John James Audubon, the pre-eminent 19th-century painter of birds, considered the snowy egret to be one of America’s surpassingly beautiful species. The egret, he noted, was also abundant.

Though Kenichi Ohno, 79, a resident of Miyoshi, Saitama Prefecture, outside Tokyo, shot the surreal egret photo, even his wife didn't believe him. “I just happened to capture the scene,” he said.