Snowflakes
I’ve been out in the cold chasing snowflakes:
I stood with a high magnification lens on a tripod, waiting for flakes to fall on a dark oak leaf I set out. A few times a beautiful intact flake fell and then the wind blew the leaf – I stuck the leaf in the snow. I ended up almost as cold as the flakes by the time I was done. Brr.
Happy Holidays! Those of you in the northern hemisphere, get out and enjoy the winter – it’s beautiful out there.
Nature Diary 
wow! i can’t wait to show this to my husband who will be so envious he will be outside in our snow hoping to capture something similar! this is pretty amazing.
Terribly beautiful Thomas…
Congrats, it is a very good picture
Wow. That is impressive. I never even knew they had that shape. Very nice.
You have some fantastic pics here Thomas. I especially like the leafhopper. Great photography!!
I am really curious at what your “high magnification lens” is here Tom. Don’t think i could get something this close with my macro + all my tubes + a reversed lens. 🙂
Hi Mark – I used the Canon MP-E 65, an unusual lens that goes from 1x to 5x, but doesn’t focus to infinity. It basically has a built-in bellows. When you focus at 1x, it’s a short focal length lens. To get higher magnfications, you turn a zoom-like collar that racks out the bellows tube, lengthening the whole lens. It lengthens by around five inches.
As you rack out the lens, you have to pull the camera body back; the front of the lens is a bit closer to the subject. You have to have a focus rail or long lens plate to use it.
I can get closer with it than I can with a reversed lens. Racked out, it uses a lot of light.
Thanks for the inspirational photographs – I will certainly get out there as soon as our temperatures become more moderate. How does the cold affect your digital equipment?
Beautiful site, Tom- I love the snowflakes what a superb photograph! I tried that once with my old Pentax and just got frozen toes
Thanks for your recent visit to my blog, as well as the kind comment. I am delighted to have discovered YOUR blog and will certainly return from time to time to view your interesting work.
This is amazing!!