TITLE: A Mothers Love

Jigokudani is a place in Nagano, Japan. This is where Snow Monkeys roam free and yet enjoy the luxury of their own onsen (A natural hot spring over 25℃ that contains a certain level of minerals).

During the harsh winter months, females, their children, and their babies bathe in the onsen to keep warm. They don't sweat so they stay warm all day. Male Snow Monkeys are too manly to bathe and usually leave the family and go to another group to start another family. So, the bond between mother and child is very strong and lasts for a very long time. Even when the babies grow too big to nestle up to, they will climb on the mother's back and be close that way.

This image shows the beautiful connection between mother and child. I also wanted to show the shadows, mid-tones, highlights, and texture of their fur with snow falling on it. The babies always have darker fur and I really love the way the tones work so well together.

AUTHOR: David Williams (Japan)

David Williams is a photographer living in Tokyo, Japan. He is originally from the UK. He discovered his passion and love for photography while going through a bad time in his life. While living in the countryside of Japan, frustrated with the language he then turned to alcohol to release his frustrations. While travelling a bad road he was then introduced to photography by a friend. He automatically started experimenting with different genres of photography and didn't settle on one type for a few years. He joined an online photography school and quit alcohol. Moving back to Tokyo in 2013 he started visiting a local lake to take photos of wildlife. David said "It was magical", it was like something clicked. He then knew his genre of photography was animals. He then started visiting Zoo's and fell in love with Zoo photography. Since then David has won many photography contests and the main one that he is so proud of is the Canon Gallery photo contest. His work was on exhibition around Japan for 4 months. David has had his work published in Newspapers around the world many times, but he prefers to take photos that express his feelings, his emotions, and his frustrations. He prefers this instead of taking pretty or funny photos to amuse the masses. Nowadays while struggling with anxiety he is focusing on his photography of Jellyfish. David says "They fascinate me" I love to photograph them in B&W as it is quite unusual and I very much enjoy the tones. Recently David won Silver in the nature category of the TIFA (Tokyo International Foto Awards) photo contest.