CANADA'S SNOWFLAKE PHOTOGRAPHER

What's more Canadian than a snowflake?

Don Komarechka reflects that sentiment as an artist on the new $20 Canadian coin, which is as unique as a snowflake.

The pure silver hexagon coin with crystal features the former Barrie resident's stellar dendrite (tree-like) snowflake on one side, and the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, by Susanna Blunt, on the other.

I think that seeing a snowflake … those times you look out on the yard or the lake and you can see it's glistening, it's sparkling a little bit … to know that every one of those little sparkles is something as unbelievably beautiful as what is on that coin, Komarechka said.

It's the Royal Canadian Mint's first hexagon coin and features a sparkling snow crystal.

Komarechka — who now lives in Bulgaria with his wife, Desislava, and their seven-year-old daughter, Danika — bills himself as a nature, macro and landscape photographer.

His snowflakes have graced two other Canadian coins, one issued in 2017 and the other in 2018.

And it began in Barrie, where almost all of his snowflake photos have been taken.

Originally from Sudbury, Komarechka spent his formative years in Barrie after high school, is a former president of Barrie Photo Club and has sat on its executive.

The actual gear kind of makes you feel like you're holding a microscope outside. It's all done hand-held, he said. You get to see all the shadows and all the textures among the surface (of the snowflake), which makes a great transition to an engraving on a coin."

To read the complete article, see:
'Unbelievably beautiful': Here's the story behind the snowflake on new $20 coin (https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/local-news/unbelievably-beautiful-heres-the-story-behind-the-snowflake-on-new-20-coin-8102807)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web