49.3

As a nature photographer I have the perfect picture in my head for every subject I photograph. Maybe not right away, but surely after my first effort.

I visit Japan every year to photograph Japanese macaques, whooper swans, white-tailed eagles, Steller's sea eagles, and Japanese cranes. The Japanese crane, or red-crowned crane, is second rarest species of crane in the world, and extremely elegant and pretty. Their mating dances and calls are a joy to watch and photograph. And to listen to.

Once of the shots I really wanted, was one with a couple of cranes with their heads up - a typical crane pose. This happens plenty of times, but as often with wildlife photography, there's always something wrong - the light is bad, the background is poor, the composition doesn't work or the subjects are not cooperating.

In this case everything just came together. It had been snowing heavily, the sky was completely overcast, the light was soft and all around me, the foreground was white, and the birds performed in the perfect spot as though I had trained them to do so.

©2010 Marsel van Oosten, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.