For your eyes only.... a.k.a. "more snowflakes"

Yesterday the conditions was fantastic for taking snow photos. The snowflakes were large and mostly intact. My hands froze in the half hour it took to get these shots, but it was worth it...

My reflections:
I positioned myself for a picture of a perfect snowflake, when this was hit by another one falling from the sky that literally cut the first one in half.

As I write this note, these crystal beauties have already turned into vapor floating somewhere in the atmosphere. Their existence is so short, yet so beautiful. I think they are trying to tell us to stop and pay attention. Pay attention to the small things, "carpe diem". Pay attention to God's presence. He is around us us just waiting to recognize him.

All these pictures are untouched. While I like the perfect snowflake images on the websites of some professional photographers showing all corners and nothing else around it to distract our eye, this is not what we observe in nature most of the time. So, I prefer these pristine images, which are not computer-altered or averaged even though part of the snowflake may not in focus or may have already started to melt.

It is also interesting to notice the fragments around the snowflake that is in focus. What shall we compare this collection of ice fragments to?

Which one is your favorite?

notice the tiny one in the bottom left corner

cool angle. I have to try this again