DMD points us to a Tweney Report post about The Bentley Snowflake Collection at the Buffalo Museum of Science. In 1885, Wilson Alwyn Bentley made the first photomicropgraph of a snowflake. Capturing those crystals on film became his lifelong obsession. The Buffalo Museum of Science has a comprehensive collection of these startling images. From a 1922 article in The Vermonter:
It is indeed a delicate task to "catch" one's snowflake and get it in position to be photographed. Mr. Bentley has a tray consisting of a board painted black with wire handles on either end, on which he collects the flakes: this he carries carefully by the handles with mittened hands, in order to keep off all animal heat: and to keep his hands warm too, no doubt: into his cold, unheated workroom. With a splint of wood, he painstakingly picks up the snowflake and places it on the slide of his microscope, being particularly careful that it is unbroken and perfectly flat so that all parts reflect the light equally."It takes me quite awhile sometimes," Mr. Bentley explained, "and I have to breathe occasionally, but I turn my face away, take a quick breath and get to work again before the flake melts," illustrating with a quick birdlike movement of the head.
