Leading my annual Hokkaido Wildlife Minimalist Photo Adventure allows to focus on so many different themes within the category of visual arts.  Hokkaido Private Photo tour workshops are a dream come true for those who wish to view and photograph the unseen minimalist landscape scenes across Hokkaido, Japan and experience the untold stories of Japan’s unique society.  My experience chasing the light as a professional photographer began more than 30 years ago, and I’ve always relied on the beginner’s mindset to guide me.  Non-natural visual artists are constantly distracted by the little things and have a narrow appreciation of their surroundings. Their chi is anticipating the next text message or update, but that steals the power and energy from breathing the moment. During my photography adventures, I encourage participants to remove distractions from their mindset such as setting their smartphones to ‘Do Not Disturb’ or ‘Manner’ mode while in the field. This allows the participants to reduce the amount of background noise interfering with their understanding of the beginner’s mindset.

This is part of the reason I enjoy pre-dawn to early mornings driving though amazingly dramatic snow-covered hilly sceneries; they are artistically minimalist, especially with the right lightings and dusting of snow the night before.   The snow has done naturally what I tell my participants to do consciously, reduce distractions from their field of view.  On all my Hokkaido photo tour itineraries, I include minimalist landscape photography, but again the light has to be just right. Twenty years ago, I used to religiously photograph in Biei, Hokkaido and visit the blue pond several times per year. The color of the blue pond ranges from vibrant turquoise to emerald to cobalt blue, depending on the seasons, the wind, clouds, and rain can all change its color appearance, which is uniquely beautiful before the ice covers the pond and there is snow in the trees.   Unfortunately, Biei has become so popular that it is now more of a tourist trap than an untouched element of nature, illuminated with blue lights in the evening to accentuate its stunning sapphire water.

I can think of a thousand other places across Hokkaido off the beaten path to photograph mid-winter, without having to worry about being elbow to elbow with an army of tourists, taking snapshots and milling about walking in front of our tripods as we are filming our scene. I embrace all themes of photography, and on my group Winter Hokkaido wildlife photo workshop tours, the highlight is the Steller Sea Eagle, and The White-Tailed Eagle and their epic battles for survival, also we have the Ezo Red Fox, Sika Deer and the sweetheart bonny of a bird the Shima Enaga, I even, include Mt. Fuji, the snow monkey, and an original samurai castle, and a very special PowerPoint shrine in the valley of the dragons.