The Year of Snowflakes

The year 2013 was my year of Snowflakes when i first tried to look into this AMAZING macro infinite ART gallery(ies). There were several days with ideal flakes and weather to sink into that Paradise. In that year i even learned about difference of falling snowflakes depending on weather conditions and also seeing for myself those different flake types in those several snow(flake) days. My challenge of course was to find the photo gear to get close enough to this snow jewelry. As i could not afford macro lens I needed to be creative with what i have ... This is some of the result from those days

I was monitoring flaky days also on previous years but there was not a chance to capture them as weather was not cold enough to keep them together as they melted away quickly.So yesterday finally (after three years) i could at least have a try, but still it was not worth to put together my "amazing" macro invention which I am adding for you to wonder upon. 
This yesterday's image was done with Sigma18-70mm lense which counts also as macro.

And here is my macro photo gear if anybody is curious:Pentax K-5 camera, Pentax adapter to screw on lens, old Soviet macro rings, Helios-44M-4 lens (of my Zenit 11 slr) and the last add on :) - 2 magnifying glasses (filter like) i squeeze in front of lens (because it can't be screwed) 
PS. Yes, i probably should try to get "today's" macro rings to replace the Soviet ones to make all this easier for future.

The hardest part is taking photos with one hand as i use other to hold a torch to light snowflake which is spotted to capture.
So, yeah - during winter of 2013 i learned some skills of capturing snowflakes, i just need to improve my gear.