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We turned up at Otowa bridge before dawn to photograph red-crowned cranes as they woke up for the day.  The temperature was -26˚C  (-15˚F) and the dew point was -18˚C  (0˚F).  I had known what temperatures to expect before leaving for Japan so I was comfortable except that my fingers got a bit cold because it is not possible to operate a camera while keeping heavy over-gloves on.

Because the air temperature was lower than the dew point, the air was unable to absorb water vapour, which formed as fog over the water.  So we got nice foggy effects but because it was so cold, the birds weren’t moving much.
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Sometimes the fog was very heavy and we could hardly see the birds.  Many of these images are quite delicate.  I have prepared them on my monitor which is profiled with a hardware device called a colorimeter.  Most people viewing will have unprofiled monitors which might give the images an appearance different from my intentions.
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This is a rare moment in the early morning when the fog was relatively clear.
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The cranes were quite a long way away.  Fortunately, there were a few whooper swans closer to us.  The youngsters would have to be sygnets (young swans).  Curious that they should be there in late winter, though.
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Very occasionally, one of the birds would fly a short distance.
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All shots in this post were taken at an effective focal length of 600mm.   The action was a long way away.
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There came to be quite a few people on the bridge.  We were there before dawn and amongst the first to turn up. Yet there were quite a few people who had turned up the night before and left a tripod to reserve a prime viewpoint.  I thought that was quite unethical and that it would have been only fair if one of the first people to turn up had moved all those tripods out of the way.
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A magical way to start the day.