Another challenging aspect of snow crystal photography is handling. Snow crystals are small, somewhat fragile, and they melt away with the slightest breath. If it’s just a few degrees below freezing, snowflake photography is difficult. The crystals melt almost as soon as you look at them.

Near-perfect, symmetrical snow crystals are fun to look at, and sought after by photographers, but they are not common. Why six? The six-fold symmetry you see in a snow crystal arises from the arrangement of water molecules in the ice crystal lattice.

To look preserve snowflakes and look at them under a microscope, you just need the slides! You can also lightly spray the slide with hairspray to help the snowflakes stick. You can place the slides in the freezer to preserve the snowflake, or immediately begin inspecting them under the microscope.

If you happen to have a microscope and microscope slides, try preserving snowflakes. Prepare in advance by placing a couple of slides in the freezer so that they won’t melt the snowflakes. You will also need hairspray or artists’ fixative. Keep these items in a cold area like your refrigerator or an unheated garage.

A magnification of 3X is okay, but 5X is better for looking at snowflakes. A fold-up double-magnifier (pictured above), with two 5X lenses, is a good choice. A single 5X lens is good for most viewing, and using both lenses together for 10X is useful for looking at smaller crystals.

Snowflakes are symmetrical because they reflect the internal order of the water molecules as they arrange themselves in the solid state (the process of crystallization). During this process, the molecules (in this case, water molecules) align themselves to maximize attractive forces and minimize repulsive ones.

Snowflakes can only form 35 different shapes. Although most of us cringe at the thought of snow and the cold, winter offers some pretty beautiful sights, and one of them is snowflakes.

We have 35 different types of snowflakes… and they form from different atmospheric conditions but each one of these is very temperature dependant.

Because a snowflake’s shape evolves as it journeys through the air, no two will ever be the same. Even two flakes floating side by side will each be blown through different levels of humidity and vapour to create a shape that is truly unique.

The plate and star-shaped flakes in these storms pack together with little airspace between flakes, making for heavy, dense snow that is a pain to shovel. Colder air holds little water vapor so snow tends to fall as a light, fluffy powder that has lots of air between flakes.

A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice.

What two factors determine the shape of a snow crystal? Temperature and humidity.

stone of purity

Snowflake Obsidian sends energy down through the root chakra and out the Earth Star chakra beneath your feet releasing negative energy into the ground while drawing in positive grounding energy into the body from the Earth making it a powerful grounding stone.

Crystals that DON’T work together

• Malachite because it is a powerful crystal that is also known to amplify all kinds of energy so it can leave you feeling lower in the dumps.
• Clear quartz as it is an amplifier.
• Cooler colored, light blue stones because these crystals can bring energy down instead of energising.

This natural snowflake obsidian bracelet can be worn by both men and women. It looks very solid and well made. The stones are shiny, very smooth, consistent in size (around 8 mm), and heavy – the real deal.

Snowflake Obsidian works to help balance, purify, and ground one’s mind, body, and aura. This stone activates our root and third eye chakras, enhancing ones psychic abilities, especially that of past life recall. When meditating with this stone, one will have enhanced vision of previous lives.