I’ve been working on this one for a long time. More time has been put into this snowflake than any other edit in my history. What you’re seeing here is BOTH sides of the most complex snowflake I have ever photographed, mirrored.
The original image (left) was published as a part of the 2017-2018 snowflake series:
flickr.com/photos/donkom/39289310091/ - and it was such a compelling crystal that, in the field, I did something I rarely do: I photographed both sides of the snowflake. Once the first set of images are taken for the purposes of focus stacking, the snowflake is then flipped over using a delicate paintbrush. The reverse side is then photographed in the same manner. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, but it certainly is the most elaborate and the first time I’ve been able to mirror it against itself. The right-side image was never edited until now, and it the final composite took me a few days to create.
The mirroring process is no small feat. While the images are generally the same structure, they are not taken at precisely the same angle. Geometric corrections are made to match the two sides in Photoshop using the Distort tool with a blending mode set to “difference” which allows for the direct comparison of the footprint of the snowflake to align both together. The match isn’t perfect, as the snowflake would have sublimated between the two sets of images, and each side has different features. Those different features are what makes this image so unique.
I’ve talked about this before: one side of a snowflake has topographical grooves, ridges, valleys etc. while the other side is mostly smooth. This image is the perfect way to express this differential. You can even spot certain features like a branch growing on multiple levels, and that is reversed in the mirror image. Colour from bubbles trapped in the ice via a prism effect are more noticeable on the right side vs. the left as well. There’s a lot of visual comparisons to be made as your eyes jump between the two halves of this image!
Snowflakes normally do not get to this size and complexity while still staying roughly symmetrical in features across all the branches. Symmetry isn’t the best word here, but rather “balance” with puzzle pieces fitting tightly against each-other. The chiseled edges indicate slower growth, something also uncommon for a crystal of this magnitude. This specimen represents an extreme rarity, and while we might expect snowflakes to look like this in our imagination, such creations are extraordinarily rare in nature.
I hope 2024 brings you peace, is filled with beauty and wonderful memories, and contributes to the positivity in life that helps define you. This is a year that contains insurmountable uncertainty for so many millions of people, and a year where the world is resting on a razor’s edge. Because of this uncertainty, it is especially important that we all admire the good in our lives – including the people we hold close and the friendships we have cultivated. Reach out to friends you haven’t heard from in a while, they’ll be glad you called. 2024 needs to be a year of growth and prosperity – I hope you all find that in the 365 days to come.
