Snowflake shot, home

In the winter of 1885, armed with a microscope, a cumbersome view camera, and a naturalist's deep and abiding curiosity, Wilson Alwyn Bentley set out to capture the beauty of snowflakes. As a 15-year-old in Jericho, Vermont, Bentley had been captivated by the snow crystals he observed in his microscope. Five years later, he had developed the techniques necessary to photograph individual flakes before they could melt, and every winter for the next 40 years would find him hard at work in his outdoor "studio." The images are classics, and I've long wanted to take snowflake pictures of my own. I didn't have a microscope I could use, but I did have a better-than-decent macro lens, so this afternoon, with gray clouds starting to spit snow, I got to work. "Snowflake" Bentley used black velvet for his backgrounds; I used the back end of the Prius. The flakes were a little on the chunky side, and the plastic they "posed" on showed scratches. Still, it's a start. I'll have velvet ready for the next storm.