Snow Crystals (Dover photography collections) (Paperback)

by W. A. Bentley (Author), W. J. Humphreys (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Over 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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486202879
• ISBN-13: 978-0486202877
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #290,627 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful collection of photographs, January 5, 2001

By	Mike Christie (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

W.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.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Snow Crystals" is a blizzard of beauty, July 21, 2005

By	Jen Wingard "The Music Maven" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

In case you are trying to decide between "Snowflakes in Photographs" and "Snow Crystals", both by Bentley and published by Dover, this book is the better deal. Ironically, you get twice as many snowflake photos in "Snow Crystals" than in "Snowflakes in Photographs". Both beautiful books feature stunning black and white photographs of snowflakes but this book definitely has better 'text' support. I bought the two books at the same time thinking that this one focused more on Bentley and the other one focused more on the pictures, but it was a mistake. This is a case of "you get what you pay for" and the only reason to buy "Snowflakes in Photographs" over this one is that it is a bit cheaper. Buy "Snow Crystals", it is a blizzard of beauty with gorgeous photographs of snowflakes, nature's fragile crystalline miracles.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winter Classic, December 15, 1999

By	Jerome Collins (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This book will amaze you. It has been in print for 65 years and the copy in our family comes out every holiday season and is greeted like an old friend. Writing and photo illustrations by W. A. Bentley. Reprint of the original 1931 edition. The first time I looked into this book and flipped through the pages, I was hooked. Over 2400 photographs of individual snow crystals! Categorized and compared in all their individuality. Gives meaning to "No two snowflakes are alike!" This is a gift for the gifted child in your life, written by a gifted child who spent his life in the single minded pursuit of recording the diversity and uniqueness of the amazingly ephemeral snowflake. I didn't know there was a hard cover edition. Go ahead and get it in hard cover. You are going to keep it a long time.