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Snow Crystals (Dover photography collections) Review

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Snow Crystals (Dover photography collections) ReviewW.A. Bentley spent fifty years painstakingly recording snowflakes, frost, rime, sleet and ice in all its forms. Even before "Snow Crystals" was published in 1931, his work was well known, and so popular that eventually a donor provided the (apparently large) amount of money needed to assemble this beautiful collection.
There is a small amount of text at the front of the book, which is moderately interesting. It contains a description of how to take these pictures for yourself, if you'd like to; and a classification of the kinds of snowflake and other ice forms depicted here. The bulk of the book, however, is made up of well over two thousand black and white photographs, the vast majority of them of single snowflakes. You can get an idea of what they look like by clicking on Amazon's image of the cover picture, above; in the book, the images are white on black. You may also want to visit snowflakebentley.com, which contains more examples, and more information about Bentley himself (there is almost none in this book). In most or all cases, Bentley went to the trouble of making a duplicate negative of each snowflake and then cutting out, by hand, the finely detailed image, so that the background to the picture would be pure black.
The results are spectacular. The snowflakes are ethereally beautiful, and the variety is just stunning. However, in case it's not clear from what I've said so far, this is a contemplative book. It's not a book to read: it's a book to browse through, put away, and get out again another snowy day. Children will like it, but just to glance at, not to go through steadily.
Recommended.Snow Crystals (Dover photography collections) OverviewOver 2,000 photomicrographs of snowflakes, plus slides of frost, rime, glaze, dew, and hail. Introduction by meteorologist W. J. Humphreys discusses techniques of photographing snow crystals, science of crystallography, classification, and markings. "Page after page of patterns, one more beautiful than the next." - Country Journal. 202 plates.

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The Snowflake Review

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The Snowflake ReviewIt is hard to think of a natural phenomenon that has more intrinsic delight and fascination than a snowflake. Sure, the things pile up and please skiers and dismay drivers, but taken one by one, each snowflake is not only pretty, it has enough complexity and mystery about it to delight any careful observer. In _The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty_ (Voyageur Press), two careful observers have documented what intrigues them about snowflakes. Kenneth Libbrecht is head of the physics department of Caltech, and he not only rushes out with a magnifying glass when it snows, he grows snowflakes artificially in his lab. Patricia Rasmussen is a photographer who started taking pictures of snowflakes with her own equipment and then used Libbrecht's special apparatus. This is a book a little larger than a hundred pages, but the pictures are elegant, and the text tells the current explanations, as far as we now know them (there are still mysteries), of why snowflakes look the way they do.
The famous snowflake pictures of William Bentley inspired Rasmussen to start taking pictures of snow. Bentley's pictures are carefully reproduced white-on-black images, but Rasmussen has experimented with colored light to give multicolored pastels that shine on and through the hundreds of crystals depicted here. There are plenty of the six-armed variety, but also triangular snowflakes, and twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four armed ones, as well as tiny ice crystals shaped like needles, prisms, barrels, or bullets. can form at the right conditions. Different humidity and temperature produces the shapes. For the familiar snowflake, each arm experiences the same microclimate, so each changes in the same way. One arm of a flake thus does not "know" what the other arms are doing so it can turn itself out identically; they are all simply products of identical environmental history. As can be suspected, snowflakes that develop in the same regions have the same general design. But of course, everyone knows that no snowflakes are identical. Libbrecht considers whether this question is really true, and finds it cannot be answered without close considerations of "What is a snowflake?" and "What is identical?"
Snowflake science is here presented clearly and with good humor by someone who obviously loves his work. Libbrecht demonstrates that since a snowflake is a billion billion water molecules grabbed from the atmosphere, some of them are from your own exhalations. He does the calculations to show that about a thousand of the water molecules in every snowflake you see in this book (and of course, any other snowflake) come from you. "Thank you for your contribution," he says, "and keep up the good work." Jaunty and illuminating scientific descriptions, plus the most beautiful pictures of snowflakes ever made, make this a volume that can be valued for eye-catching brilliance or mind-engaging elucidation.The Snowflake Overview

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Anna's Wish Review

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Anna's Wish ReviewThere hadn't been snow in the town for many years and naturally Anna was so young she had never seen it. Every year people were getting out their shovels after the leaves fell to the ground during the fall season. Throughout the winter there was not trace of a single flake and when springtime rolled around and the "crocuses popped out of the ground," the shovels went back into hiding and people began to think of spring. Year after year, the little snowflakes never made their appearance and people began to forget about what it was like to experience snow.
Anna and her mother were walking in front of a bakery window when she "felt something very soft and cold touch her cheek, as light as a butterfly's kiss." People were cutting their Christmas trees and the town appeared to glow with the thought of the holiday season. A week later she felt that cold something on her face again. She asked her mother all about snow and was told the last time she saw the wondrous sight she was just a little girl. They went sledding, built snowmen and stuck out their tongues to catch the unique flakes. Anna dragged an old sled from the basement. "I wish . . . I wish . . . I wish . . . " Can you guess what little Anna wished for?
This is an endearing story with art work to match. Every year little children in the northern climates wait, watch and wish for the first snowfall of the year so they can go out and feel the magic of the season. Children living in more temperate climates who are planning a trip to see snow and are anticipating the venture will enjoy this book as well.All the little snow bunnies of the world will love this one!Anna's Wish Overview

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The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album Review

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The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album ReviewThis contemporary assemblage is an artwork of Love by Libbrecht, author of three prior books on snowflakes. He is Physics Professor at Caltech and provides eye-catching color photo-illustrations of over 400 snowflakes, many as full page images, all sharply detailed and on blue or crimson colored backgrounds, often illuminated by diverse light sources and spectra to best define architectural details of these tiny wondrous crystals forming from water vapor at freezing temperatures. It comes not as a surprize to learn he was from North Dakota.
In addition to snowflakes, the author describes associated particles called rime which may agglomerate into graupel or soft hail. The typical snowflake is a stellar snow crystal composed of a thin plate of ice with six (hexagonal) primary arms that regularly have sidebranches called stellar dendrites, hence appearing fern- or tree-like with no two identical (like fingerprints in Man). Infrequently, the flakes appear as six sectored plates sans dendrites whilst warmer temperatures may produce ice columns and/or needles, generally hexagonal, or appearing as peculiar capped columns with hexagonal wheels resembling tiny spools.
As a photographer, I would have liked the author to have included a brief synopsis of the equipment and technique he used to garner these photographs - i,e, the type of microscopic lens, magnifications needed, light sources, type of camera and film used (digital vs silver halide). However, this book is on the Art of the Snowflake, and not a how-to book. The author indicates some digital editing was done to remove minor blemishes, etc., and based on the huge number of photos taken I'd conclude digital camera and sensor was used. This book is an informative read, is great stock for the coffee table, and is perhaps an inviting holiday seasonal gift this Winter.The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album OverviewThe perfect geometry and exquisite beauty of nature is nowhere so clear to us as in the snowflake. But how have we been able to appreciate this infinitesimal wonder in all its crystalline glory? This book, as much a work of art as a testament to science, reveals how one of the snowflake's most inspired photographers came to such intimate knowledge of his craft and its fleeting focus. Beautiful pictures illustrate Kenneth Libbrecht's story of the microphotography of snow crystals, from the pioneering work of Wilson Bentley in the 1890s right up to Ken's own innovations in our age of digital images. A breathtaking look at the works of art that melt in an instant, this is a book to page through and savor, season after season.

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The Snowflake : A Water Cycle Story Review

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The Snowflake : A Water Cycle Story ReviewNeil Waldman's The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story is a simple yet elegantly presented picture book showing the cycle of water, from earth to cloud and back again, as well as how this process continues month by month as the year progresses. Waldman's beautiful pastel illustrations add a gentle touch to this enriching, informative, and entertaining work which is especially recommended for young readers ages 6 through 8.The Snowflake : A Water Cycle Story Overview

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Snowflakes Review

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Snowflakes ReviewNature's finest performance art abounds in these delicate photos of one-of-a-kind disappearing acts. Each one a treasure for contemplation; some so beautiful as to defy description (page 188 for instance). It is such a relief to NOT be bombarded with glitz and hard-sell so prevalent in everything our eyes come in contact with these days. Thank you to Mr. Libbrecht for his contribution to beauty for the libraries of time. As an additional exploration and compliment to this work, you should try any book by Masaru Emoto on snowflakes ("The Hidden Messages of Water" is fascinating); and check out Libbrecht's field guide to snowflakes as well. To see them momentarily appear on your mitten in winter, and then revisit their splendor captured in print is a gift. You don't need a TV or VCR or an expensive wide-screen--all you need is the book, a chair, some light, and a good cup of coffee--be with yourself for a few minutes and have a conversation with miracles.Snowflakes OverviewA cute giftbook packed with glorious color microphotography of real snow crystals by Dr. Snow—Caltech physicist Kenneth Libbrecht. His photos of snowflakes have appeared in National Geographic, the New York Times, and on Martha Stewart's TV show, as well as numerous other places. This thick "cube" book is packed with a blizzard's worth of amazing images as well as literary quotes on the beauty of snow.

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The Secret Life of a Snowflake: An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes Review

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The Secret Life of a Snowflake: An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes ReviewThe photographs are amazing! The information is just the right length and at a level where grade school children can understand it. It explains how a snowflake is formed. There are lots of pictures and illustrations.
Our whole family found it fascinating!The Secret Life of a Snowflake: An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes Overview

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My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man Review

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My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man ReviewThe more well known children's book, Snowflake Bentley (Caldecott Medal Book), may have won the Caldecott award, but I must confess to enjoying this book much more. "My Brother Loved Snowflakes," told from the brother's perspective, shows the human side of people who may be different than others, and makes the quest for knowledge about people, about us and our quest to learn about the world we are blessed with. Rather than playing up Willie Bentley as an eccentric, it shows him as unique, and shows children that for all his differences he gave much to our wealth of knowledge and above all the people in the story -- even the people who attend a lecture he walks out on without a word because of the snow, as very accepting that Bentley is who Bentley is and that there is nothing wrong with that. Since our children will meet so many other children who are vastly different than them, some of them seemingly eccentric, this is a subtle reminder that we all have value and that the difference is part of what makes the world interesting. We need that diversity.
This book will have an added interest to homeschoolers because Bentley and his brother are taught by their mother, a woman who encourages her son's love of learning -- and the father, though he doesn't "get" all this snowflake stuff, still strives to respect his son's desires and loves and encourage him and do what he can regardless.
We made this into something a snowflake learning fest. Bentley's photos of snowflakes are available in an inexpensive format, Snowflakes in Photographs. More modern and beautiful are the books by Kenneth G. Libbrecht. We chose The Snowflake. This had enlarged photographs and my first grader used pattern blocks to recreate some of them, as well as making paper snowflakes for the window. We also took black paper (left out in the car so it would be cold) to catch snowflakes and look at them with a magnifying glass. We will be revisiting "snowflake studis" later on when he is older to get more into the science of them, as is covered in the Libbrecht book.
Overall, this book was great for supporting our curriculum, which presents science and math in hands on ways and includes a lot of biography with explanations of how scientists go about "doing science" -- but which is to also remind us that science without the human element is purposeless, and sometimes even dangerous.My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man Overview

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The Little Book of Snowflakes Review

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The Little Book of Snowflakes Review"The Little Book of Snowflakes" by Kenneth Libbrecht is a diminutive companion of sorts to the larger "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty", which Libbrecht wrote with Patricia Rasmussen. It contains 140 beautiful photographs of snow crystals and snowflakes, taken by Kenneth Libbrecht and his traveling photomicroscope. 45 of the photographs are full page, which in this case means 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) square. I'm not sure if any of the photographs duplicate those found in "Winter's Secret Beauty", but most of them don't. If you haven't seen either of these books, the photographs are so beautiful that they must be seen to be believed. The text in "The Little Book of Snowflakes" is sparse. It consists of basic information from the author on how snowflakes are formed and 30 quotations on the subjects of snow and nature by an assortment of notable names, from Aristotle to Hsiao Tung to William Blake to Albert Einstein to Yogi Berra. As with it's companion book, the price of "The Little Book of Snowflakes' belies the quality of its contents. It makes a wonderful gift for the photographer, nature lover, aesthete -or anyone who has had too much or too little of the white stuff outside. Kenneth Libbrecht puts snow in a new light. For those who couldn't get enough of the photographs in "Winter's Secret Beauty", this little book is a welcome addition.
Kenneth Libbrecht is a physics professor at CalTech, and he has an excellent web site: www.snowcrystals.com . Whatever else Libbrecht may accomplish in his field, the publication of "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty" and "The Little Book of Snowflakes" seem to ensure his place in popular history as a "snowflake man", an epithet previously earned only by Wilson Bentley a century ago. If you like this book, be sure to check out "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty" for more photographs and detailed information about the formation and identification of snow crystals.The Little Book of Snowflakes OverviewFollowing the success of "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty", this companion gift book features new, super-detailed photographs of snowflakes, detailed captions containing the science behind their beauty, and literary quotes relating to snow and nature.

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Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes Review

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Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes ReviewCaltech physics professor Kenneth Libbrecht burst into the public's awareness when he wrote the text to the stunning 2003 book "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty", with photographs by Patricia Rasmussen. Even laypeople now associate his name with pioneering research in the science of snow as well as great snowflake photography. In this "Field Guide to Snowflakes", Libbrecht offers a practical guide to snowflake-watching whose intent is to entice the reader outdoors, magnifier in hand, to observe the exquisite and endlessly fascinating "Lilliputian world of snowflakes". He tells us just how to do that, how to decipher a snow crystal's history, and provides a method of classification that will help snowflake-watchers understand what they see.
In the first part of the guide, "Understanding Snowflakes", we learn how snowflakes are created by selectively augmenting ice crystals as they tumble through the clouds. Libbrecht explains the conditions that produce some of snowflakes' characteristics, such as symmetry, crystal faceting, branching, ridges, rims, ribs, and sublimation. And he introduces us to 35 snowflake classifications that he will explain in detail in Part 2. These are fewer than the traditional snow crystal classification system. Libbrecht has chosen to organize snow crystals according to their growth mechanisms for the purpose of this book. This seems to be a practical approach that allows the lay person insight into both the forms of snowflakes and their causes without burdening us with too many abstruse classifications.
Part 2 is the heart of the "Field Guide". Libbrecht's classifications are addressed in detail, with examples and explanations of what conditions produce them and why. Libbrecht's prose is always clear and fluid. His enthusiasm for the beauty and mysteries of snow crystals is evident on every page, so the text is never dry. Forty-four full-page "Case Studies" are placed throughout the book, each with a large photograph and a lively analysis of that snow crystal, so we can see exactly what we should be looking for. The explanations of classifications are also found in Chapter 7 of "The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty", though here they are presented in a form that more easily lends itself to field use. The case studies are new to this book and are worth the price.
The final section of "Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes" offers advice on how to observe the miniature marvels that looked so fascinating on the preceding pages. Libbrecht presents a choice of magnifiers that will do the job and describes the components of his set-up for photographing snowflakes, including advice on lighting and how to find good specimens. You may want more info if you plan to try your hand at microphotography, but this will give you an idea of what you need and how much it is likely to cost. For more details, see Libbrecht's web site www.snowcrystals(dot)com. The "Field Guide" is a hardcover book 5 ½ x 8 1/4 x ½ inches. It doesn't have a dust jacket; the cover art is printed onto the cover, which is attractive and seems pretty durable. I don't know if you would want to take this book out in a snowstorm, but it is a convenient size for reference.Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes OverviewSnowflakes are temporary works of art, tiny crystalline masterpieces, each as different from the next as one person is from another. If you would like to look closer at these marvelous creations - and understand their patterns - this handy, pocket-sized book will serve as your introduction to the art and science of the snowflake. As entertaining as it is informative, this comprehensive field guide describes the many different types of snowflakes, where and how to find them, and what can be learned from their intricate structures and patterns. Also included are handy tips for intrepid snowflake hunters, including what type of snowflakes to expect during certain weather conditions, opportune ways for capturing them (the author prefers the brightly-lit tops of parking garages at night, for example). Illustrated with Libbrecht's own remarkable microphotographs of real snowflakes, the book is itself a work of art, as delightful to look at as it is to learn from, and as full of wonder as it is rich with answers. An excellent guide for snowflake lovers, classrooms, family fun, as well as the serious or amateur scientist.

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The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder Review

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The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder ReviewThe Story of Snow is on my Christmas list this year. It's a book for children who like to learn about nature. Cassino, who has photographed snowflakes for several years, explains how snow is made and why each individual snowflake is different. He also teaches kids how to catch and photograph snowflakes. Never condescending, this book will be perfect for my science-oriented goddaughter. I heartily recommend it.The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder Overview

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