Nature + Physics = Exceptions

First, I’m going on record here that I am not a snowflake macro-photographer (if that isn’t obvious by the low resolution and missing technique). I’ll never be old “Snowflake Bentley”, or our modern-day equivalent, Alexey Kljatov. I am, however, in love with the miracle of snowflakes, and like Camellia’s recent experience with drip photography, I’m struggling to “move on” at the moment. I promise I’ll start sharing my traditional forms of outdoor photography soon, but you’ll have to humor my flakiness a tad longer.

Yesterday presented me with the greatest diversity of snowflake formations I’ve ever witnessed in all my years of geeking over them. That alone caused me to miss church and stand outside in sub-zero temps, offering up an entirely different form of appreciation and thankfulness. (“Better Than a Hallelujah”, friends.)

No two snowflakes will ever be exactly the same, but they do follow rules of symmetry and pattern according to physics, resulting in some version of six sides or six arms as the water molecules crystallize in predetermined arrangements. This Sunday brought an unquantifiable bounty of examples.

This Sunday also delivered rebels. A few crystals somehow circumvented the rules. These anomaly flakes were smaller than their surrounding “peers”, easily able to fit through the eye of a hand-sewing needle, so I was only successful in photographing a few… and quite poorly.

Please enjoy the many beautifully-diverse results of physics that first coaxed me outside that day. At the end of collection, you’ll also find four botched-up attempts at photographing the anomalies. I'm including them because, quite simply, they made me smile, and I’m hoping you also get a smile out of their exceptional ways.

Snowflake at Attention

This is a compilation of flakes frozen into a composite sheet of ice.

I call this the Kickstand Snowflake. ;-)

'Not quite in focus, but there's still so much to appreciate.

So much diversity....

At first glance, you just see a layer of fluff over a copper patina, but upon close inspection, the "fluff" is a conglomerate of exceptionally fine-spindled, intricate flakes.

Anomaly 1: This flake formed on multiple planes, like stacked plates, as a little appendage overachiever.

Anomaly 2: This flake also formed with stacked planes, almost as deep as it was wide, like a little sun.

Anomaly 3: The little mutation formed in a rectangular arrangement, with splicing confusion in the middle.

Anomaly 4: Quite frankly, I have no idea how to describe this little fella.