Snow monkeys in Japan

The only way these Japanese macaques, i.e. snow monkeys, can survive the cold winters in Japan is because they take advantage of warm geothermal pools in the mountains about 3 hours from Tokyo. The monkeys are very used to people visiting the area, and surprisingly they allow a very close approach. I photographed this mother nursing a baby with a 14mm wide angle lens. My camera was about 14 inches from the two primates. My settings were 1/320, f/9, and 800 ISO. Sometimes playful monkeys ran right past my camera, stepping on the top of it as if it were just another rock. It was a great experience to be right in the middle of this unique natural phenomenon.