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Modern Day "Snowflake Bentley"

Stu Hall lives just a mile down the road from where "Snowflake Bentley" lived, and took his famous snowflake photos. He figures that's how to caught the snowflake photo bug, and now he's taking snowflake photos, ...no two alike.

"We moved to west bolton 8 years ago, and I passed Snowflake Bently's house every day and I started getting interested in his snowflake work that he did, and after reading more about it, and going online to see how other people take snowflake pictures I tried to do the same thing."

Like Bentley, Stu works in the cold, capturing the snowflakes on a board covered with black velvet, and bringing them into his shed. He uses a feather to gently move the flakes around, but unlike Bentley, he uses a digital camera.

" The best temperature that I like is between 15-25 degrees. Above 25 degrees and the flakes are a little wetter, and they start sticking together. When it gets colder than that, the snowflakes tend to get smaller, and the lower temperature is a little rough on the hands because I don't like to wear gloves."

Generations later, snowflakes continue to capture the imagination of photographers. The equipment may change, but the essense of the art stays the same.

"The thing I really like about it, that amazes me, is the symmetry that you get with the 6 sided (snowflakes), and the things that grow off of it. A lot of people look at my pictures and say "ah...you drew those in." But no, I didn't draw them in, that's they way they are. It's pretty cool."