The story behind this image

I was 15 years old the first time I saw the dance of the Japanese Red Crowned Cranes on one of Sir David Attenborough’s nature documentaries. I was so moved that I vowed ithere and then to travel to Japan some day to witness it with my own eyes.

This image was captured in Hokkaido in the winter of 2018.

It was bitterly cold (-20 celsius) and the chill factor made it feel even colder still. But I had travelled a long way for this and I was well wrapped up so I didn’t feel it.

The weather vascilated between gusting blizzards and still crisp sunshine in equal measure allowing me lots of opportunities to capture the two types of images I had in mind - cranes in their environment and high key shots in the style of sumi-e

Sumi-e is a minimalist style of ink wash painting. I am very drawn to minimalist art and I was able to use the snow on the hill behind the birds as my backdrop to achieve this effect.

On the one hand it was easy - very little post production was required to achieve the high key effect I was after.

On the other hand… many long hours were spent waiting to find a bird completely isolated from its neighbours, facing the right direction and throwing aesthetically pleasing shapes.

The hot chocolate on the return trip to the hotel each day was the most delicious I’ve ever tasted :)