Snowflaking is my newest activity. It became an activity when the Love Of My Life and I made a walk outside during a snowfall. The flakes appeared with traditional snowflake definition so we thought the macro could pick it up. To our surprise, we captured about fifteen flakes.

A snowflake refers to a single snow crystal but also can mean an agglomeration of many snow crystals that looks like a puff-ball. There are many types of snowflakes. They grow at different temperatures and different humidity levels. This is called snowflake morphology.

A snowflake is composed of six arms. These arms ar the main branches. The little arms that grow off of the main arms are called side branches. The large snowflake is considered a snowflake without perfect symmetry and is most typical to find on your sleeve.

A snow crystal grows when water molecules in the air condense on the surface of a basal facet. A basal facet is in the center of the snowflake. For more on snowflake types, refer to Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes.