One of the true wonders of the world are snowflakes, tiny designs made of ice that are so individually unique, so detailed, and so spectacular it's hard to comprehend that they happen naturally and aren't pulled from the depths of our own imaginations.

Photographer Alexey Kljatov has a special talent for capturing the brief life of these beautiful ice creations. He features many of his snowflake photos on Flickr. Kljatov says, "I capture snowflakes at open balcony of my house, mostly on glass surface, lighted by LED flashlight from opposite side of glass, and sometimes in natural light, using dark woolen fabrics as background."

Here is some of his impressive work:

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Alexey Kljatov/CC BY-NC 3.0

Kljatov describes his technique for shooting snowflakes in a blog post, for those of you who want to try your own hand at this.