2005: Behaviour: Mammals - Highly Commended Print
Yukihiro Fukuda (Japan)
Japanese macaque eating cherry blossom
Japan's most famous animal and most famous floral display in one shot - the ideal Japanese nature picture. It was what Yukihiro set out to create in spring, when the cherry trees at Jigokudani in Nagano Prefecture were thick with blossom and when the monkeys had moved down to the orchards to feast on it. But the task was no easy one. 'The macaques are so capricious,' he says. 'It's impossible to predict which tree they will climb next or which flower they will reach for.' Yukihiro visited the mountains every day during the cherry-blossom season and took hundreds of shots before his diligence was finally rewarded.
Canon EOS 1D mark II with Canon EF 500mm f4 IS lens; 1/125 sec at f4; 200 ISO; tripod.
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