Sometimes following the itinerary on a Japan Photo Tour feels like following a rainbow to a hidden cache of treasure, but a seasoned adventurer already knows that not every rainbow ends with a pot of gold when chasing the light on unknown pathways.  The beginner’s mindset means that you approach every adventure into the field as an opportunity to discover something new about a photographic subject that you have experienced before, perhaps 1000s of times before.

One of Japan Dreamscapes (JDS) Photo Workshop Leaders posed the question during a team meeting:  “Do you want have the ‘professional’ or the ‘beginner’s’ mindset?”  The room went quiet while everyone thought about what the answer was.  After a few minutes, our leader followed up saying, “If you’re thinking about it this long, then you’re definitely in the wrong mindset.”   He then explained with the beginner’s mindset and zen buddhism, the beginner sees myriad possibilities.  The professional is stubborn and refuses to heed warnings and myriad possibilities.  After a few short weeks, the JDS Hokkaido Birding Photo Workshop begins, and he will start photographing Sika Deer - the largest herd on the planet, Red-Crowned Cranes, Ezo Red Foxes, and several other species that inhabit Japan’s northernmost island as he has done for more than 20 years.  Yet he still relishes the idea of traveling there every year, and his enthusiasm for the Hokkaido Photo Tour actually seems to have increased since last year.

The discussion deepened after he was asked for an illustration of his point.  He replied mentioning that on his last Autumn Leaves Photography Workshop, on the path both to and from the daily destinations, he found the tunnels on the road and byways remarkable.  He said that a strictly professional photographer would neglect or not even see the tunnels as anything except a conveyance, only interpreting the tunnels in the way for which they were constructed; however, he said he knew there was art being expressed in the tunnels and their construction, so he took a few moments to get his camera settings just right, and he took several pictures while traveling inside the tunnels.  One of those artistic photos is attached to this blog.  Our JDS Photo Workshop Leader feels that any subject constitutes a work of art, and it is a trained eye and experience that makes it possible to translate that artistic interpretation into visual art.