Who Takes the Picture of the First Snowflake?

There is one question that I often ask, "Who took the picture of the first snowflake?" You might wonder, how did the snowflake first appear? The answer is that the snowflake was photographed by Wilson Bentley, a photographer in New York. Among the most prominent photographers of the late 1800s, he was also the one who photographed the first airplane crash. His works are found in the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Wilson Bentley

Bentley was an aesthete and a man of science. In his quest to capture snowflakes in all their glory, he perfected a variety of photomicrographic techniques. His efforts to record winter garnered him the attention of scientists at the nearby University of Vermont, and he eventually became a member of the American Meteorological Society.

Wilson Bentley's first snowflake photograph was a milestone in science. In 1885, he attached a microscope to a camera to take the earliest-known photograph of a single snowflake.

Bentley also developed a method to measure the size of a raindrop. This process involved placing the drop on a flour tray and weighing a ball of paste produced by the raindrop.

Other notable achievements were the use of a turkey feather to press a snowflake onto a microscope slide, and the construction of the world's first astrophysics laboratory.

Bentley's photographs reflected the limitations of the time. Glass plates were used to take photographs during the 1800s.

Nathan Myhrvold

Myhrvold has traveled to Yellowkniduski, Northwest Territories, and Fairbanks, Alaska, to photograph snowflakes. He hopes this will help change the way people view them.

The photographer uses a custom-built camera with a specially designed optical path to channel the image to a medium-format digital sensor. This system is designed to capture high-rez images of snowflakes at microscopic level. It also includes a thermoelectric cooling system to prevent heat from escaping when a snowflake is in focus.

For the photos, Myhrvold used artificial sapphire as a lens because it has a lower thermal conductivity than glass. Because it doesn't radiate heat as well, it can capture it better.

A lot of work went into the project. Myhrvold spent 18 months designing and building a custom camera for taking high-rez photos of snowflakes. His camera is one of the most advanced on the market.

His machine stands five feet tall and weighs 50 pounds. Each of the lenses in his camera is eight times as thermally efficient as glass.

Libbrecht

The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty is the first book to be published about snowflakes in popular science. It is written by Kenneth Libbrecht, a CalTech physics professor.

For centuries, scientists have been fascinated by snowflakes. They are clear, ephemeral ice crystals. They form under certain conditions, such as temperature and humidity, and take on a variety of shapes. Depending on the crystal shape, snowflakes can have a wide range of properties.

Snowflakes are created by water droplets, which can stick to the surface of a snow crystal. Water droplets can collide with the ice crystal, forming a rime. When these rimes collide, they condense on the seed crystal, creating a snowflake.

Libbrecht has been studying snowflakes for decades. He studied the growth of ice crystals in the laboratory, and eventually began to photograph snowflakes. This research became so interesting to him that he wrote seven books on the subject.

Kljatov

If you're interested in taking close-up pictures of snowflakes, you may want to look into the work of Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov. His photographs show the intricate fractal-like structure of the snowflake.

Snowflakes are tiny crystals made up of ice. They have six-sided symmetry, making them very unique. These small objects of nature have become the subject of many photographers' interest. Luckily, it's not hard to photograph them.

The earliest picture of a snowflake was taken by Wilson Bentley, a self-taught photographer who specialized in snowflake imagery. Bentley's work helped shape the world of science photography. He sold his first picture for five cents in 1885. Afterward, other scientists began photographing the snowflakes and analyzing them.

Now, amateur photographers can take their own snowflake photos. Some use multi-angle cameras to track the snowflakes as they fall through the air. Others use a lens attachment to isolate individual snowflakes.