Snowflake Photography 

I’m so ready to photograph some beautiful snowflakes! We have had the cold weather for it. It is currently 15 degrees so definitely cold enough for the flakes to not melt. We’ve barely had an inch total in the past two weeks and no flakes. It has come down in tiny clumps or teensy snowballs. I think I’ll go ahead and move my whole setup outside tomorrow since it’s supposed to snow the next 5 days. Yay! I have three different set-ups I used last year. One is my iPhone with two stacked macro diopters. The other is my Canon EOS 5D MIII with Canon 100mm macro with a Raynox MSN-202 diopter. I have shot both handheld with snow that has fallen on a hat or scarf using both natural light and with tiny LED flashlights and using my darkroom enlarger base as a “tripod” of sorts with snow on a piece of glass held up with a clear drinking glass to allow for natural and supplemental backlighting and to add various backgrounds below or inside the glass. One of my backgrounds was a mini cd that fit into the glass perfectly. I used small LED flashlights both above and below attached (taped with electrical tape) to Bogen clamp setups for lighting. Here are a couple snowflake images and a few of last years set-up. 

Canon setup. Handheld. Single shot. This was my favorite shot last year. I also photographed this flake with the iPhone setup, it was not as clear but acceptable.

Canon setup. Handheld.

Canon setup. Enlarger with grey sponge under glass as background. Macro ringlite for lighting (shown below).

Macro ringlite…had to be taped to the Raynox MSN-202 Adapter.

My little setup, small LED flashlights, toothpicks, paintbrush (for moving flakes).

Tiny dried flower. Canon setup. The colorful background is a mini cd.

This is the first snowflake I got to photograph. The snow wasn’t so great. Definitely not perfect snowflakes. Handheld, Canon camera, 100mm macro, Raynox MSN-202. I just let the snow fall onto a winter hat and photographed with natural light.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Snowflake photography is so much fun. 

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