These are photos of snow that fell on the afternoon of February 14, 2006 in Casper, Wyoming. Conditions were right to get that nice, fluffy, "large flake" style snow and it was cold enough that the flakes remained intact for quite some time.

The shots were all taken using a Canon 20D with the Canon MP-E65 macro lens. Settings were between 3X and 5X for most of these shots.

Lighting for the first bunch was from the Canon MT-24EX flash unit mounted to the front of the lens. The 2nd batch was illuminated harshly from the side with a 580EX on an off camera shoe cord.

For the first batch, I just went outside during the snowfall in the afternoon and took a piece of dark purple construction paper out with me. I let it cool off for a minute or two and then just let flakes land on it. I set it on a barbeque grill and then hunkered over it with the camera and lens and just shot what looked good by hand.

For the second batch, I wanted to get more shots later that night, but the snow had changed to a more granular form of very small chunks. Not nearly so pretty. It was also windy at that time which probably accounts, in part, for the difference in the crystal forms.

So I set up a crude table made of a couple of cat litter buckets and a cardboard box. I put the 580EX on a small mini-tripod and aimed it so that the light would come from the edge of this "table", skimming across the surface nearly parallel to it.

Then I'd take a piece of construction paper out to the piled snow, dig down to where the good crystals from earlier in the day were hiding, and try to get some to spread out and separate onto the paper. I'd set that paper down on the "table" and then look for winners. Then I'd set a small LED flashlight down right near the one I thought looked decent and then try to find it in the finder. When I felt I had it in the frame and in focus, I'd fire. Again, all hand-held.

This was inside my unheated garage with the door open so that it would be cold enough to avoid melting the crystals yet I'd be shielded from the wind. It was a chore to avoid breathing while taking the photos since one breath aimed wrong and the crystals would be melted or the camear's finder would fog up.

I switched to a black piece of paper after a few shots. I'm not sure which I prefer. The ones on the black paper almost look as if they're black and white photos, but they are actually full color.

When I was frozen enough and had gotten what I thought I could stand to get, I put the camera and lens and the flash into ziplock bags and sealed them before bringing them back into the house. I wanted to avoid getting condensation inside the equipment.

I really would do better if I had a tripod or other mount for the camera and one of those nice rack and pinion macro focusing rails. I may look into building something like that for doing this sort of work. I'm sure that better shots could be made of snow crystals if a guy had a way to hold the camera steady to focus and to shoot.

I was counting on the flash to freeze my shaking and trying to just time things right so that I'd have the scene somewhat in focus as I pressed the shutter release. Still, there may be some motion blurring in these shots. And I was not able to hold the focus where I wanted with any precision.

At 3X to 5X, and on a small sensor body like the 20D, I really can't hold all that steady shooting by hand. But heck, it was fun anyhow!