Photographer Tapes a $50 Lens To His P&S Camera To Take Stunning Macro Snowflake Photos

Wow! I’m almost speechless on this! There are some snowflake shapes I never knew existed!
Amazing work! Absolutely stunning

wow. that moment when you see the snowflake and its natural beauty

oh my god!!!! so beautiful!!!!

Another victory for team Ducttape!

it’s fake

superman flake

spoilsport

So much with So Little…

Incredible.

I’m sure you could take some great photos with that rig, but those snowflakes do look suspiciously like decorations on a christmas tree.

its bullshit, snowflakes are not real

Keep up the good work Mr Kljatov-you have upset the gearheads!

Maybe that’s because the decorations from the Christmas tree are made after the real ones?

Look at tle last one please…have you ever seen such a big snowflake covering 2 pine little branches?I would like to believe they are real…but to be honest,they’re not.anyway,even so,they are amazing.

Thanks for your interest! I glad that so many people like snowflakes as i am.

fake flake

Awesome pictures, Alexey!!! I have always been fascinated with snowflakes. Such intricate short-lived works of art, every one.
Keep up the great work!
-Mark in California

I don’t understand why so many people think this is fake. Do they really not believe that nature can be this incredible???

I have never seen a tiny snowflake cover the area of two branches… :/ it looks fake to me. They are pretty anyway, but unfortunate that a person would draw attention to themselves with lies. I believe there is a mental illness medical term for that.

Seems like you are struggling to think

It carpet fibers you moron

Dude. You are a mental midget. Those are carpet fibers not pine needles. Man. Some real morons here

:) Welcome to real world.

you meant to say it’s flake right?

More, please, more!!!

Hey tickld!

Alexey, these are simply amazing. it blows my mind how these flakes take such a geometric form, they almost look man-made. Very impressive.

Wow! I am really impressed, congratulations to a stunning work from Germany :) It makes me really look forward to our winter. As starting again with an old analogue eos 3000, what would you think, which lens I should use for a series of good diapositives? So I could use them then for wallpaintings. Thank you for your advice :)

Прекрасные фотографии! Спасибо! (очень кстати, ведь уже через месяц начнём подготовку к Новому Году :-)

Incredible images. Very inspiring! Shows you don’t need super expensive equipment…ingenuity is so important. Way to go!

Thats Amazing they look like technology falling from the sky, containing information. The geometric patters are mind blowing. How is this possible? In Awe!

lmao.

Glorious! Nature is a supreme and mesmerizing artist.

errr, no two snowflakes are ever the same…

WOW!!!! Great job of capturing one of God’s creations! Absolutely OH-mazing!!!!

this is photoshop, idiots.

iva been a photographer for 20 years now and I tried so many cameras an bellows and that shitty diy crap it’s physically impossible. Optic wise is simple: there is not enough length to make such microscopic.
You guys dont understand difference between Macro and Micro.

These aren’t micro.

I’m getting goosebumps here!

I’m sorry, but you’re wrong.

Agree, there is a lot of photoshop work: averaging stacks of RAWs, sharpening, denoising, background cleaning, blue color toning and contrast curve.

Thank you very much! I don’t have any experience with SLR’s, but, in my humble opinion, you can try almost any lens, reverse mounted using adapter, preferably with manual aperture control.

Your mistake is that you see only length of the lens, but compact A650 with relatively small matrix size have 200mm equivalent lens at 6x optical zoom. Helios 44 is 58mm. Calculate magnification.

Your mistake is that you see only length of the lens, but compact A650 with relatively small matrix size have 200mm equivalent lens at 6x optical zoom. Helios 44 is 58mm. Calculate magnification.

WOW.. 20 years being a photographer and you don’t know that any lens connected (or ducktaped) upside down on a camera will have it’s minimum focus distance reduced significally?? That shitty diy crap is awesome!

What’s that got to do with what she said?

Doubters: Seriously? Please Google “real snowflakes under microscope”. Yeesh.

The entire film industry is made out of cardboard and bits of gaffer tape… Not that impressed. Props for thinking of it but yno, it’s just lined up to the sensor… the lens does all the work thereon in.

yeah each snow flake is kinda erm completely individual….DUH!!!!!

Meanwhile, in mother Russia.

that’s what she said

Well, simply the fact that every single snowflake is in a shape she couldn’t possibly have known existed. Show me someone who sees a snowflake shape they know existed and I’ll show you a liar.

Look at it this way: every fingerprint is also unique. However, they still have a number of parameters true for all fingerprints. What Olivia obviously must have meant, was that she didn’t know that snowflakes were so broad in parameters.

This is ingenious and beautiful. Sadly, as many of the comments show, ingenuity and beauty are wasted on imbeciles.

…I didn’t know that snowflakes could be square, diamond, etc. shaped. I thought they all had pointy edges around the sides not flat edges.

exactly. I never knew that, just like some of these, snowflakes could be even more shapes than having edges sticking around everywhere. For example, the flat looking snowflake with the little star inside, I never knew that nature could be that complex and fascinating and I always thought that snowflakes had those edges that pointed out.

your pics are amazing, I had no idea snowflakes were so symetric. astonishing

Hey I think you should use a lens that doesnt capture so many p hair in there Lol.

Nah, he was talking about his own name.

i now believe in god

Hard to believe its all natural – some of them remind me of our imagination-construct kryptonite…

It looks like there are small circuits in some of them

My God! Is this real?

hugely inspiring; thank you VERY MUCH!

Excellent! Awesome show of Jehovah God’s artistic skill, talent and creativeness.Psalms 150 “Praise Jah!*+Praise God in his holy place.+Praise him in the expanse of* his strength.+ 2 Praise him for his mighty works.+Praise him for his exceeding greatness.+ 3 Praise him with the sounding of the horn.+Praise him with the stringed instrument and the harp.+ 4 Praise him with the tambourine+ and the circle dance.Praise him with strings+ and the flute.*+ 5 Praise him with ringing cymbals.Praise him with crashing cymbals.+ 6 Every breathing thing—let it praise Jah.”

Just amazing! Thanks for the photos!

hello Bison…

Thank you so much sir for making the work of my God more easily seen. Beautiful beyond words. I am shocked that I would admit this, but these made me cry. I’ve never cried over a photograph, but I’m so thankful. My God is the master artist, but you have captured his awesome beauty so well. Thank you again, bless you

Magnificent.

You sir….are an idiot.

Thanks! Yes, all snowflakes are real. Unfortunately, when i inserted direct link in message, it endlessly “awaited moderator’s check”, but you can see proof in top post at chaoticmind75 dot blogspot dot com

was just thinking the same thing. only through God. beautiful.

Alexey Kljatov I would like to know how you achieved to get a single snow flake because snowflake on there own pretty much disappear in seconds. I am sceptical on you achievements but i would like to know more to believe and hope you can make me believe that this can be down. Could you explain how you went about in getting them on camera. Many thanks

Thanks! I do not know in what country snowflakes always disappeared in seconds, but in Russia some days they can remain intact several hours without significant traces of melting. I shoot them outside. About shooting technique there is post in blog (link to it in the beggining of this article).

georgious pictures :D thumbs up Alexey!

Genius!

is there a tutorial anywhere on how to do this?

nature is just beautiful and full of splendor. I love to discover that snow flakes are hexagons with 6 tips…repeated in so many different patterns and designs!

I sense a Creator behind these incredable pictures

The 5th picture down is amazing!!!!! Is it tubular shaped with flat snowflakes on each end with a hole in the middle of each? Beautiful work. I don’t care if they were Photoshoped or not, I don’t believe they are, besides the image clean-up. Either way they are amazing pieces of art and mesmerizing. Keep up the great work Alex. All the best from Canada.

just because you haven’t seen it before that means it can’t possibly exist, look at your comment and re-evaluate your life.

just because you haven’t seen it before that means it can’t possibly exist, look at your comment and re-evaluate your life.

Wow!! Beautiful symmetry and so cool that no two look the same!

Amazing images! Thanks for sharing them with us!! It annoys me that people are calling these shots fake. Have you never looked at a snowflake when it landed on your finger, before it melted? If not, that’s a shame. You are missing out on a beautiful amazing mysteriously created wonder. Don’t be so quick to dismiss things you don’t understand.

So beautiful!

Absolutely amazing and beautiful! WOW!!

My thoughts exactly! IS that where they got that logo from I wonder?

Looking at a snow flake like this is like looking at perfection. Nice work and very clever engineering of the camera too.

Such amazing shapes! Thanks for sharing.

Hard to believe they are real.. amazing!

get a life. It’s nature nothing to do with God. If it was then he should stop fucking about with snowflakes and sort the evil people on this planet out.

no not only through God. It’s called Nature and it’s more awesome than any God you can think of.

fuck off dickwad

you’re the idiot

you’re fake.

This is crystalline growth. You will have to look elsewhere for proof of god I am afraid. I don’t hold out much hope for you.

This is AMAZING! Thank you for sharing!

Please take more!!

I’m stunned by how great the quality is, without having to use expensive equipment! This shows that imagination can create beautiful photographs.

Last I heard, there was no evidence of a perfect snowflake. They all have deformities of some kind. Unless Radiolab lied to me…

Not to mention the rig is set up outside over a stone sidewalk/pathway and the back ground of the snowflakes looks a lot like carpet or something besides stone.

Grow up Darren kis.

Superbly beautiful…….

Alexey–this is wonderful work; technically great and aesthetically lovely. Well done! I know how difficult it can be to make snowflake photos, as I’ve done some with bellows and some with a microscope–haven’t tried your technique.

This is the creation of our Heavenly Father, we have soo much to be thankful for! His work is perfect! Thank you Alexey for Capturing Gods amazeing work!

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! Thank-you for sharing your work.

He has already provided for that through his son, but you can’t help it when people don’t listen. One sided romances happen everyday. God loves us, but he’s not often loved back. That’s what’s wrong with the world. The snowflake is a reminder of how messed up we’ve become and how perfect he still is. It’s forgiveness.

“keep your expensive stuff, we got what your money cant by, creativity ! ” well done mate, right on!

No two grains of sand are ever the same either. Same with PB & J sandwiches, blades of grass, ducks, clouds, clods of poo…. Amazing isn’t it. But that’s not what Olivia was marveling over.

I’m not sure some of these folks are looking for proof, but to deny others hope. Is that a teaching of your god?

Man I love snowflakes so much.

Thanks for inadvertently producing one of the funniest comment threads I read in a long time.

You are the evil people. So am I. We’re all evil in our own ways. For Him to grant your request, He would have to kill us both, and everyone else on earth. He will come and destroy us, but right now He is patient in hoping we will come to love His son, whom can redeem us. If you want to debunk God, you should research more Biblical principles correctly. Much love, friend.

For some reason these pictures kinda creep me out.. Dunno why

Are them pubic hairs in the background? Are snowflake’s landing on your bush?

I’m not evil. You can be “evil” with your god and religious beliefs. I will have a pure soul and heart without your god and I shall be judged for it amongst other things. It is others who have created this god you speak of, why should I follow the pack who so deeply discriminates and tries to change others? Religions are groups of people who believe in something, there is more than one. You cannot say yours is superior over another just because it “is”. It’s all you know, I understand that. Don’t make it someone else’s problem or life path. A God is only a God if someone has faith that it is a God. The stories you read and hear are only there because someone else believed it was so. Who am I to trust them? There is nothing to “debunk” here, it is what it is.

Now the reason why i think this is fake is because nature (for the most part) arn’t very symmetric with stuff like this. Things like lightning, stones, diamonds and tornadoes arn’t symmetric at all. But these snowflakes would also have melted or got damaged as they hit the ground. Never tried myself, but seems very unlikely to be real snowflakes.

These photos are spectacular! Well done.

Absolutely gorgeous! Keep up the good work!

Please make these into xmas tree decorations. I so would want a set.

So beautiful! Check out Alexey’s lightpaintings too!

Spot on not evil…

He did not love the children in the Philippines last week or the children of the holocaust you are suffering from blind faith my friend.

Amazing Alexey, you are going to be famous for this work , well done.

Amazing!!

beautiful. one thing that intrigues me after seeing these shots is how on earth do they make those shapes so mathematically perfect?!

Stunning how these crystals grow so perfectly symmetric. And stunnig, Alexey, how you were able to capture this with your self-made set up.

This is a very clever hoax!

You just described the very nature of God….bigger than anything that can be thought….you just used the word Nature and Joey used the word God to describe that which is indescribable

not everyone believes in god, and for good reason.

not true at all. science can quite elegantly explain the freezing of water particles into geometrical shapes. if you had the mental fortitude you could look up some information about it and probably learn the real reason why this happens. but you are apparently satisfied with not knowing anything….

oh my sweet lord. these are absolutely phenomenal photographs! excellent work. i may have to try to find gear to replicate this.

The only thing keeping the idea of “god” alive is people like you who shove it down everyone’s throat…. The truth hurts.

Many minerals grows in perfect crystallic formations, this is not wonders you? You can simply crystallize a salt and see perfect cube crystals. I suggest you just look at snowflakes with good magnifying glass.

This is threads of dark gray woolen fabric.

Thak you very much, but i think that this is nature’s work. Wikipedia article “snowflake” clearly explains formation, uniqueness and symmetry of water crystals.

This is not true. Most of snowflakes looks perfect or almost perfect, if they do not damaged, melted or covered by rime (at warm days).

Nature, not GOD. Nature’s very real… God isn’t!

Praise him by bombing all countries who don’t believe in him. Praise him by making his followers amazingly (and unnecessarily) wealthy while ignoring the children suffering from famine in poor countries. Praise him by negating the rights of groups because his book calls them abominations! Praise him!

God is so awesome! Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Every single snowflake different and uniquely made, and so are we! Just another cool example of How awesome God is!

I think its beautiful what you posted London. I believe the same as you. I encourage others to respect the fact that you don’t want people to be rude or inconsiderate about your beliefs & in turn be respectful of others that don’t believe as you do. It’s your right to believe in God or not. It sad that you try to make rude and unnecessary comments about someone’s belief because you don’t have the same.

Your pictures are simply beautiful! I love snowflakes! Thank you!

Oh! You’re a genius made by God! Thank you for capturing these. I’ve never seen snow in my life. ^_^ I’m so happy!

Love this pictures, Alexey. Looking forward to see more of your photography. Its amazing how many shapes and sizes there are in snowflakes. Now I know the ones I crochet are real.

Beautiful pictures. Does that first one have the Imperial symbol engraved on it? I don’t know how I feel about Dark Side snowflakes. All seriousness aside, though, these pictures are brilliant!

If you people reject the idea of God so firmly why are you wasting your time trying to prove that he doesn’t exist? If he doesn’t exist there should be no reason for you to argue it as it would already be self evident. And if God doesn’t love the children of the Philippines please tell me why the people from that country, including myself, still believe in this God? God does not cause bad things to happen. It can easily be argued that we as humans caused the increased amount of tropical storms that are occurring around the world as this is one of the results of global warming. As may I remind you, global warming is a problem caused by human beings. You want some science look that up, don’t blame God or other people for your issues. Your perspective is how YOU see things, not the result of someone else assumed actions

He loved his son, but he allowed him to be crucified. This world is fallen, not because of God but because of us. You don’t look at a wrecked car and blame the manufacturer. In the same way we can’t look at a world we wrecked and blame God.

To further complicate things, for God to supernaturally prevent ALL evil would take our freedom to choose, and that would make us slaves not sons. Still God maximizes the redemptive value of our worse choices. He took the cross, one of the most evil things humans have ever done, and used it for the greatest good.

The thing is that when we see such intricate design at the most minute level, it greatly challenges that such a thing could be just a “chance development” over time. It takes more faith to believe that snowflakes, humans cells, atoms, etc. evolved over time than to believe in creative design.

Everyone believes in something. Everyone has faith. Whether or not they have good reason is debatable. Most people who don’t believe in God, don’t want to acknowledge that they also have faith in something, because what they have placed their faith is even more far fetched than a Creator.

Nice geometric shapes. Love the inexpensive approach! :)
It seems that the flower of life-shape really is the geometric shape that builds, at least, snowflakes.
Try to google “flower of life” to see what I am talking about.

I never imagined such different shapes. They are beautiful to look at for a long time.

These are beautiful however they were created! Can’t we just marvel at them and stop arguing.

They?

wow

It’s true, I never knew that snowflakes could be triangle-y looking, or so simple. I always thought of them as very complicated, star-shaped looking.

OMG I thought I was the only one who thought that it looked like the Superman logo. Haha :D

The reason so many are in awe of this particular photo shoot (since snowflakes have obviously been captured very closely before) is because the photos were taken in a unique and inexpensive manner with amazing and accurate results. Beautifully done!

Mother nature is amzing great photo’s :o)

sweet they look like from ancient alien origins

amazing

Beautiful!!!

Beautiful! Mathematically perfect shape! It is God’s gift to us to wonder and awed!

Alexey, these are works of art. You can be very proud. They will look wonderful printed on to aluminium, for an extra stunning effect – Chris x

lmao +1

jesus christ! Why do you Christians always have to leverage God into everything?

anyone who thinks rationally doesn’t

please leave the room, you are annoying me with your infantile and ludicrous Jehovah praising…
how’s that?

Nature is amazing!

Is this real life? ._.

oh my!! amazing!

Thrilling!!! I love looking at things that are to tiny for the human eye to see in our everyday life. Snowflakes amaze me at how perfect they are.

tout simplement magique !! j’aime la macro, et là, c’est encore plus que de la macro , l’infiniment petit …de la vraie dentelle , la nature est artiste !! merci pour ces photos magnifiques !!!

These are amazing~!! I love them all, would love to see more of your macro work with snowflakes~!!

Always a cloud to rain on a parade. Just explain.. How come there isnt a flake looks the same to another one. God creates science. He also created free will, so people who hate God, can be against him. I have never met a happy atheist,

Right, call the people who don’t agree with you… stupid. That is very immature, and judgmental.

The thing about comments like these that really erk me is that when someone attributes something like this to a “work of god”, they’re usually satisfied. That’s it. They have their answer, god did it. When really the truth is much more beautiful than that. The laws of physics come together, each law being relatively simple in their own way, but the way they come together can be fantastically complicated. With extremely subtle changes in the surrounding conditions, the snowflakes shape can be formed entirely differently. There is no designer choosing how each of these snowflakes looks, its a completely autonomous process. Now if you want to believe that god made the fundamental laws of the universe, that’s fine, but just because you believe in god doesn’t mean you have to be scientifically illiterate. As soon as we start being happy with “god made it”, and stop trying to understand it, we stop making progress.

OMG! I love snow sooo much! Love these photos.. thank you!

Praise the governments who starve their own children. Rolando, u dont read much do you?

At the time of the end, Jehovah will end all eartly governments, and his son shall reign and rule one government.

But we can’t prevent earthquakes. So why does god kill people in ways we /can’t/ stop, no matter how ethical and good we become.

Please take your god and have a private moment with him/it/her, but really, leave it out of discussions of beauty and nature.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Sincerely,
Happy Athiest

So, Hitler?

wow

I love it very much.
As a photographer, I love when I see people achieving wonderful things with what they have, and specially when it’s cheap.
This is a great example that good photography doesn’t come from expensive gear but with talent and effort.

Almost gave up on photography… almost.

Who’s to say God isn’t Science? Hmmmmmmmmm?

This proves it.

There Are Aliens

:P

These are fantastic and so perfectly taken! I love each and every picture!

AMEN! :)

I have never seen anything more incredible or beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

not very short-lived up here in Canada ;-)

Each and every one a tiny little miracle..in more than one way too..totally amazing!

beautiful

It doesn’t take any faith at all. You just have a clear misunderstanding of science as a whole. Probably not your fault. Our educational system is embarrassing and to add to that- most high school science teachers, at least here in the South where I live do not care much to properly explain the Theory of Evolution. You’d have to actually go into the science field at a collegiate level in order to properly understand much beyond the basics.

Nothing is “chance development.” No one ever claimed anything so simply random. (Albeit, a very simple concept indeed, evolution continues to be completely and totally misunderstood because you allow your faith to render you too lazy to think or challenge the norms. Not asking you to challenge your faith in whatever God you choose to believe, but at least challenge the norms in with which that He was presented to you.)

Chance accounts only for certain things, but not everything. What is in existence is what worked best in the environment it was born into.

You can even go as far to BELIEVE that God engineered all this. But He would’ve had to do so through some great events. Like evolution. But science doesn’t need you to believe in it to exist. It just is. It isn’t political. It’s objective.

And while I don’t believe religion has ANY place in science (because people get WAY too hot and worked up about religions and gods- see: basically any war in the history of mankind), you are free to believe that all things are made by God, through His brilliant, calculated, precise SCIENCE. Eh?

Sincerely,
Someone that knows the world turns whether or not you believe in God, there will always be bad people and bad things, but there will also always be beautiful people and beautiful things. So we really should not be getting worked up about the wrong things, and the unchangeable things- and start worrying about the things we can change, the right things. Like how we’re going to feed the next generation. How we’re going to clothe today’s poor. How we’re going to end the constant violence and suffering, or at the very least curb it. How we’re going to change our attitude about women, and health, and our children’s education, and towards the environment that God gave us to take care of.

Also- neither snowflakes nor atoms are the product of evolution in the sense that you are thinking.

Absolutely beautiful photography! The intricacy of a singular snowflake is frankly mind-blowing! Very, very impressive!!!!

Dude that was incredible!!!! I’m completely dumbfounded by those photos!

This is proof that snowflakes are alien sensors that are here to analyze if earth is suitable for an invasion.

Amazing !! Speechless!! Awwwwww …

God is not a private moment, it’s a public moment, and a public one we can rightly express when we choose to, like it or not. God is everywhere, as you can see in the beautiful pictures above. Don’t accept it? That’s fine, don’t push your atheism down my throat ;)

отличные фотографии!

Brilliant! I love love love it when people think outside the box. You get the most amazing things in life that way!

They say there’s no straight lines in nature?

Hell yeah those are some bad ass ninja stars!!!!

You didn’t get what he meant.

dude this is ammmazinnggg workk… GOD bless you! @alexeykljatov:disqus

Subhan Allah,there is no creator but Him,and He made everything in the universe perfect and beautiful !!

I see such unique design in each of the image and i don’t believe there is no designer behind this marvelous work. Any of you guys here believe in Intelligent design?

anything that came after the big bang is no god.

wow.. its looks very nice, but one thing is not sure how come all the snowflakes has design, it just falling from the sky..
Its like dreammmmm

Are you fucking retarded??

And you are uneducated about snowflakes -___-

Fake

Leave London alone. It’s their beliefs, not yours. You don’t need to shove your views down someone else’s throat. Speak for yourself. Just worry about yourself and ignore London. If that’s too hard of a concept for your mind to wrap around, then too bad and move on.

OK, please tell me I’m not the only one who noticed the Imperial Crest (from Star Wars) in the middle of that fist flake. Was this snow taken from Hoth?

What has that got to do with the snowflake article??? Nothing! Keep it on subject instead of instigating something completely off topic. Take it outside of this website if it bothers you so much so everyone else can enjoy the snowflakes.

Better yet, keeo YOUR views to yourself and let those religious people speak their mind. Just because someone shares different beliefs then you, doesn’t give you permission to shove it down their throat. Since it bothers you that much, take that conversation outside of this article or just ignore them. Don’t be rude and let people enjoy the snowflakes. Its not that hard.

you didn’t get What Rick meant

Please shut up. rumbo and Erick are right. No need to shove your views down everyone’s throat. Keep them to yourself if it bothers you that much. Why are so many negative people here? This article is about snowflakes!!! Jeez lol!!!!

No need to shove your views down other people’s throats. We have freedom to think what we want and believe in. Don’t like it? That’s fine….too bad!

Speak for yourself

Speak for yourself and don’t shove it down everyone’s throat. Let people enjoy the article please thanks.

Speak for yourself

FAKE!

Please shut the hell up. You are completely asinine and crazy!

All praises due to Allah, our master who created everything beautifully.

define “s n o w f l a k e”

This is so fucking cool.

Don’t listen to all these negative comments. It is truely God’s work of art. I was moved by what you said.

If we were to see such designs as large objects people would call me crazy if I say they just appeared randomly without a creator or designer, yet the people say exactly that about these snow flakes, same concept should apply regardless of the size, in fact its more difficult to create such designs in such a small form i.e snow flake so how can we say that does not have a designer! Allah sends his signs to mankind in amazing ways and this is a clear way of saying ‘I am here so believe in me’

ingeniousness*

pics or it didn’t happen

wowwwwwwwwwwww! Gonna publish this on my tech blog!

Whut? So we are supposed to listen to offensively wrong views peddled by religious folk ad nauseam, and yet to call this out – politely, and with a structured question and argument, in my case – is rude, and shoving something down their throat?

A discussion of the beauty of snowflakes is, in fact, precisely the place to raise this kind of discussion. Your passive-aggression (“don’t victimise me!” “don’t push your ‘scientific’ views on me, while I am pushing my ‘religious’ views on everyone!”) is inappropriate and lame.

You have this backward. What used to be the shared framework of thought, religion, is now just personal opinion, and this should be presented very cautiously; what is now the shared framework of thought, science, which has taken over for good reason, should be used well and with respect for its own gaps, but should not at all be scared to call out misplaced, unfounded, personally-grounded, religious claims.

I want people to enjoy snowflakes. I just don’t want them to lie to each other, themselves, still less young people about what is going on.

What has your God got to do with these snowflakes? Yes, precisely. Keep on the subject! Photography, nature, snowflakes! Keep God out of this thread! Thanks!

all praises are due to the Creator of the snow flakes, how magnificent it is, and thanks to the photographer for the great pics

Stunning – thanks for sharing! Greetings from Oslo :-)

geometrically perfect

Like microscopic crop circles.

I shat my pants! These are terrific!

Wrong.

Any idea how we know 2 snowflakes are never the same? We haven’t seen EVERY snowflake to be able to compare…

Great pics BTW. :)

We don’t know. It’s just something people say because the probability of two being exactly the same is minute.

Yeah it’s called Mathematics.

No one gets me. Only my Canadian friends would possibly understand… Woe is me!

If sharing the truth of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins and telling people about how much God loves us is an act of shoving it down people’s throats than I hope to be counted with “Andrew” ,”Erick” and “London”. I want every person on earth to know that God loves them and provided a provision for them on the cross for our sins.

Thank you “Andrew”, “Erick”, and “London” for reminding us all of God’s amazing love.

Simply stunning! Thank you for sowing us such unseen beauty

Darren, is that necessary? Janis was sharing something that he “sensed” after looking at these amazing photos. I am guessing that you would want people to respect your views, opinions, and feelings however “rational” or “irrational” they may be. Let’s stop putting people down for what they believe. If you choose to believe something different, you have that choice, but why not then just let others believe what they have chosen to believe (without putting them down for it)?

ok, why can’t they just go ‘wow great pics, thanks for sharing’ instead of trying to make out that some greater being is behind the creation of these amazing snowflakes. Nature is more awesome than any of their supposed ‘gods’ combined. Guess i just get fed up with these narrow-minded individuals trying to add meaning and impose their views onto things that don’t need to be explained away. Also bad hair day :-0

The “Snowflake Bentley” of our generation. Awesome work! Snowflakes are proof of God’s boundless creativity.

Have you ever heard of a mercy killing? All children who aren’t old enough to accept the truth are automatically saved. But those who are old enough to reject God have no excuse. Those children are in heaven. God brought them to him early. It’s not too late for us to believe.

All have 6 points. Why 6?

maybe some property of how water freezes?

Wow ;)) Alexey do snowflakes always have 3 or 6 sides?

Freedom of speech people! Relax. If you don’t agree, keep on scrolling.

Absolutely stunning! Way to go.

all of you guys are effed. stop shoving god down peoples throats and stop shoving atheism down peoples throats. if you believe in god, you have a right to make a comment about god. if you don’t like the comment, ignore it and keep scrolling you immature effs.

That’s what they meant.

errr… difficulty with reading comprehension?

you seem to have achieved the ‘Flake’ portion of the definition

just simply amazing! I love the second one! soooo pretty! What a great idea!

Awsome Photos.

What do you mean?

How is this person shoving anything down your or anyone else’s throat? Whine much?

Now that is some good truth!
If those snowflakes don’t point to an intelligent Creator, I don’t know what does… It takes more faith to believe this stuff came about randomly!

It’s a fucking snowflake just like every other individual fuck up in this discussion
Nothing is the same we are all just displaced freckles in the universe
Worry about where you came from the day you are dying and scared shit about the next game level
The only thing that needs to be shoved down someone’s throt is my cock
If all you religious I v dependent s spend most of your lives on your knees
Make yourselves usefull
Now my ass is falling asleep on the can as I drop another individual log of life’s waste

This is absolutely breathtaking, thank you for capturing it!

WOW!!! It’s almost like they were genetically made.

Beautiful and amazing!

Absolutely gorgeous, and made with such an inexpensive camera and components. What magic you have created! Thanks for posting.

un-geniuses, …I believe reading most of the comments has possibly lowered my IQ. Even discussing how snowflakes are remarkably unique and individually designed as people and their fingerprints seems almost pointless in this forum. The unique creative beauty of snowflakes was compared to a clod of poo?
Some people are full of poetry, and others are full of nothing more than poo.

Alexey you are absolutely brilliant! They are so beautiful and intricate, I hope you take many more photographs of them.
~ Imogen and Laura from England.

Please post more in the future! These are just brilliant!

WOW…beautiful

You’re AWESOME! Thank you for sharing these. They’re inspirational and really make you think about life and how much we don’t know. They’re so symmetrical and perfect. Would love to learn more about the physics behind how they’re formed. Cheers!

Most of snowflakes 6-sided, but some of them not. 3-sided i see quite rare, and have only 3 shots of them from pas winter (here is the best). Also sometimes can be seen 12-sided crystals. If you look closely at 5th snowflake shot from top of page, capped column, you’ll see that both caps 6-sided, and because this is monolith crystal, it is 12-sided. Sometimes can be seen another variant of that type: with very short column, and big caps, which looks like “normal” snowflakes. If you look at this crystal from cap side, it resembles common snowflake, but 12-sided.

This is AMAZING!!!! GREAT work bro :D

God made each one of them! He is sooooooooooooooooooo creative.

Thanks for the pictures!!!

superb shots totally loved it and you’re a genius, keep up the good work

I know what you mean Olivia, some of these hexagon shapes are not what we normally associate with snowflakes. I found them quite surprising as well :)

I know what you mean Olivia, some of these hexagon shapes are not what we normally associate with snowflakes. I found them quite surprising as well :)

I live 2 hours from Canada lol… I totally get it. :) 4 seasons: “Almost winter, winter, still winter, construction” (though maybe you get “Early winter, winter, late winter, Construction”)

Beautiful! Thank you!

I have never experienced snow. Its simply beautiful. And the photography is awesome

photographs and awesome

If God were to sort out all the bad then you wouldn’t be here darren. It’s you who needs a life.

WOW

morphing property of the subject and light could be short lived you knawl?

OMG!! How beautiful!!

masyaAllah, superb!

Please take more photos of snowflakes!! These pictures are so amazing!

Unbelievable beauty, Perfectly shaped. It appears that what seams random in nature is not so. Awesome!

Live long to click more!! Great Stuff Alexey!

Snowflakes are fucking scary, yo.

Everyone is glorifying the photograher, no one is glorifying the creator! Glorified is Allah, creator of time and space and the whole universe.

Certainly—due to the implementation of advanced mathematics in the universe, beyond its mere descriptive utility.

Yeah, the amount of variables in a standard snowflakes are in the billions at least, so the odds that two will be exactly the same are very small.

So if Allah is interested in pleasing our aesthetic sensibilities, why are poop and slime so repulsive?

What about vomit and murder and farts?

I have no faith at all. Faith is belief detached from evidence. I believe things are true when I have a good justification to do so, and the justification typically comes in the form of science. Knowledge obtained by science is never absolute, but it is the closest we can come and far surpasses alternative means.

You sound insane. You realize that, right?

You sound insane. You realize that, right?

Amazing pics! I’m sharing these pics and your blog on how – to with the camera with my son. He’s an amateur photographer…..i’m sure he’ll be interested in your blog. Thanks for sharing!

One of them looks like the Superman symbol without the “S”!

You must be in Idaho! Those sound like our seasons!

These are just beautiful! I was amazed the first time I truly saw a snowflake!

Just ..Wow.I know nothing about photography but these are some of the most beautiful images I’ve seen in a long time.

What did you use to catch the flakes on? It looks like a mesh of some kind. Did you leave it outside first just to get cold. Did you have to freeze it so it was colder than the snowflakes?

How did you trap the flakes? Some sort of mesh?

I had no idea snowflakes looked like that!

The patterns are so perfect, they look manufactured. I could stare at snowflakes all day… How did you get them separated? We always get them in clusters. Did you have to tease them apart with a needle or something? And what is the brush-like substance they’re on? These pictures are just simply stunning.

That’s a riot!! I get it cuz I live in the Great White North. We like Russia, too!

thank you for reminding me there IS still some wonder in the world. the little things we take for granted (like snowflakes) are often the most intriguing.

Snowflakes just falls at that background you see – it is dark gray woolen fabric. Yes, i try to cool outside all equipment, except the camera, before shooting, at least 15 minutes, I do not freeze it additionally: as you can see, almost in all cases snowflakes hanging in air, touching only hairs of fabric in few points. They melts slowly on wool than on glass (even cooled long time).

You’re looking at the Fibonacci Sequence. It’s the same sequence for flowers, trees, ocean waves and the cosmos. If there is no designer to use this sequence, what’s the probability that all of these things randomly sequenced themselves in the exact same way?

Sacred geometry. Incredible!

so hot, i love diy projects, thank you for sharing with others! greeting from czech

Beautiful photographs!

These look incredibly fake to me!

you sir, are an inspiration to me. i’ve never had a lot of money, so i thought i would never be able to get too deeply involved in my hobbies. you’ve just proven to me, that quality can be achieved with very little money.

These are so wonderful, you must take more!!
Also good job at being so crafty with your camera :D

i’m always amazed that snowflakes look like that lol

Is the snowflake on top of a bed of pubic hairs?

are you freaking kidding me…these photos are unbelievable!

Thanks,supposed to snow here tomorrow – gonna try this. Your photos – wonderful!

Beautiful photographs. Thank you for sharing!

imma call bullshit.

Could almost make me believe in god. Stunning shots.

I wish I could buy the prints of about 20+ of them to hang on my wall. It truly is amazing to see this as its my fist time seeing a true snowflake like this. I was just talking about how we take things for granted and this brought tears to my eyes. It is breathtaking.

Thanks! They often falls separately and not in clusters. I use toothpick to separate them and remove another crystals / ice debris away from one that shoot. Background for shots – dark gray woolen fabrics, shots toned with blue at postprocessing stage.

Thanks! Unfortunately, snowflakes have too low resolution for good prints. All my photos can be downloaded freely from flickr for personal and non-commercial use. I only ask to credit my work if they will be shared or exposed somewhere.

But they’re real.

Oh, how wonderful. I will tell everyone about you!!

Why not Osiris or Zeus?

Well some people in the Philippines are extremely stupid, so are you, that´s why. I hope that answers your question.
Or maybe… If god doesn´t love children and people still believe in god, maybe some people don´t give a fuck about children.

Riiiiiiight. They are liquid crystals formed by atmospheric conditions. Like saying “God” created that tornado that hit Joplin MO….riiiiiight.

….and that is where you are delusional. Someone has sold you a lie…probably mom and dad.

Everyone has to learn sometime, no need to be so condescending.

I see you missed the sarcasm.

So very bizarre that those things are real.

Yeah, because like anything us mere mortals can’t understand it surely must be the work of a God – is this still year 1523??

WOW amazing

Brilliant & beautiful–nice work, Alexey.
I live in Minnesota in the US, & sometimes, if the conditions are right, I can clearly see the precise structure of individual snowflakes as they land, say, on my car. Hope I can get a pic of one some time!

VERY cool!!

Thanks for tbe I nnovative idea…s…..!!! I met a jewler whose diamond cutting is famous; pbotos in the jewlers magazines etc. And yet nothing like the intricate similarities between each flake petal ; but none tbe same!!

I never saw snowflakes like this before. This is stunning photography Thank YOU!

Amazing, I’ve never knew they looked like that. Simply amazing. (:

Another win for helios lenses good thing i got one in my bag have for years…. im sure the price of these lenses will skyrocket now as many a newbie photographers will attempt and fail at this. Great photos though

Absolutely stunning photos, Alexey. Thank you for sharing them! More maco, please! :)

What the actual hell. These images are fucking incredible.

I discovered these as I was searching for examples of #sacredgeometry ☼ absolutely awesome capture ☼

Beautifully and handily done, sir.

fabulous work. best i have ever seen :-)

These look awesome! But why is there only one snowflake in each photo? Shouldn’t there be a pile of snow that it sits on? I’m confused.

“Crystallizing water forms repeating patterns in snowflakes and on frosty surfaces. The patterns have inspired claims about the power of consciousness to affect matter, as well as one of the first described fractal curves, the Koch snowflake.”

so beautiful….amazing how symmetrical!!!intricate!!

<3

these remind me of Dr. Emoto’s water photos…except even more lovely! Thank-you

Beautiful snowflakes.

Combinations of 6. Awesome. The earth was created (or recreated – I’m an old earth creationist) – in 6 days. Could this be mere coincidence? Nah …

Thanks! I try to isolate crystal that shoot from adjacent. Because my macro setup have very narrow DOF, any object around will be partially or complete out of focus.

These are Incredible!

Beautiful!

These photos are amazing and Alexey, you’re a creative genius. Fantastic!

whats the ‘filaments’ behind the snowflakes on all but the last pic? Amazing pics btw, it makes me so happy to see these – the patterns and shapes just blow my mind!

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing this with us all! It’s easy to look at snow and not take the time to think about the intricate details of the millions of flakes around us. Beautiful.

Absolutely gorgeous! But Snowflake Bentley did it first! Look him up!

Hi, I live in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina. It´s the same kind of weather, I like your description!!

is it just a coincidence that snowflakes all seem to have 6 sides? kinda like the star of David

MAGNIFICENT!!!!

Absolutely the most amazing! I have always been amazed but now I am in awe

Awesome pictures….No matter how advanced man becomes….nature makes us look like beginners.

That is incredible work!

OMG! who created this BEAUTY? gorgeous. thank you for the pics.

I am in absolute awe of these incredible snowflakes! Now I find myself wondering if Michigan snowflakes are nearly as lovely as Russian ones… and yes, we have nearly winter, winter, still winter and construction season here also… and in Ontario, where I also check out the snow on a regular basis….

Do snowflakes fall slower in Canada or something? Just because snow stays on the grow does not mean all those snowflake will stay preserved.

some of these look like microchips and space age data storage stuff.. these are amazing..

where are you from? Antarctica..?! :D

just kidding ;)

I agree with Olivia. While indeed no two snowflakes are exactly the same, we have a certain preconceived notion of how they are shaped. Several flakes are amazingly different, one in the shape of Superman’s crest, and one that appears to be tubular. Who’d have thunk it?

I agree with Olivia. While indeed no two snowflakes are exactly the same, we have a certain preconceived notion of how they are shaped. Several flakes are amazingly different, one in the shape of Superman’s crest, and one that appears to be tubular. Who’d have thunk it?

There is a foot of fresh snow outside my window and my mind is blown to think of the billions of masterpieces out there. Truly a miracle we ignore on a regular basis. Thank you Alexey for making me see miracles!

very creative! another good one is for your cell phone. take the lens out of a laser pen and use a bobby pin to clasp it firmly and tape the bobbypin with the lens in the end over your camera lens of your cell phone. incredible macro!

>2013
>being this retarded
stay classy amigos

These photos are astoundingly beautiful, thank you for capturing this!

well done!! Love seeing this!!

I see Metatrons Cube and Flower of Life in those pictures. Amazing! thanks for sharing!

Brought tears to my eyes… Stunning!

Stunning way to capture nature’s beauty, nature gives us more than our eyes at times can absorb, what a great way to shine a light on this a tiny snowflake.. Love it…

I love the beauty of the flakes contrasted by the bed of pubes they’re resting on…

Our creator is awesome, and you showed us another of His mighty wonders..thanks…

The creationism or intelligent design related comments are awful though. The world around us remains magnificent even without involving some imaginary magic being.

Amazing!

Amazing shots!

I live in Australia, hot dry Australia, and even i got it lol

Thanks for sharing the universal beauty of snowflakes! Your photos are magical!

I like its symmetry, I wish I get to see same in our thoughts.

amazing photo’s!!! ive never seen anything like it! thanks!

You’re free to believe whatever you want, but fractal shapes appear in nature through physics. Not god.

You don’t think the human mind is amazing in itself? It’s all from the cosmos. One big party of life.

The star of david isn’t 6 sided. It’s a triangle laying on top of another triangle. These snowflakes are like hexagons.

We care who did it first because?

You are a genius. Hat’s off, Sir.

Everything in the universe screams Creator God. These are beautiful.

These are indescribable, I feel my heart cry with overwhelming emotion and respect for nature and the beauty of it’s creations… This is magnificent, thank you so much.

“You’re free to believe whatever you want”…then states a belief and says what they believe is wrong. #fail

Everything is a belief, because there is not inclusive evidence supporting either side.

Why must it be six-sided? Could someone explain to me pl? Thanks.

These are incredible!!

Astounding! The very best macro photos I’ve ever seen. Truly when you see the intricate design of these snowflakes, you know that there is a master artisan at work in the universe.

Awesome idea man, awesome pictures!
God creates some amazing intricate things.

Amazing! Thank you for sharing.

I agree, how can anyone deny the Creator exists after seeing such amazing works of exquisite art!

These snowflakes and their infinite amount of forms are even harder to comprehend than the size of the universe. Just try to imagine all those unique snowflakes crunching under your shoes when you’re walking. Better tread lightly this winter or you will destroy all that beauty.

Great work. I love that you did it with improvised gear. Good old Yank—er, Russian ingenuity at its best!

Fantastic photos, thanks for sharing!

Fantastic photos, thanks for sharing!

Not an expert but apparently they take these forms due to the limited ways that water molecules can arrange themselves efficiently under the influence of the attractive/repulsive forces in action at that scale.

>meme arrows in a blog post
>memes in general in a public blog
>implying that this kind of humor is funny anyway
>humor about OP is not funny either

stop trying to be edgy, use the fedora to contain the ego, and sit down. thank you.

Hear that folks? Snowflakes are proof that God exists! Finally some hard evidence!!!

I’m from Alberta…I TOTALLY get it…7 months of winter…EESH

AMAZING!!!

Only an awsome God could create such beauty. Yhe only thing that would top viewing these magnified snowfakes is listening to “O’Holy Night” sang by Celine Dion. . . . Fall on your knees . . .

gorgeous!!

These photos are like a dream come true. I have often wanted to take photos of flakes, but never given it the commitment, skill, learning and time that you must have – and now I get to see the fruit of your work and love. How absolutely beautiful! And because of your commitment, I get to be amazed and in awe of each snowflake. Earlier tonight, I was looking at a photo of a costly diamond and sapphire ring – but each snowflake is more absolutely beautiful. Makes me wonder about God – Does God laugh, to have such an infinite abundance of creativity and beauty to lavish on the earth? (and if not God, then why this longing and awe within me at the sight of mere ice crystals?)

Absolutely stunning! Thanks for sharing with those of us who have always wondered :)

may i ask where you got that lense?

This photographer is a genius! –amazing pics–

Just amazing!!

Beautiful!!

HOW are they formed so symmetrical

Fyi, not all ofCanada is like that. I’m from Windsor Ontario and we have more hot/warm days then cold. We don’t usually see snow till Xmas and it only lasts maybe 3 months.

wonderful – thanks so much : )

Amazing!!! Leaves me speechless!!!

I love the photographs…but I love the ingenuity and resourceful nature of these photos even more! Great work.

More proof of perfection in nature…thank you so much Alexey. This is a real eye opening experience

I don’t know what to say, except…Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!

Amazing work. Clever and creative! I’ll have to pull out some of my old lenses and give this a try……6-12″ of snow here tonight!

my sentiments exactly – gave me peace to look at

Great shots Alexey Kljatov

I got both of you.

Those are the best photographs of snowflakes I have ever seen. Gorgeous! Thank you! :))

Amazing!

I think he captures them in a glass tube with dark fabric at the bottom. It’s actually not hard under the right conditions to catch individual snowflakes. I’ve done it with my kids to look at them under a magnifying glass (hard to see well unless you have a really good magnifying glass). How he lit and photographed them so well, I can’t say. Lots of trial and error I imagine.

Truly remarkable work.. .. .. You are a gifted artist .. .. .. and may you go on to achieve more stunning results ! Bless You !.

From his blog post:

“I just put this cylinder with the camera’s lens within it over the chosen snowflake, the lens looks vertically down.”

A light snowfall will produce the conditions needed to allow for isolating individual snowflakes.

simply beautiful..

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful nature can be.

Does it matter? You ask it like it bothers you.

I like your innovative approach to lensing…short, sweet, effective…nice work here.

WOW! Just incredible Alexey. Not just the photo’s but your ingenuity in creating them!

Ever sense I was a child I have been fascinated with snowflakes and have wanted to catch snowflakes to look at them up close. A few years ago a friend gave me her old camera and I’ve been trying to catch snowflakes in photos like that. I love your work!! Snowflakes are just so amazing I never get tired of looking at them :) Thank you for sharing I love your photos!!

God speaks to us through His Word and His Church, but also through a language that is uniquely his own. He speaks to us through sacred silence, beauty and miracles. Snowflakes are all of the above. I take them as a personal message that reminds us WHO He is!!

Some of these snow flakes remind me of the insignia that is used by the “Empire” in Star Wars.

..the new Snowflake Bentley!

Incredible pictures

Stunning….

Stunning….

Stunning….

Hi Alexej, I am writing you from a newspaper, I sent you a message on FB about your Pictures – can you check, it must be under your “Other” Messages. Would be great to hear from you! Regards, Birgit

These are amazing. Such interesting and peaceful designs. So many made by nature, yet so few ever seen in this detail by man. May we please have more?

This is just supremely cool and beautiful! Truly excellent work!! Kudos!

I think the symmetry we see in these snowflakes, is a proof that science and math, has all the answers…

AMAZING!!! thank you so much for sharing!

Astonishing images. Thank you so much Alexey.

I was thinking the same thing Rebecca:) Who He is is reflected in His creation.
Beautiful!

I hope you were, since Antarctica is covered with 26.500.000.000.000.000.000 kg of ancient snow…

well done!

The shots you took are truly amazing, who would have known that each snow flake is unique and so beautiful.

This is symmetrical water structures. This Means that the show flakes are made of clean, healthy and live structured water.

Holy schmolly!! I was literally letting out small screams of awe when I saw! This is beautifull! Thanks!

I was amazed at the one that looks like an axle – the patterned part at either end, and a segment in between. 5th one down in the photos. That’s a shape I sure never wd have even imagined to exist!

I love the photos you’ve taken. And I -really- like your including links to other snowflake photographers! Very gracious to them.
I was also surprised they last long enough to take pictures of – till I remembered we get ice on our windows that can look pretty much like flakes. Also great patterns. Not sure I’ve taken any since I got a digital camera.

Sheesh. How don’t they get it? You live up north where snow never ends, and you put a wink at the end of your remark. (In Montana, they say there are 2 seasons: July, and winter. Sometimes they don’t even get July if it snows up in the Rockies.)

notice the 6 sides – seems to be a continuing theme – 6 sides – hmmmm . . .

Umbeliavable .. I can’t stop to watch them ; such a genius!

It look alike you found Supermans Logo inspiration, since he lived in the lice up North, it kinda makes sense that his shield is an icey crystal shape!! Wow!

سبحان الله

له ما سكن في ليل و النهار

Hello Rebecca,

Exact what I was thinking while viewing this incredible pictures.
“the fool says: there is no God” (KJV)

grt,
Leo

These pictures are so incredibly breathtaking, Alexey! Thanks!

Beautiful, Alexey! Particularly the snowflake that looks like a dumbbell. :)

Excellent pictures!
Try to place the snowflake between the two polarizers, is should do fantastic colors… check keyword “crystal in polarized light” :-) Good light!

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer whom the 3. Reich killed wrote, “The God of nature does not call us to repentance.”

Alexey’s brilliant photographs show us a Holy One who delights in playful comfort for us, the Maker of the heavens and the earth showing he also does small delicate intricate things well also.

Alexey our dear friend, how well we might expect a Russian to have the vision, the imagination, the acquaintance with snow to do such images with improvised equipment!

Although we have never otherwise met, and your mastery far exceeds mine, I recognize you as a brother.

Peace and blessings on you and yours.

If your god made snowflakes, he also made bone cancer in children. You can’t take the good without the bad.

wow ..

Wow I knew Snowflakes were unique and had beautiful patterns but I never thought I would actually get to see them in such an up close and personal way. Amazing photographs Alexey. It’s truly something to see with these photographs.

Amazing! Great job Alexey! And some will actually say those incredible snowflakes are the product of random chance and exist for no reason and for no purpose…..Sheesh!

The most beautiful photos of art in ‘architecture’ that I’ve ever seen. The designs defy description. You have given us a wonderful treasure in these pictures.

I got it; but then, I live in Michigan and read the Canadian weather reports daily. Always amazes me how similar the southern Manitoba weather is to the Lower Peninsula. I really dislike ‘open’ winters. If ya gotta have winter, please let it snow!

totally awesome dude, great work :)

I thought the same thing, Rebecca; God reveals Himself in some incredible ways!!! Would anyone think that these photos came about by random chance? No; they are obviously works of art, masterfully planned and executed, and so are their subjects!

are these real ????????

Amazing photographs, keep up the good work :)
Best regards from snowy Faroe Islands,
Marita

Really outstanding!

Love the pictures,beautiful shots & a awesome job thats Russian ingenuity!!!Keep shooting!!!

These are absolutely exquisite. Thank you so much giving us this amazing view.

These are absolutely exquisite. Thank you so much for giving us this amazing view.

Actually, the reason why every snowflake is a unique work of art is precisely due to random chance. Each snowflake starts out as a plain H2O molecule (water) and as it moves through different layers of the atmosphere it attaches to other H2O molecules. The reason why snowflakes are symmetrical is that as soon as one molecule attaches to one side, it makes the other side a little more negative, so it is attracted to other H2O molecules. However, each H2O molecule has its own unique path through the atmosphere, warming and freezing and bumping into other molecules unpredictably. That’s why they all are unique =]

Up in northern Canada it’s “Winter, more winter, mosquitos, construction” lol

those are stunning pictures! thank you for sharing!! i will have to try this!
-plenty of snow in Nebraska

Just enjoy them. Why does it need to be proof of anything?

I am looking at these but in my mind I am playing the soundtrack from the movie”Close Encounters of The Third Kind”. The overused words “Amazing” and “Awesome” don’t even come close to describing the pics.

I am looking at these but in my mind I am playing the soundtrack from the movie”Close Encounters of The Third Kind”. The overused words “Amazing” and “Awesome” don’t even come close to describing the pics.

Is it really Winter all the time. I’m going to leave for South America in Jan/ Feb and thought it was summer over there (shorts weather)!

Eskimos have 125 words for snow!

That’s the beauty of it. There doesn’t have to be proof but there it is :) Merry Christmas!

so beautiful! Thankyou for sharing! I love snowflakes. I think the water freezes in the shape of the energy it was surrounded by.

These pictures are amazing! What an incredible idea. Thanks for gifting us with your creativity :)

Quite a dedicated undertaking Alexey. The edge definition is amazing. The discussion was also quite interesting with science and religion playing their perennial roles. Thanks to Emma, though, for setting the record straight.

Очень красиво! )

Wowzers Ian that is unbelievable

Great job Alex! Spaceba for sharing!

Holy shit, are these actually real snowflakes? If so, they look absolutely AMAZING.

These pictures demonstrate how silly the Watchmaker’s Argument is. Water and temperature need not a creator.

I see the hand of God in these snowflakes! There is nothing so tiny that He does not have a hand in.

Hello Alexey, these are amazing! Thanks for sharing the plan. Can I ask if you know the differences in the other Helios lenses? The 5 seems expensive and less available compared to the others…2,4…etc. Would those work similarly?

Awesome!!!!

So beautiful! Seeing them close up, it is also impressive to note the precision of the symmetry in the designs

Do really snowflakes looks like that when you zoom in to them?

Красивые фотографии. Они тонкие и навязчивый.

absolutely fascinating, well done friend!
Gazza, England.

superb, great innovation, well done friend!
Gazza

the hairs are discusting!

Hello and congratulations for these macro shots. They are really beautiful!

Alexey these are beautiful..now if god could put down the Exacto knife and scissors and start working on helping the needy.Anyone here that thinks that god has the ability to create something so trivial as snowflakes but ignores the starving children in poor counties like Ukraine and India etc is enormously self centered.”Here my children ..enjoy the beauty of a snow flake” Oh you little 8 year old Hindi boy there in Banaras….continue to cremate the bodies of the dead and steal the funeral shrouds so you can buy some food…nice god you worship…he certainly does work in mysterious ways…

Is it still? I haven’t been ther for a couple of years….;)

Alexey, may I share one of your photos on Instagram? I will of course give you credit and point people to this website. These are just such gorgeous pictures!

All pictures are awesome but Alexey, I see you have some fascination with hexagon. Except the 3-sided snowflake in the fourth picture…or could it be that snowflakes have this upper limit – 6 sides?

absolutely beautiful.

Hi Alexey, Look up Snowflake Bentley. He was your predecessor by 100 years. Not to belittle your amazing, beautiful work and creativity. Thanks for capturing nature for us. The more we see and know, the more wonder we experience

You forgot black flies :/

Outstanding photos.

It could be that people are recognizing a power greater than themselves and are humbled by the beauty.

It could be that people are recognizing a power greater than themselves and are humbled by the beauty.

This is how water molecules align themselves when they freeze. All snowflakes have 6 sides. The 3 sided one is still actually 6 sided.

It looks like a grey wool surface. It helps to better capture a snowflake without damaging the fragile structure plus the neutral shade allows for better light contrast.

Awesome mate… just awesome!

Awesome mate… just awesome!

I like the fourth and the fifth one. I never thought snowflakes could end up being tube-shaped!
also, this makes me wanna go watch Frozen again!

its awsome,the creations of GOD

LOL.. we have an over abundant amount of snow throughout the winter.. “Not short lived up here in Canada”, means just that.. Our winters last from Oct. – April. in most places, or longer..

Fascinating snowflake photography.. I can not wait to try this.. I bought a raynox to go on my P’n’S camera though.. No taping for me.. But this was an ingenious idea..

besides last winter.. And I am afraid this winter looks to be the same.. This summer was enjoyable.. Not to hot, but its not even fall yet and we are getting fall temps.. That is scaring me..

Absolutely love these! And I admire your camera-tape hack. Excellent work.

Those are lovely! I collect these…and yours are some of the best I’ve seen! Great work!