They say no two snowflakes are alike. That every single one is unique. I don’t buy it. Do you have any idea how many individual flakes have to fall to cover a place the size of New York City in just a couple of inches of white stuff? Now add up every storm, all over the planet, for the last 50,000 years. You’re telling me that no two snowflakes have been exactly alike. I’m skeptical. But I don’t need to believe in that old adage to appreciate the beauty of a single flake. Especially after finding a whole new way to appreciate one of nature’s most elegant designs: watching melting snowflakes in reverse, all in stunning macro detail.
This video (which we first came across at Laughing Squid) comes from the YouTube channel Another Perspective. They filmed melting snowflakes using highly detailed macro photography. (For you camera-heads out there, that meant shooting with a Sony a6300 camera, with 90mm macro and 60mm 2:1 Laowa macro lenses. Sounds impressive!)
This stunning short highlights both the impressive technology used to film it, and the awe-inspiring power of nature itself. These real snowflakes would just look like tiny droplets of white that vanished if we tried to catch them with our bare hands. But with modern cameras we can see each element as though these were giant crystals crafted in an artist’s workshop.
Another Perspective
Unlike the machines used to shoot them, these snowflakes are entirely the work of nature. And watching them essentially reform in reverse highlights just how amazing their transformation in the sky really is. A mere speck of water becomes a delicate and fleeting work of art, a tiny flash of brilliance that is gone before anyone ever gets to appreciate it.
Each totally unique unto itself. Maybe that’s not true. But after watching this video it’s more fun to believe it is.