No two snowflakes are alike. Wilson Bentley, a farmer from Vermont, was the one who made this discovery. Because of his discovery, Wilson Bentley became known as “Snowflake” Bentley. Wilson A. Bentley, an amateur photographer, began to take photographs of crystals in the 1880s and referred to their infinitely changing forms as “miracles of beauty.”
Why did Wilson Snowflake Bentley take pictures of snowflakes?
“Snowflake” Bentley earned his nickname by taking photomicrographs of snow crystals. Bentley was fascinated by the snowflakes he gathered and examined using a microscope. He attempted to draw the intricate patterns of the snow crystals, but they melted or evaporated too quickly to complete his work. On his fifteenth birthday, he was given a camera and used it to capture almost 5,000 snow crystals, of which not a single one was the same.
Wilson Snowflake Bentley photographed thousands of individual snowflakes and perfected the innovative photomicrographic techniques for over forty years.
I have curated almost all of his photos of snowflakes for you. Now you can find them easily. Make your coffee, open an indie song, get your blanket, and start checking them. You can also design your own snowflake using Snowflake Generator.
If you want further reading, you should check the books below.
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley by Duncan C. Blanchard
- Snowflakes in Photographs by W. A. Bentley
Wilson Snowflake Bentley
In 1885, Wilson Bentley attached a camera to his microscope and took the very first photo of a snowflake.
The Transfer of a Snowflake
Wilson Bentley transfers a snow crystal to a slide on his observation microscope using a broom straw.
The Process of a Snowflake Photo
Wilson Bentley is showing how he photographs snowflakes.
Bentley & His Mother
Snowflake Bentley and his mother in an early snow, around 1890.
Bentley & His Camera
Bentley removing slide for making an exposure in his camera-microscope to photograph a snowflake, circa 1929.
