The Sowflakes of Nathan Myhrvold

Photographer Nathan Myhrvold invented a new type of camera to take the clearest, sharpest pictures of snowflakes ever.

"All living things need water to survive. Snow, in its frozen crystalline form, plays an important role in the global water cycle and thus food production. Many rivers that flow, reservoirs that are filled, and most drinking water that’s used during the summer depend on the amount of snowfall earlier in the year. Inspired by the magnitude of importance these minuscule frozen droplets carry, Nathan custom built the highest-resolution snowflake camera in the world so that he could capture the lacy, delicate structure of a single snowflake with unparalleled precision. The technique involves using pulsing LED lights (which is not a standard operation) to reduce the heat they put out and increase the speed at which he can capture the image.

Photographing snowflakes is a bit like watching sand fall through your fingers. The difficulty of it is not just technical but also a matter of timing. Snowflakes sublimate—their sharp features degrade as the ice crystals evaporate over time, making the window to capture them fleeting. To keep the snowflakes from vaporizing too quickly, Nathan uses a cooled stage, giving him more time to capture and focus-stack images. With their microscopic size and fleeting nature, snowflakes presented one of the more monumental challenges to Nathan in his photography career."

Prints of these photos can be purchased through Modernist Cuisine here:

https://modernistcuisinegallery.com/

http://www.nathanmyhrvold.com/