Southern snowflakes on the front page

Today's front page featured a beautiful photograph taken by Staff Photographer Jackie Riccardi.

The photo showed Nicole Rossi through her frost-dotted windshield as she waited for her car to warm up on Thursday morning.

The photo was noticed by people outside the area as well. Several photo editors at the Associated Press office in New York liked the picture and selected it as one of three "Notable Photos" for today's News Digest, a list of AP's top stories and content of the day.

"It gave definition to frost and snow in a way you don't normally see," said Jim Collins, Day Supervisor of AP's New York Photo Desk. "It's more like what you would see in a painting - the way you picture snowflakes in your mind."

Ms. Riccardi said she took the photo in her driveway.

"I've seen that in New Hampshire before but I haven't seen snowflakes in Georgia," she said.

Ms. Riccardi is a University of New Hampshire graduate who worked for Seacoast Media before joing the Chronicle in October. She was named a New Hampshire Photographer of the Year for 2006.

It appears she captured a unique moment.

Although today's temperatures were equally chilly, there were no ice crystals like this on windshields outside her apartment today, Ms. Riccardi said.

"I think the morning light coming through is what made it work," she said.