Sima and Ray

Today I rummaged through my archive looking for something else, and happened upon this picture. It's shot in 2009 at the Kielder Water Birds Of Prey centre in Northumbria, UK.

I made a lot of pictures of this pair because their relationship amazed me. Looking at this image now, I think I may have captured some of it.

Snow crystal

It's been a while since last time I photographed snow crystals, so today there was a lot of joy in repetition.
The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is to get the lighting right. The crystal itself is completely transparent. It has a lot of angles acting like prisms, so with a combination of lights from different angles it can become interesting. This one here is an experiment with a piece of coloured cellophane and a flash, and a LED flashlight. Challenge for next time; do it more delicately. :-)