Snow monkeys (2)

Japanese macaques bathing in Jigokudani hot springs, Japan.

Thanks for your feedbacks!

Fascinating how they love the hot springs.  An excellent shot... Mike

You did it again! Marvellous portrait - the sharpness is unparalleled, facial expressions - mesmerizing, composition - textbook. This reminds me of Ron Fricke's 1992 Baraka documentary. #7# without any hesitation!

Regards,

VS

Double comfort....that of the warm waters and the closeness of mother.Bravo for a superb image;I am borrowing for my Favorites folder.

Félicitations et meilleures salutations-Laurent

Cheers

PDE

I always hope that some day I would have a chance to shoot these Japanese Macaque. They are so unique and very expressive (so human like in expression .. to me). Great shot with great expression and mood. TFS!

fabulous image of this tender moment...regards....David

Wondefful & fascinating capture!7....Regards and compliments..

Really beautiful, Alain!

Lovely and touching portrait Alain!

Soberbia.

Great shot. My favorite of your series. Lucky you for getting to shoot these critters.

Truly amazing Alain!!!!

As all the above, Alain.  It's a perfect 7.  Could be the poster for "Adopt a Snow Monkey"!  Best, Jeff

Excellent Alain! Goes to my favorites, thanks! Best regards!

It's an irresistible subject, which is why it's been done so many times before. There's neither anything wrong nor terribly right about this rendition, to my eye.

I seem to be most interested (while looking) in the arrangement between the mother's chin and the child's nose, which mother and child are carefully maintaining.

And I like the snazzy comb-marks over the baby's ear. Very stylish.

I would prefer a much tighter crop myself as the environment in this case does not add much to the shot. Sometimes the volcanically heated pools steaming in the winter snow do add something, but I don't see this here to any interesting degree.

Alain's portfolio contains an entire folder containing images of snow monkeys. They all are high caliber, in my opinion. This one shares that characteristic. What I find most engaging about it are the facial expressions of the mother and baby. Although the baby instead could be giving the mother an acknowledgment of her love by looking directly her, it is sharing her interest in something in their environment, perhaps something that represents a threat. Also, I like the soft reflections.

I think that something was Alain D: not that he was a threat, or course.

The crop is too wide to work as a portrait, which is what this image wants to be. The background is too amorphous to give any meaningful context. As a background for a tighter portrait the soft oof background would be well suited. In this crop there is simply too much of it and the monkeys get lost in the background.

I think the background gives a sense of the tranquility of the environment in which they are, although I might recommend a bit of a crop at the left. I am more bothered by the piece of rock on the right corner. I understand it is a field shot, not a setup, but can't seem to get my mind off it.

That rock also has an affect on my viewing. I don't want to look at it but it keeps tugging my eye to the corner.

I doubt if the human maternity and motherhood have evolved a bit from those creatures since the last seven million years ago, in this macaques family only nature took controls, no abortions, no quarrel for custody, no birth control because of jobs, no sexual child abuse, no abandoned kids in the sewage, no kids labor works, no kidnapping for ransom, no evils possession and the list continues as for ever. I look into their eyes and rediscover the pure motherhood that we once possesses without the influence of modern civilizations, and reviewing the contemporary believe that we human are evolving ,I must say, yes we got a far bigger brains, but its power of mind is regressing, all the monkeys are from the same first world .
An image with a ground breaking mood and effect on the viewer, at least me ,the evolved human.

Saad

I have to say I don't really agree with your poetic view of the Macaques. Nature has plenty of inherent violence: they may not have planned abortion, but conflict, predation, disease, and hopeless injury (and sometimes cannibalism) are all part of natural life for wild animals.