Facebook update Marsel van Oosten, The Netherlands 2014
A tourist at Jigokudani Monkey Park, Japan, was so desperate to get a close-up of this young Japanese macaque in a natural hot spring that they held their phone ever nearer to their subject. Suddenly, the monkey snatched it from them and retreated to examine its prize. Van Oosten saw the chance for a striking picture. His main challenge was the steam rising from the 107 degrees F (42 degrees C) water into the freezing air “I wanted a really low angle, but that meant getting close to the water,” he said. “My lens kept fogging up, making focusing almost impossible.” Japanese macaques are thought to display culture in the form of learned behavior, such as washing food, which they pass on to their offspring.
Technical specification: Nikon D800 + AF-S 70-200/2.8 VR lens; 1/250 sec at f/7.1; ISO 800; Nikon SB-900 flash
