Alexey Kljatov (aka ChaoticMind75) is an artist and photographer from Moscow, Russia. In an ongoing series entitled Snowflakes and snow crystals, Alexey takes macro shots of natural snowflakes, snow and hoarfrost crystals right outside of his house.

In a detailed blog post Kljatov explains that he shoots with a Canon A650 with a custom-built macro add-on for the camera: a Helios 44M-5 from an old USSR SLR camera called a Zenit. The images seen below were shot on dark woollen fabric in natural light (typically a grey cloudy sky).

These are only 10 in a series of 67, which you can see in its entirety on Flickr. It’s fascinating to see the numerous varieties of snowflakes. From simple prisms, sectored plates and stellar dendrites; to capped columns and triangular crystals, no two snowflakes are quite the same.

You can find a great list with pictures of different snowflake types here, and you can find a lot more amazing photography from Alexey at the links below.