now that is just plain GORGEOUS!

it's kinda sad cuse they look so pretty but literally as you focus on them they're melting away, you have like, a second to appreciate the beauty of them before they're gone.

that is so true hun.. it is kinda sad. but such is the beauty of nature.

Very nice.. A bit envious as a true macro lens isn't on my list of toys until 2012 as the laptop needs to be replaced first.

A great way to do something like this would go outside just below freezing, put a table up with a black cloth, and a spray bottle of boiling hot water. And spray up into the air above the cloth. The fact the water is excited due to the boiling thus the atoms are further apart linked with the fineness of the spray bottle spray should be able to produce some nice flakes. It gives you more time to shoot... One still has to fight the light unless you have a nice set of led lights (thus little heat is produced).

I got my studio strobes if i am feeling real plucky, but I was just kinda on the fly I should have been chipping ice off the roof but I did this for a bit first lol.
This isnt a true macro lens either, this is a set of NovoFlex bellows with a T mount and a Minolta MD ROKKOR 45mm lens on an old body mount super glued to the bellows.

Very very wonderful :3

WOW!!!!

Yeah this was literally a second before it folded in half and melted away. When they go clear like that they look friggin awesome and almost fake.

Kinda reminds me of the beginning of An American Tale.

This is one of the best snowflake photos I've ever seen, outside of a science lab under controlled conditions.

How many megapixels is your camera, what kind of lens did you use, how far from the front of the lens was the snowflake, and how big was the flake itself? Your photo tags don't say. :)

The lens is kinda hack it's I used a Rokkor 45mm Minolta MD lens super glued to a coupler on a set of NovoFlex Bellows retrofitted with a T mount to a Cannon EOS adapter on my EOS XT Digital SLR. 800 ISO, f/1.8, Shutter speed 40, 45mm 1.5x 400mm on Novoflex Macro bellows at an f: compensation of 2.5 stops, focal distance 2 inches from subject, focal length aprox 1.3 micro inches (two sheets of paper)

The image is not cropped. it's only an 8 MP camera.

http://www.beanos.com/~tsoutij/wp/s.....kor-x_45mm_f20 Looks like other people haz0r the Rokkor too O.o weird lol. I t's one of the best lenses I ever owned and I got 3 of them on my minoltas right now on top of the extra used on the Novoflex Bellows.

Holy moly. Soooo...not something I can just buy off the shelf at the local Shutterbug. :)

And you can get that all set up, aimed, and focused to a fraction of a millimeter -- faster than a snowflake melts? I'm impressed. *applauds* :)

it was, very cold to say the least. lol

*shivers* :)

you can see where it was turning clear and then like a second later that crack down it, it folded on that in half and melted instantly very sad.

At least you captured it before it disappeared. Now it's preserved forever. :)

The lens is kinda hack it's I used a Rokkor 45mm Minolta MD lens super glued to a coupler on a set of NovoFlex Bellows retrofitted with a T mount to a Cannon EOS adapter on my EOS XT Digital SLR. 800 ISO, f/1.8, Shutter speed 40, 45mm 1.5x 400mm on Novoflex Macro bellows at an f: compensation of 2.5 stops, focal distance 2 inches from subject, focal length aprox 1.3 micro inches (two sheets of paper)

friggin awesome!

Willow,
I have to say that this is the "best of show". You may not think it is the best quality image. As far as the beauty and structure of the snowflake...it is absolutley mindboggling! }:=)

Wow, Thank you very much!
This one kind of reminds me of the intro to An American Tail.
It was a huge pain to get any good shots of snowflakes with full manual focal distance and aperture and focus within the 2 seconds max before they melted away, holding my breath the whole time nervously watching the light meter and focus area in the view finder as the damn things turned clear then folded in half and melted. lol Snowflakes, the hardest subject I have ever worked with.

Willow,
You are most welcome. After reading about the setup you have to do this, it is pretty amazing that you can do it so quickly. }:=)

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5328530/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5328527/
is the lense array I made to do macros, it's kinda silly lol

Rube Goldberg would be proud! };=)