Why do snowflakes appear as blurry circles in flash photos, and how can I avoid it?

Those blurry white circles are usually caused by snowflakes close to the camera being lit by the flash. Because they’re very near the lens and out of focus, they appear as large soft “orbs.” The same thing can happen with rain or dust.

To reduce or avoid it:

• Don’t use the flash if possible.
• Change the flash angle so the reflected light doesn’t bounce straight back into the lens.
• Use an off-camera flash if your camera supports it.

This is often worse on compact cameras because the built-in flash sits very close to the lens, which makes those reflections more likely. So no, you’re not missing something obvious—this is a common flash-in-snow issue rather than a basic mistake.