in snowflake photography.
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
As you can easily imagine, there are numerous difficulties in attempting to capture an individual snowflake, or snow crystal image. Here are just a few of the problems you may encounter. We will not try to list all of the problems here.
- 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
Here is some nice photo equipment to help take your snowflake or other photos.
Sony PCKLH5AM LCD Protective Cover for Sony Alpha a230/330/380 Digital SLR Cameras
Amazon Price: $11.99 (as of 12/20/2009) 
Wildlife Photography: On Safari with your DSLR: Equipment, Techniques, Workflow
Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 12/20/2009)
New Photo Video D SLR DSLR Digital Camera Backpack Bag Multi-Pocket Removable-Pad TRIPOD LENSES x 7
Amazon Price: $31.95 (as of 12/20/2009)
Solid Full-Body Sling: Medium
Amazon Price: $112.56 (as of 12/20/2009)
Magic Lantern DVD Guides: Sony DSLR A100
Amazon Price: (as of 12/20/2009)
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Snow Crystals
Wilson Bentley Photographer of Snowflakes
Wilson Bentley (1865-1931). A Vermont farmer, Bentley made snowflake photography his life-long passion, eventually capturing some 5000 images on old-style photographic plates. Wilson Bentley introduced the world to the beauty, complexity, and diversity of snow crystals.
curated content from YouTube
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.
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- enslavedbyfaeries enslavedbyfaeries Mar 5, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
- This sounds like a fun challenge to try! Great info. :)
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Reply
- VickyEllis VickyEllis Dec 28, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
- Interesting! Something I've learned today.
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Reply
- julcal julcal Dec 28, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
- Very interesting idea for a lens! I must not be normal :) *****
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Reply
- elishadavis elishadavis Dec 26, 2008 @ 12:04 am | in reply to Jimmie
- funny comment "normal" people. but i agree. it requires some talent doing something like this. an interesting lens. *****
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- spirituality spirituality Nov 27, 2008 @ 7:14 am
- Finding that room that's below freezing might just be a challenge beyond me... Though I guess a garage would work :)
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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
Children are fascinated by snowflakes. Here you can have fun with snowflakes even if you are too young to photograph them.
This site is great fun for kids!
This site is great fun for kids!
- Paper Snowflakes for Children
- Free instructions for making paper snowflakes for holiday gifts and ornaments.
by bbug
Hi, I am a nature and landscape photographer. I wanted to share some information on snowflake photography so I wrote this lens.
Give it a try! (more)
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