2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Dancing Red-Crowned Cranes

Mar 16 | Evan | No Comments |

Photographing the the Japanese red-crowned crane in flight was interesting but after a short time with the cranes in Kushiro, I really was enjoying their dance moves more than their flight patterns! There are a few different locations to photograph the red-crowned Japanese crane that having feeding times and it seemed the cranes were most active after getting a nice meal. Sometimes the cranes seemed to be practicing by themselves or would pick up a leaf and throw it in the air as perhaps a game.

Like the monkeys in Jigokudani, the red-crowned cranes were quite interesting to observe. In this series, it looks like the cranes are performing some kind of martial arts choreographed scene from a movie! No matter what the moves are, the red-crowned cranes were very playful and graceful.

According to the International Crane Foundation, their are only around 1700 – 2000 red-crowned cranes remaining and despite a few feeding grounds, their population is decreasing with the main threat because of their habitat shrinking. The red-crowned cranes that do live in Hokkaido do not migrate and seemed to have picked up some Japanese characteristics. Whether the cranes are dancing or play fighting, they are Japanese after all as they bow quite a bit!

In collaboration with Magic Is Photo Safaris, I escorted a small group of wildlife photographers for a Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan in search of Japanese Snow Monkeys, Red Crowned Crane, Swan, Steller’s Sea Eagles and whatever else we could find! To see more photos from our photo safari in Japan, view the 2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan Trip Report.

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2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Red-Crowned Cranes

Mar 15 | Evan | No Comments |

After a great few days with the snow monkeys in Jigokudani, Nagano Prefecture, our 2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan would continue on to Japan’s northern most island, Hokkaido. Our first stop was in Kushiro to photograph the red-crowned crane, also known as Japanese crane or Manchurian crane. While I had a good idea how I wanted to photograph the Japanese snow monkeys, this would really be my first serious attempt at any kind of bird photography and wasn’t sure what to expect or what I hoped to accomplish with these amazing birds. My first thought was the obvious, birds are unique because they fly, so I need to photograph them flying.

Luckily, our tour in Japan gave me 4 days to photograph the red crowned cranes to try and get a better feel for bird photography and specifically how it relates to the the red-crowned cranes. While these flying photos are fine, though they aren’t my favorite photographs of what I created with the Japanese cranes, but rather the obligatory “I was there shots”. After a short time in Kurshiro, I quickly learned was how playful the cranes were. Sometimes the cranes played by themselves picking up a leaf from the ground and throwing it up in the air and sometimes as a pair, dancing the day away…. Those playing and dancing red-crowned crane photos are coming soon!

2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Snow Monkey Business

Mar 13 | Evan | No Comments |

Spending three days with the Japanese Snow Monkeys of Jigokudani in Nagano, Japan was a great experience. We arrived just after a significant snow storm so there was plenty of fresh snow. We had mostly overcast weather and though we had a few short snow flurries, kind of wished we had a little more snow while we were photographing. No matter the weather, the monkeys provided ample photographic opportunities and everyone loved even just observing them. I already shared some portraits of the monkeys but just wanted to share a few more photos of the monkeys being, well, monkeys! I have 3 stories which I found to be quite interesting and make me think that perhaps I look more like a monkey than the average person!

To be honest, the photo above isn’t the monkey trying to give me a hint that he doesn’t want his portrait taken, but actually it’s the other monkey’s hand while grooming. In any case, like I said, plenty of photographic opportunities at the snow monkey park! Anyway, the first story happened on the first day we were with the monkeys. There were many snow monkeys enjoying a hot bath when suddenly the alpha male jumped in and scared most of the monkeys away. One monkey was about to run past me when he suddenly stopped and grabbed onto my jacket. Of course I’m not expert but he held onto me for about 30 seconds and really felt like he thought I could protect him. Really was quite interesting!

The second and third story happened the second day we were with the monkeys. Earlier in the day I was leaning over on the rail of a bridge (you can see it in the photograph below and also same place as third story) with one eye looking through the camera and another closed as is the usual photographer’s style. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and then a gently push to get me to move away from the railing. I was already saying excuse me in Japanese on my way up and to my surprise it was an adult monkey that I had inconvenienced, not a person! It’s hard to explain, but the way he pushed me certainly felt like a human. I’ve saved the best story for last and I owe a HUGE thank you to Jennette Russell who was able to capture this moment in time for me and generous enough to share her photos with me. All photos below until after the waterfall photo were created by, courtesy of and © Jennette Russell.

Literally minutes before leaving and on the way out, I suddenly felt a little extra weight on me and quickly realized that I had a monkey on my back! Yes, that’s me in the blue jacket! It was feeding time at the park and there was a lot of activity all around but from the railing to my back was an easy jump for this monkey. After pulling my hair for a little he moved to my head and tried to open my backpack before going back to pulling my hair again! It was quite the surreal moment that lasted probably all of 20 seconds but felt much longer! I was so surprised and unsure of what I could do, I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to turn around to Jennette for what would have been a great portrait of myself with the monkey and also should have asked the shocked family next to me if they had some good ones to share, but at least Jennette got these awesome shots!

It wasn’t painful at all and glad he couldn’t figure out how to open my bag but needless to say, the first thing I did when returning back to the ryokan was take a shower and washed my hair a few times! Here is the entire series if you want to see what the monkey was up to!

Finally, I also wanted to share one more photo that I couldn’t have made handheld without my new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, another photograph of monkeys with the waterfall in the background, also at 1/20th of a second. The image stabilization is really impressive!

2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Snow Monkey Family Portraits

Mar 12 | Evan | No Comments |

Still in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, the 2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan had us spending three days with Japanese Snow Monkeys. This is post 2 from my time with the monkeys in the onsen where I wanted to share family portraits of the snow monkeys. As a portrait photographer first I shared some solo portraits of monkeys but like humans, family is very important to the monkeys.

It’s easy to see their bond with each other, especially anyone that is a parent will instantly recognize a lot of behavior! Now that I’m back home with my young son, I can’t help but think of the monkeys when I pick him up and he holds me tight. Though I can’t say I groom my son the same way, the meaning and love behind taking care of each other resinates.