Winter might rekindle your love-hate relationship with snow, but it’s probably safe to say that there are very few people who have anything negative to say about snowflakes. Beautiful and shrouded in mystery, these minuscule ice crystals are one of the many wonders of nature.

Fascinated by these tiny creations of winter, Canadian photographer Don Komarechka has toiled for more than 2,500 hours over the span of 5 years to photograph individual snowflakes in macro photography. One of his compositions, titled The Snowflake, is a truly incredible display of over 400 of them.

If that doesn’t blow you away, you can see all the images he has ever created in his book Sky Crystals: Unraveling the Mysteries of Snowflakes, in which he also details the science, photography, and techniques of studying snowflakes.

With a steady hand, an old mitten, and fresh falling snow, Komarechka produces these images using special photographic and editing techniques.

“Some people don’t believe my images are real, and that’s when I know I’ve created something worth talking about,” Komarechka writes on his website. “Of course, some people simply think I’m crazy watching me take pictures of an old mitten in a snow storm.”