Decided to turn this one into black and white, fix the spacing at the top and bottom, and clean up some of the distracting bits.
Now snow forecast here yet... so disappointing...
I've recently learned a whole lot more about extreme macro photography and lenses. I have ordered a microscope objective that I can adapt to my K3II to get sharper images. at 4.6x magnification on the 50mm f2.8 macro (with extra accessories that is), the effective f-ratio is actually around f19 (and i stopped it down!!??!! ) so that's well within the limit of where diffraction really sets in and affects sharpness.

[Photogoof]

Another triumph! I don't know how you do it.

[Michail_P]

Snowflakes are magnificent. You took a great shot. The bw choice was right. It gave a silver like texture on the crystal.

[Bertrand3000]

Wonderful shot. It looks like a Christmas decoration. Thanks for sharing!

[mirceattl]

Spectacular photo, thanks for sharing!

[ShutterPro]

Really amazing photo. Wish I could take such.

[ehrwien]

Splendid capture! B&W totally suits it.

[WileyB]

It really does look more like a molten, just-solidying metal!

[fwwidall]

Great shot,

Which 4X microscope objective did you order ? I've been having good success with the very inexpensive Amscope 4X.

There's a review over on Robert O'Toole's excellent closeuphotography.com. He gives it high marks in one of his many lens tests.

It really is great value for money. I think I paid more for an RMS to M42 adapter than I did for the lens

Hopefully the temps here in Ontario will be heading down soon and I get some good snowflake images this season.

Fred.

[STARHUNTER94]

Just curious, are the rounded bits on the ends more round because it's starting to melt?

[MSL]

Nice and sharp. Shows a lot of the detail including imperfections at the growth fronts.


I really do need to figure out if my microscope can be adapted for photography...

[Urs]

What a beauty! well done congrats!

[aitrus3]

Great shot,

Which 4X microscope objective did you order ? I've been having good success with the very inexpensive Amscope 4X.

There's a review over on Robert O'Toole's excellent closeuphotography.com. He gives it high marks in one of his many lens tests.

It really is great value for money. I think I paid more for an RMS to M42 adapter than I did for the lens

Hopefully the temps here in Ontario will be heading down soon and I get some good snowflake images this season.

Fred.

Your Article/post, as well as a macro guy on Facebook coincided to be posted on exactly the same day. I ordered the AmScope 4x finite. Although, they were going to charge me $60 US for shipping, 3x what the objective costs... So I had it sent to a friend of mine in Redmond Washington and he will ship it to me. I can't see the tiny lens costing $60 US for standard international shipping...
I need to find an RMS to T2/M42 adapter though... Where did you get yours? I hate amazon and don't have a prime account so shipping will also be outrageous, but may need to order it from there, Ugh.

---------- Post added 12-19-2020 at 07:24 PM ----------

Just curious, are the rounded bits on the ends more round because it's starting to melt?

Evaporation I think. This had fallen the night before and I carefully got it on my fabric glove (either by gently dipping it in the snow, blowing snow off the railing onto the glove, or throwing a small shovel full and catching the dust). So because it sat for a while, it had sublimated a bit. Snowflakes evaporate even in cold temps. I once caught one before going to work one year and stored the glove in our BBQ outside. When I got home from work, even though it wasn't near warm enough to melt, it was gone and had evaporated. So they do break down just sitting there. It's always best to go out as it is snowing.

---------- Post added 12-19-2020 at 07:29 PM ----------

Nice and sharp. Shows a lot of the detail including imperfections at the growth fronts.


I really do need to figure out if my microscope can be adapted for photography...

Check out this article and the other one that fwwidall posted. They go into great detail and I learned a huge amount the other day about this. I finally understand more about how this works with the optics and why Macro lenses aren't great for extreme closeup.
The AmScope 4x finite objective is sharper and offers more light than the expensive Canon 5x macro lens at a fraction of the cost...

https://www.maxamillion.online/blog/2019/6/20/adapting-microscope-lenses?fbc...gjHipNGMhL2e9s

[Prince Harbinger]

Looks amazing!

[Tonytee]

Very brilliantly constructed image. It reminds of a type of Icon worn by Russian or European Nobility during the 19th Century. Many thanks for posting.

tt