Doug Wewer

Snowflakes are captured individually on a piece of wood or glass as they fall from the sky. The background colors are created by using different lighting effects or painted backgrounds. Light is necessary to create contrast to show the intricate details of each snowflake, but light also adds heat. Because of this, the image must be captured within seconds or (in very cold weather) minutes, before the snowflake melts or sublimates. The challenge is to search through thousands of snowflakes to find the few that fall flat, are aesthetic and unbroken, and can be captured in time. The vast majority of snowflakes in my collection are from Utah's Wasatch Mountains, including snowflakes captured and photographed at Utah ski areas, including Park City, Deer Valley, Sundance, Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. I feel that dye-sublimated metal prints are among the best methods for displaying the fine details of these incredibly intricate snowflakes.