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Monday 29 August 2016

Snowflake macro photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand, cluster of two stellar dendrite snowflakes with complex and elegant structure
Snowflake photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand (2560 x 1920)

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

Room interior with white sofa, pillows, ceramic vase and large snowflake print, hanging on wall. Ideas for home decor, interior design and gifts - alexey-kljatov.pixels.com

I borrow this title from sci-fi book, written by amazing author Samuel R. Delany.



This is tiny cluster of two stellar dendrite snowflakes: large and medium size. It was flat, and perfectly fits in focus without focus stacking technique. I like star shapes and elegant structure of this pair, and their sharp edges, without any traces of melting.

7 identical RAW photos was taken as fast series, aligned and averaged to improve SNR (signal/noise ratio) of this picture. I've used only diffused light of cloudy sky, dark grey wool fabric as background; and macro setup, containing Canon Powershot A650is and lens Helios 44, reversely mounted in front of camera as additional magnifier.

Here is slightly different version: without my usual blue color toning. As you can see, completely grey wool fabric shows color variances at high magnification:

Snowflake macro photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand (grey), pair of stellar dendrite snowflakes with complex structure, glowing on dark grey background
Snowflake photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand, grey variant (2560 x 1920)

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

And this is version with blur background. I've done it easily, because already had precise isolation mask, created at early processing stage:

Snowflake macro photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand (blur), two stellar dendrite snowflakes with complex structure, glittering on dark cyan blurred background
Snowflake photo: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand, blur variant (2000 x 2000)

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

Here is another stellar dendrite snowflake, also taken at dark textured backdrop, and processed in same technique:

Snowflake picture: Rigel - stellar dendrite snow crystal with sharp ornate arms, glowing on dark cyan textured 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.

Wednesday 10 August 2016

Fernlike dendrites are common, large and traditional-looking snowflakes. In fact, snow crystals of this type are so big, that many of them can be seen in all details with naked eye, without any magnification tools (especially at contrast background like black wool mitten). I see and photograph huge specimens of this type at regular basis - up to 10 millimeters in size and even bigger! These snowflakes have very small center, and long, complex and massive arms: with many side branches, and lots of icy "petals" and "leaves" on them. These crystals are fragile, and often broke in air, when collide with neighbor snowflakes. In my photo archive, i keep lots of these wonderful crystals, but processing them is hard task: my workflow requires drawing precise mask, which isolates snowflake from background (to be able processing crystal and background separately), and drawing good mask for their complex shape is not easy work.

Here is already processed snowflakes. When i'll process new crystals of this type, i will immediately add here links to them, too. Just click on photos you like, and they will open as full resolution versions:

Snowflake macro photo: Majestic crystal, very big and complex fernlike dendrite with lots of side branches and good symmetry, sparkling on bright gray-blue gradient backgroundCloseup snowflake photo: Asymmetriad, medium size fernlike dendrite snow crystal with relatively simple structure, glittering on light brown-blue gradient background
Snowflake picture: Neon, real snow crystal of fernlike dendrite type, glowing on dark cyan background in LED back lightSnowflake image: Leaves of ice, huge fernlike dendrite snow crystal with tree-like arms, containing many side branches and icy leaves
Snowflake photo: Winter is coming, large fernlike dendrite with traditional look and feel and nice symmetry, sparkling on pale grey-blue gradient backgroundPicture of snowflake: Cloud number 9, very big fernlike dendrite snow crystal, standing on edge against clear blue background and reflected in glass

Here you'll find similar collections of small and simple hexagonal plate and triangular snowflakes:

Four hexagonal plate snowflakes: small snow crystals with simple hexagon shape and amazing inner patternsFour triangular snowflakes: small snow crystals with rare and unusual triangle shape

If you want to see all of my snowflake photos, you may 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.