This young snow monkey was having a good time in the thermal waters of Jigokudani Monkey Park, near Nagano, Japan. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 200, f/3.2 at 1/50th of a second
OOOH! That’s lovely and warm, that is! I’ve gotta come here more often. Mind you this hot water makes my face red and my eyes bulge, but I don’t care just gimme more! 🙂
Sean I am always amazed at the details you get in your wildlife shots, especially since you are using a long lens & I highly doubt your subjects are just standing still not moving!! Do you use a tripod for shots like this? I mean, you can see the droplets of water in his fur!!! Just awesome!!! Images like this one continue to inspire me to push my own limits, even though I am not a wildlife photographer….
Thanks Amanda. Truth be told, Japanese macaques are very easy to photograph at this location (Jigokudani Springs). You can get very close to them as they bathe in the mineral springs. That being said, no, I rarely if ever these days, use a tripod for my wildlife shots. I still carry a small tripod, but use that for long exposure landscape shots. Ever since vibration reduction technology came about, I’ve been hand holding because I can get sharp results down to 1/15th of a second and can be a lot more stealthy while in the field. Of course, at 1/15th of a second, the animal needs to be completely still or else motion by the animal will blur the shot. Other than that, I make sure to use proper technique (engage the vibration reduction slightly before the shot, brace the camera steady against my eye, etc), I use the appropriate ISO and shutter and aperture for the situation (if the animal is moving, I need to make sure I have a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion — or, conversely, a slow enough speed if I’m after a motion blurred panning shot which I like to do a lot). And really good lenses also helps. All my lenses are high quality Nikon lenses, but even with lesser lenses, sharp results can be achieved. Finally, a lot can happen in the photo processing stage. I see a lot of photos that can look a lot better with better digital processing. It certainly pays to know what you’re doing in Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom, or whatever editing program you choose to use. Anyway, thanks for continuing to view my daily photos and leave comments. It’s much appreciated.
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This young snow monkey was having a good time in the thermal waters of Jigokudani Monkey Park, near Nagano, Japan.
Hot bath with polar air—-Winter drive, windows wide , heaters blast—-Over load for the senses.
Always the poet Peter! I enjoy your comments.
OOOH! That’s lovely and warm, that is! I’ve gotta come here more often. Mind you this hot water makes my face red and my eyes bulge, but I don’t care just gimme more! 🙂
I love him.
looks like he is having good time smiwing in the thremal[ waters. great pic.
Sean I am always amazed at the details you get in your wildlife shots, especially since you are using a long lens & I highly doubt your subjects are just standing still not moving!! Do you use a tripod for shots like this? I mean, you can see the droplets of water in his fur!!! Just awesome!!! Images like this one continue to inspire me to push my own limits, even though I am not a wildlife photographer….
Thanks Amanda. Truth be told, Japanese macaques are very easy to photograph at this location (Jigokudani Springs). You can get very close to them as they bathe in the mineral springs. That being said, no, I rarely if ever these days, use a tripod for my wildlife shots. I still carry a small tripod, but use that for long exposure landscape shots. Ever since vibration reduction technology came about, I’ve been hand holding because I can get sharp results down to 1/15th of a second and can be a lot more stealthy while in the field. Of course, at 1/15th of a second, the animal needs to be completely still or else motion by the animal will blur the shot. Other than that, I make sure to use proper technique (engage the vibration reduction slightly before the shot, brace the camera steady against my eye, etc), I use the appropriate ISO and shutter and aperture for the situation (if the animal is moving, I need to make sure I have a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion — or, conversely, a slow enough speed if I’m after a motion blurred panning shot which I like to do a lot). And really good lenses also helps. All my lenses are high quality Nikon lenses, but even with lesser lenses, sharp results can be achieved. Finally, a lot can happen in the photo processing stage. I see a lot of photos that can look a lot better with better digital processing. It certainly pays to know what you’re doing in Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom, or whatever editing program you choose to use. Anyway, thanks for continuing to view my daily photos and leave comments. It’s much appreciated.
Thanks for the detailed response! I appreciate it!