Who hasn’t marveled at the shape of a snowflake up close? And who hasn’t been even more impressed when viewing a snowflake with a magnifier? Each is a perfect creation, formed in the clouds high above the earth’s surface.

Snow has two forms: flakes and crystals. Flakes are an aggregation of crystals that reach the earth’s surface together. Single crystals are much more rare. yet, these are the structures that show more symmetrical shapes. They sparkle more because they are more perfect.

In and around Asheville, say between 2,000 and 2,500 feet in elevation, we expect an average of nine to ten inches of snow each year. Go up in elevation, however, even just a few hundred feet, and the snow outlook is much greater. Mount Mitchell, just northeast of Asheville is the highest point of elevation in the eastern United States (6,684 feet), and it holds the record for the greatest single-storm snowfall event in North Carolina: 50 inches during the March blizzard of 1993.

Snow is truly a remarkable substance. The story begins high in a cloud when a small droplet freezes. As water vapor starts condensing and freezing onto the surface of the droplet, the crystal develops facets or faces, becoming a small hexagonal prism. As the crystal becomes larger, branches begin to grow from the six arms.

Snow crystals are among the most ephemeral of all objects on Earth. Touch one and it is gone, no more, just a spot of liquid. Yet, amazingly, it is possible to “capture” a snow crystal if the proper techniques are used.

How does one capture such a temporary and fragile thing? It can be done in only two ways: by drawing it, or photographing it. A Vermont farmer, Wilson A. Bentley, spent a lifetime learning the technique, and in 1931 his life’s work was published in a book of more than 500 snow crystal photographs. He was the first to capture snow crystals photographically.

Bentley became a snowflake scientist while still a shy farm boy. His mother, a teacher, had given him a simple microscope. He arranged a snowflake lab in an open outdoor shed where temperatures would be cold enough to maintain the crystals. Next, he learned that the surface on which they would be collected had to match their temperature. He accomplished this with a narrow board that he stored inside a snow pile until he pulled it out, ready for capturing a falling flake.

At first, farm boy Bentley simply observed these “wondrous beauties” of nature. Next he began to draw their shapes, and finally he learned about a new invention of George Eastman: a camera, which he eventually figured out how to attach to his microscope.

You might want to try photographing snow crystals much as Wilson Bentley did. First, learn how to capture a crystal on a cold surface, preferably a black one. Try photographing with your digital camera, holding a magnifying glass above the snow crystal.

learning about snow crystals can become a passion. after all, few things in nature are so variable. and fewer still are so beautiful.

For Further Reading:

The Snowflake: Winter’s Secret Beauty, by Kenneth libbrecht. an amazing collection of snowflake photographs by a California State University physics professor.

Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. A charming and award-winning children’s book about the first snowflake photographer.