Joshua Rowe, 23, of Emlenton shows examples of his snowflake photographs in February. Rowe has filled a photo album with his photographs.

EMLENTON — There's at least one person who's been disappointed by the mild winter of 2011-12, and that's Joshua Rowe, 23, of Emlenton. That's because it's given him scant chance to indulge in his favorite hobby: photographing individual snowflakes.

Rowe, who's been home-schooled his entire life because of his autism, has been enthusiastically pursuing his hobby for the past two years, said his mother, Judy Rowe.

He had been working with an antique dealer and collecting keys, although his enthusiasm has cooled.

“He doesn't want to buy and sell anymore because there's no money in that,” said Judy Rowe.

Instead, Joshua Rowe said he's been refining his technique for photographing snowflakes during the last two winters using only a digital camera and a jeweler's loupe to make his portraits of individual snowflakes.

He is fascinated by snowflakes and disappointed by the relatively snowless winter.

“I started two years ago, but the pictures weren't good quality,” Rowe said. “My technique has gotten better. I've kept on trying.”

Rowe said he was inspired by the website snowcrystals.com run by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, a Caltech physics professor and chairman of its physics department.

He also cited Wilson “Willie” Bentley, a Vermont farmer who pioneered the photographing of snowflakes at the end of the 19th century.

Rowe searches for the right snowflake by scanning the dining room window at his house. When he finds a likely specimen, he centers the jewelers loupe on the snowflake, puts lenses of the camera up to the other end of the jeweler's loupe and shoots the picture.

He said a snowflake forms when ice condenses directly from water vapor in the air around a speck of dust.

He says if the temperature outside is in the 20s, the snowflake won't be melted by the warmth coming off the double-paned window, but if the temperatures in the 30s, he has about a minute to take his photograph before the snowflake melts.

It isn't hard for him to spot an exceptional snowflake, he said.

Judy Rowe said, “He sees and hears better than most people. I don't know what it is, he just sees better.”

“Most people think I do it outside, but I do it inside,” said Joshua Rowe of his photography, adding he would need better equipment than his present Canon Power Series SX110 to be able to shoot snowflakes in the wild.

“I had better equipment, I'd probably take better photos,” said Rowe, adding he was on the lookout for secondhand cameras to replace his Canon.

He's filled a photo album with his snowflake pictures.

“I look for the best ones. Usually the ones that stand out. You look for the quality ones,” said Rowe. He can spend hours running his eye over the snow blown against the window. But he hasn't had many chances lately. He said he had only two good snowy days in January and one in February.

He's taken hundreds of photographs to preserve in his album. True to the cliche, no two photographs are alike.

“I've taken a couple hundred this year, more than last year,” said Rowe, adding he saved about 20 of his snowflake photos from 2010.