Snowflakes Like You've Never Seen (PHOTOS)

By Camille MannPublished: Dec 9, 2013, 4:35 PM ESTweather.com

 

 

Macro Snowflakes

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Snowflake macro shot taken in January 2009 shot on green plastic carpet. (Alexey Kljatov)

Each snowflake that falls has an intricate design that is all its own. Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov decided to take a close-up look at the ice crystals for his stunning photo series.
“When I bought my first digital camera, I was impressed by it’s ability to capture the tiny world, almost unseen by the naked eye,” explained Kljatov to weather.com.
After seeing shots of snowflakes on the internet Kljatov was “amazed by their cold crystal beauty” and was inspired to take some shots of his own.
When Kljatov was taking his first macro snowflake shots, he says he made a lot of mistakes. “I shot in poor light on a handheld. My first snowflake shots were terrible, but I was happy to see the snowflakes’ shapes and patterns,” he said.
A year ago, Kljatov decided to get more serious about his macro shots and began using an external lens as a magnifier in front of his camera. He also set up two different backgrounds for shooting – a glass sheet with backlight and a dark background made up of woolen fabric using only natural light.
The Moscow-based photographer collects the snowflakes as they fall on either a large sheet of glass or a woolen fabric and shoots them immediately.
“My method has an advantage in speed. I can rapidly switch from crystal to crystal,” he explained. “The disadvantage is that my background is usually covered by unwanted crystal and ice debris, which I need to clean out at the post processing stage.”
After shooting the snowflakes, Kljatov digitally combines his series of identical shots to make one clear picture. The result is beautiful sharp photos of each unique snowflake.
To see more of Kljatov’s work, visit his Flickr and 500px pages.

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They Found WHAT in the Snow!?

Bizarre Ice Circle Forms in North Dakota Lake, Confusing Residents

Blake NicholsonPublished: Nov 27, 2013, 8:42 AM ESTAssociated Press

 

Raw: Spinning Ice Disk in River

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BISMARCK, N.D. — When George Loegering saw a large spinning circle of ice in the Sheyenne River while out hunting with relatives, the retired engineer couldn't believe his eyes.
"At first I thought, no way! It was surreal," Loegering, 73, said Tuesday of the large ice disk he witnessed Saturday. "You looked at it and you thought, how did it do that?"
Then his engineering background kicked in. He calculated the disk's diameter to be about 55 feet, took photos and videos of it and then turned to the Internet for more information about what he, his brother-in-law and nephew had seen.
"It's not an unknown phenomenon, but it is relatively rare," said Loegering, who lives in rural Casselton, about 20 miles west of Fargo.
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Allen Schlag, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Bismarck, and Greg Gust, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Forks, said a combination of cold, dense air last weekend and an eddy in the river likely caused the disk.
"It's actually quite beautiful," Schlag said.
The cold, dense air — the air pressure Saturday in nearby Fargo was a record high for the city for the month of November, according to Gust — turned the river water into ice, but since the water was relatively warm it didn't happen all at once. Floating bits of ice got caught in the eddy and started to spin in a circle.
"It's not a continuous sheet of ice," Schlag said. "If you were to throw a grapefruit-size rock on it, it would go through. It's not a solid piece of ice — it's a collection of ice cubes."
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Loegering said the spinning disk had frozen up but was still visible in the river.
"I'm not sure how long it was there (spinning)," he said. "It had to be quite a long time. If you look at the picture, you can see growth rings on the disk."
Schlag said he was surprised by the size of the ice circle, which he said would be more likely on a larger river such as the Missouri.
"That might be one of the better examples I've seen," he said. "It's a pretty cool one."

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Antarctic Ice Waves

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Though they appear to be frozen ocean waves, these blue ice towers in Antarctica are created when ice compresses, forcing trapped air bubbles out. When sunlight passes through this thick frozen ice, blue light waves are visible but the red light is absorbed. (Photo credit: Tony Travouillon)