Honorable Mention / 2023 / Special / Macro

Tahoe Crystal

These tiny ephemeral works of art exist to capture for only a short time and then that particular piece of art will never exist again. This incredible work of science and nature is all around us and I had shoveled away millions of these before stopping to take a look at their amazing structure. This was captured with a 5:1 macro lens with 3 extension tubes and a ring flash. The depth of field at that level of macro photogrphy is so slim that I had to capture this same flake 18 times and focus stack all the images together in order to achieve a sharp image.