Just for Fun

As you watch the snow lay down a thick blanket for winter at last, to some it is a welcomed beauty while others find it nothing short of a nuisance. However, while watching the snow fall, few remember that they are actually looking at a somewhat hidden world. That thick blanket of snow is made up of hundreds of billions of individual snowflakes, none featuring the exact same patterns. However, one photographer out of Moscow is making the world remember by giving the world an up close and personal look at snow’s hidden world.

Following in the footsteps of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley and Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Alexey Kljatov has moved on from taking macro images of bee eyes and fruit to the wide world of snowflakes. Using a low-cost variation of the lens reversal macro technique with his compact Canon Powershot A650is at maximum zoom, Kljatov is able to capture the majesty of unique snowflake designs like never before. Through this technique, Kljatov is able to not only achieve superior magnification, but his pictures have much less chromatic aberrations and blurring than say, the original snowflake pictures taken by Bentley.

The pictures are taken from inside while snow falls against his balcony window in his home in Moscow. By placing an LED light outside behind the snowflakes, he is able to capture individual flakes in a series of 8 to 16 shots. Through the use of multiple shots, Alexey Kljatov is able to align the pixels so as to reduces noise over the subtle details and color transitions of the snowflake.

The pictures he captures while using this unique technique have burst the hidden world of snow wide open. However, it is easy to look at individual snowflakes and see how beautiful they are.

When they come in great numbers, however, it is time to have something done about these pesky beauties. For businesses that need snow removal services in the Grand Rapids and Lansing area, contact Sneller Snow & Grounds today to see what we can do about limiting the disruptive beauty of snow at your business.