Showing the bigger picture

Mike Langford GM HF LMNZIPP GM FAIPP

Before lockdown, two years ago, while in Japan photographing the snow monkeys with our Japan Autumn Workshop Tour, I realised that I had never seen a published photograph that showed what the place really looked like ̶ what it looked like when the monkeys weren't there, what it looked like when it wasn't cold enough for there to be steam.

Neither had I ever seen a shot published that showed all the tourists there, photographing the monkeys. Even more than that; I had never seen a photograph of the local spa town, where it's best to stay when you go to photograph the snow monkeys.

This article is about photographing a bigger story and asking you to think about what that can give you that you haven't achieved before.

I call this The Bigger Picture.

The Japanese Snow Monkey Express

Somehow, everyone just gets totally focused on the monkeys sitting in the steaming water of the mineral springs. They forget that all around, there are dozens, sometimes hundreds of other people, all photographing the same thing. All totally forgetting to show the bigger picture of the event.

For most people the Snow Monkey experience starts in Tokyo, early in the morning, with a ninetyminute “shinkensen” trip to Nagano in the Japanese Alps. This is followed by a forty-minute train ride on the Snow Monkey Express to the alpine spa town of Yudanaka.

(This train is a true classic, straight from the history of Japanese rail travel. It has something of an art deco look about it, with its sleek, streamlined front and popped-up top where the driver sits. It's worth getting on early; you can sit up front in the bubble and watch the driver climb up to his little cabin by way of a pull-down ladder.)

Outside the Snow Monkey Park

1/320 sec, f4, ISO 320 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 24-105mm f4L IS II USM lens This is my establishing shot at the entrance to the Snow Monkey Park.

Empty Snow Monkey Park Pool

1/40 sec, f8, ISO 200 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 24-70mm f4L IS II USM lens This is what the Snow Monkey thermal pool can look like when the park first opens in the morning, with no steam, monkeys or tourists. This is also an establishing shot, as it shows the same environment without all the clutter and activity of both the monkeys and tourists.

From Yudanaka it's then a ten-minute bus ride, followed by a twenty-minute walk through a beautiful, dark green forest to the snow monkey park itself. Most tourists do this trip in the morning, photograph the monkeys around mid-day and then do the return trip to Tokyo in the afternoon. But, wait! There is a better way of doing it!

The First Arrival

1/320 sec, f3.2, ISO 100, Canon 5Ds body, Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II USM lens When you spend time in the one place you get to just wait and watch. Occasionally you find something quite special, like this little monkey in the pool, all by himself. I used a shallow depth of focus so that just the front of the pool where he positioned himself was in focus, and everything else was soft. This made him stand out from the background more distinctly. The medium telephoto lens allowed me to include the whole pool and gave a greater context.

Portrait 1 - 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens This shot was taken at the 360mm end of the lens and allowed me to focus on his face. The snow was just starting to settle on his fur and made for quite an interesting shot. Portrait 2 - 1/160 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400 mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens A slightly wider shot, showing a little more of his environment. Also showed just how much snow was now falling. It was also getting darker, which meant having to slow my shutter speed down. With this increase of snow and darkness, the light also became bluer, and also made it look colder. If I had kept my white balance on AWB, all the shots would have looked the same and I wouldn't have been able to interpret the visual changes and how they felt as much. 25

Snow Catching

1/200 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens As the snow started to fall, the monkeys occasionally looked up at it in interest, as this was the first snow of the season. The 400mm lens helped me get in close. Fortunately, there wasn't too much snow falling between the lens and the monkey. As the snow became heavier it also started to get darker, which is why I took my ISO up to 1000. Unfortunately, my depth of focus wasn't deep enough to keep both the monkey's hand and his face in sharp focus. We can all make mistakes!

Alpha Male

1/200 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens Shot at 200mm, this allowed me to show that when he was in the pool, all the other monkeys left (otherwise he would chase them away). Again, the narrow depth of focus separated him from both the background as well as the snow falling in the foreground. As it was starting to get even darker, I had to take my shutter speed down even lower.

Family

1/500 sec, f6.3, ISO 800 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens As the snow lessened, it started to get brighter, but also colder. All the monkeys ended up sitting in the pool in family groups, which made for quite a different set of images.

Showing the Bigger Picture

Mike Langford GM HF LMNZIPP GM FAIPP

Yudanaka

The nearby town of Yudanaka is also a great place to experience and photograph. It has a history of over six hundred years as a spa town and is well worth spending a couple of nights’ lodging in traditional ryokans and soaking in the many hot spas. The evening sounds are dominated by the clatter of traditional wooden shoes on cobblestones and the sights are of Japanese tourists promenading in their traditional bathrobes, known as yukatas, down the old, narrow streets as they flit from spa house to spa house.

Getting to the monkey park early is essential for good photography, which is also why it's a good idea to stay in Yudanaka the night before, and why we do it as part of our workshop.

Showing the Bigger Picture

Mike Langford GM HF LMNZIPP GM FAIPP

Snow Monkey Park

The park opens at 9.00 am in winter. It's good to be there when it first opens, as by 10.30 am the tour groups from Nagano and Tokyo start arriving. As does the sun ̶ both of which make photography just that much more difficult.

It's also worth knowing that the monkeys aren't always at the park and, most of all, aren't always in the hot pools. The last time we visited, there were no monkeys in the pool when we first arrived, as the air temperature was quite warm. As soon as the temperature dropped, the pool was instantly full. About an hour later, when it started to snow, the place became a frenzy of tourists and photographers, all focused on the same thing ̶ the monkeys in the hot pool, with snow falling on them. Like anything you photograph, it's always good to give yourself time. Time to just watch and wait. Time to learn that photography isn't just seeing something but more learning when is good and what is better.

Only time can offer you this. You need time to ask yourself if the event is just about the snow monkeys in the pool or is it also about the people photographing the monkeys in the pool. Each has its own story and both are equally valid.

Strangely, we so often find ourselves photographing just the icons ̶ and forgetting the bigger picture of what it was really like to be there.

The first time I showed someone the wider shot that included all the tourists around the outside, they were disappointed that it was really like that, as they had in their mind this feeling of utopia, of almost

Monkey Park Tourists

1/30 sec, f8, ISO 100, Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 24-105mm f4 L IS II USM lens

Due to a rapid drop in air temperature, steam started to slowly rise from the pool, and then snow started to fall. This caused the monkeys to jump into the pool to keep warm. As the action in the pool started to increase, more and more tourists began both to arrive and stay. It became just as busy outside the pool as it was inside. This image is a larger and different picture, one you seldom see, because it can change the ethos of all the other images you have just made. It shows that you are not there all alone, in harmony with the monkeys, at one and meditating with nature with your camera, as previously suggested.

Monkey Park Tourists 2

1/200 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens A closer look at the tourists who are also there when the conditions are great!

being alone in this space with the monkeys, as that is what the iconic photograph looks like.

The bigger picture can often tell quite a different story to the one that you may have had formulated in your mind before you get there. Surprise yourself and try it sometime! Think outside the square and look at the bigger picture.

What you have available to you, in every photographic experience, is more a series of photographs (a photo essay), more than just a single iconic hero picture.

This essay can start with how you got there, where you stayed, followed by what you did, ate and drank. (Then again, maybe some things should stay untold, and definitely not photographed!)

If you wish to be more specific with your idea, perhaps just start with what the place, in this case the monkey park, looks like from the outside. Follow this with a shot of just the thermal pool which, if you are early enough, is more than likely devoid of monkeys as well as steam. As things change, also change how you shoot, so that your story keeps developing visually. Shoot some action, make a monkey portrait, make a monkey family portrait. Show some character. Shoot some cutaway details.

Then mix them all together and tell a story about the place, not being afraid to show the reality of it, including all the tourists who were on the same tour as yourself.

If you think of your travel photography in this way, when you return home and share all your images, you can tell an actual story and show a bigger picture ̶ instead of dozens of similar images because you can't decide which one is best.

Long lenses 1

1/200 sec, f5.6, ISO 1000 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens The long lens group

Long Lens 2

1/250 sec, f6.3, ISO 1000 Canon 5D Mark IV body, Canon EF 100-400mm f5.6 L IS II USM lens The long lens group

All you need is some luck, the right weather and time to sit and wait for the right moment. That's what we do on our photography tours — join us some time!

Mike Langford is a New Zealand born landscape and travel photographer. He has been a professional photographer for over 38 years and an International Awards judge and lecturer for 28 years. Mike’s passion is travel and landscape photography, along with publishing with over 28 photography books to his name.

He is a Grand Master and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) and a Grand Master and Honorary Fellow of he New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP). He is also a Canon Master and EIZO Ambassador.

He and his wife Jackie Ranken, also a photographic artist, live in a small alpine town in the middle of the South Island of New Zealand named Twizel, from where they run their Creative Photography workshops.

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