While working on a portfolio of photographs of the Ara River in Saitama, I was always trying to go to places that were difficult to reach in order to find places other photographers might not have visited. On this occasion I scrambled down through a forest to reach the water. It was January and I was looking for ice to photograph, as there was no snow. When I found a frozen gravel bar with stones held fast in the ice I knew I would be able to find something worth bringing home.