Hokkaido birding in winter in the unspoiled Shiretoko National Park is amazing and humbling at the same time, leading international photographers from the four corners of the World who travel with me to spot, film, and photograph a raptor that has been around since before the last ice age, never needing to evolve.  Steller’s Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) are the perfect predator in no small part due to huge razor sharp beak and talons.  They prefer a diet of salmon and trout as well as other fish, but when the fishing is slow, Hokkaido locals keep their pets indoors and small children are watched closely when venturing outside.  It’s not uncommon fawns to become prey during slow fishing times, and I have countless film and photos of predation from Africa and other parts of the world, but I don’t ever share them because I find them distasteful.  It’s my personal belief that photography, especially wildlife photography should be G-rated unless expressly used for educational purposes, then I’m in full support of it.  Actually, my media has been used for such purposes, but in each case the film and photographs were prefaced with a warning regarding their content.  Thinking about my own reservations for graphic media posts, I can’t believe the state of today’s social media.  When I scan through it, I see polar bears attacking a seal or lions making a kill.  My first question is, “Where is the supervision for these posts?”  It’s scary how easily social media age restrictions can be spoofed and that there’s next to no oversight on the posts themselves.  Eventually, if concerned community members speak up, posts will be flagged and taken down, but by that time, the damage has already been done.  Based on what I’ve been seeing lately, my feelings are that society has turned upside down.  My mentors have never and would never share such photos or ‘reels’ where a young audience could view it without supervision, such as todays social media.  We were born and raised at a different time, but I will say this, a few years ago, I was Svalbard, Norway, where I was scouting to co-lead with another photo workshop with agency, and we went out to photograph the polar bears feeding, and this is when they were throwing carcasses of animals to feed the polar bears.  When I was there, if I’m recalling correctly, the polar bear approached, and after I took 2-3 photos, I sat down and simply observed.  The polar bear transformed from a pristine white to take on an aspect more of a lion, covered in blood and gore from a staged feeding.  I was on the plane home the following day, and I no longer wanted to be associated with that agency or type of photography workshop.  Polar bears hunting seals?  I’ve photographed it, but what I saw on that photography workshop was far beyond overboard.

Returning to pristine nature, the Steller’s Sea Eagle is the most massively huge raptor on our planet, weighing 9+ kilograms (20 pounds) with a wingspan of 2.7 meters (over 8 feet).  This raptor’s natural habitat in the winter is pack ice which some ride down from the Kamchatka peninsula while others follow the coastline of Korea, but they all make their way to Hokkaido, Japan to the rich fishing grounds and freedom!  Sorry, pun very much intended.  During my annual group and private Hokkaido photography tour where our focus is primarily the Steller’s Sea Eagles, I have a minimum of three scheduled charter cruises booked with zodiac boats as a back up if the pack ice is close to shore and the water is like glass.  It’s not often that my participants get out in zodiacs, perhaps once every three years.  The pack ice is usually not that close to shore, and the weather can be rough in the region.  What really blows me away is when some photography workshop companies only set aside 1 or 2 days to photograph the Steller’s Sea Eagles.  When I view their itineraries I think, “One day?  Wow, they must be using a crystal ball or a magic eight ball to figure out precisely when conditions will be perfect.”  On some days due to weather conditions, there’s no pack ice visible, and if you were to ask the majority of photography workshop leaders where it is, they will respond, “It’s gone.”  I can assure you the pack ice is not gone, it’s simply sunk during the storm, and once the storm recedes, the pack ice will resurface.  And you don’t want to be stuck out on pack ice in rough weather, or just after the storm subsides.  Some of my Hokkaido colleagues and I have seen foolish people do it, just before the required rescues in those cases.   One time while I was leading my annual Hokkaido photo tour in Rausu, and I spoke with the captain of the chartered vessel for photographing Steller’s Sea Eagles, and we both agreed it was unsafe to go out.  My participants were not happy with me, and they let me know it, as other boats were going out.   For the remainder of the day, the atmosphere was tense, but I knew that I had made the right decision for their safety.  At dinner, the hotel owner, a friend of mine, said to check out the tv news bulletin.  The report shared that a few vessels got stuck out on the pack ice as it popped up, and then the clients changed their tunes and their friendliness returned.  Everyone thanked me for being able to enjoy a warm meal and bed that evening instead of making do with the hard, frigid deck of a boat waiting for a coastguard rescue.  I don’t spin magic eight balls with my client’s safety.  A leader makes tough decisions, and I did it that day with by experience and facts as a seasoned explorer.  Any workshop leader should be able to read a weather chart and know what to expect.  It’s not just about photography.  Every leader should be a seasoned explorer, but the majority are not.  Some of them focus exclusively on photography and acquiring accolades instead of focusing on their participants’ safety.  I can’t stomach sitting around a table with them espousing their awards and accolades, but one accolade they lack is being able to read a weather chart, and they are definitely not locals.  I could never imagine leading a photography workshop in a region that I hadn’t spent 5-7 years scouting.  You need to know the region like the back of your hand.  Believe me, you don’t want to be stuck in Rausu when the boats don’t go out.  There are very few things to do in Rausu, 1) catch a boat to photograph raptors, 2) go to the onsen, 3) get a hotel room and sleep, or 4) in foul weather you can sit and listen to your photography tour leader’s long list of accolades, or maybe even an editing session?  Wow, lucky you.  No, thank you.  Even if it’s foul weather, I’d rather be out in the field photographing with my clients.  In spring or autumn, I stay in Rausu, but never in the winter.  I’ve seen the road closed for an entire day, and with one road in and one road out in the winter, it’s a one horse town.  In total, it’s shut down an entire week a year, almost exclusively in the winter.  I don’t consult magic eight balls.  I go in when the weather is good and enjoy a complete day of raptor photography.  I’ve been doing this for over two decades, and of the majority of people who are running international photo workshops, there’s only a handful of us that have been doing this for decades.  There are a couple local guides that I would trust to lead a Hokkaido photography workshop, and everybody I trust is either a Hokkaido local or local of Japan.  Sometimes we don’t get along, but we’re a small community of photographers and guides and the best at what we do.  All of my workshops are all business class from lodgings to SUV transportation, so if you want the Hokkaido photo workshop of a lifetime and to get gallery worthy photos, then I’m happy to lead you for the adventure of a lifetime.