Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

Or so they say. In the winter of 2018 I was really wanting to get some pictures of snow crystals. But we were having little or no snow. My photography mentor suggested that I try to create ice crystals on glass at night and get up early and capture pictures of them before they melted. Sounded like a good idea to me. But then we stopped having any below freezing nights. What to do? I did a Google search to see if I could create crystals another way, especially ones that would not be dependent on cold weather and I would have plenty of time to photograph them, too, if they were the kind that would not melt. Eureka! I found I could make some pretty quickly using Epsom salt and water. And the results I thought were pretty reminiscent of the ice crystals I remember forming on the window glass in the winter when I was a child. What was especially nice about these crystals, too, was that I created some of them on wax paper. So when I wanted to photograph them I could easily side or back light them, or put them down on a reflective background. I also created some on the surface of a mirror, which created a sense of depth. The resulting images were pretty interesting and unique, and I have used one in a composite that I created for this abstract "vision" of spring. Humm. I still have some more Epsom salts. I think I may just have to make some more crystals soon and see what other pictures I can create with them.