Did you know that every snowflake is unique? When I stared out my window and watched the millions of flakes fall to the ground during the blizzards of 2010, I really found it hard to believe that every single flake was different from the next. For hours and hours the snow came, but as I have learned from Wilson A. “Snowflake” Bentley each flake was indeed different.
Bentley, a self-educated farmer from Vermont, pioneered the field of photomicrography. Photomicrography, the practice of photographing of very small objects, was achieved by using a camera with a microscope. In his lifetime, Bentley photographed over 5,000 snowflakes, a difficult task since they melt so quickly, and never found two snowflakes that were alike! Bentley donated a collection of 500 photographs to the Smithsonian in 1903.
Courtney Esposito, Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives
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I really your photos of snowflakes. I love the close ups of those in your slideshow view:
ReplyDeletehttp://collections.si.edu/search/viewer?fq=online_media_type:%22Images%22&q=Snowflake+Bentley&start=0&fq=online_visual_material:true&qt=sirisCSI
This is a much better idea for combatting cabin fever than the ones I thought up while home during this monstrous blizzard! Thanks for the beauty.
ReplyDeletei saw a tiny snow flake and it was kind of round but had 8 ends but they where all kind of round edges and they where all conected
Deletehow did he take photos if snow flakes melt so fast
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