NATURESCAPES.NET 2006 WILDLIFE GALLERY
IMAGE OF THE YEAR

Snow Monkeys
Image copyright Jim Urbach

Trying to go to a place he had never ventured to before, Jim Urbach chose to go to Japan in February 2005. He traveled by high speed train, then local bus and walked in the last mile over a snowy icy path to the hotel located just outside Jigokudani Yaenkoen, the park near Nagano where the Japanese snow monkeys, or macaques, live. They come down from the hills each day enticed by food and bathe in a heated spa pool that is filled, drained and cleaned each day.

The pool is less than 50 feet long and about 25 feet wide. You can stand anywhere about the outside walls of the pool on the icy slippery rocks and shoot away at these colorful creatures. They have no fear of people and often may be mere inches from you.

The photo was captured with a Canon 20D, 100-400mm IS, ISO 400, f8, 1/200, fill at -1, HH, FF.

Jim Urbach retired form active orthopedic surgery over seven years ago and now has plenty of time to follow his 35-year passion for photography. In the early years he did mostly landscape and travel photography. In 1994, he fell in love with the challenges provided by nature photography and has been submitting images to a stock agency ever since. His travels have taken him to Alaska eleven times, Africa five times, Antarctica, Japan, India, Mexico, Costa Rica and most National Parks in the United States and many trips to Canada.