An Excerpt From An Article Recently Published on Luminous Landscapes

Every photography tour workshop itinerary offered has sunshine and rainbows written into it, but vital elements to any successful itinerary are planning and experience.  And your photo tour workshop leader or any true pro expedition leader will have a back-up plan plus a back-up for the back-up in case of foul weather or if any other situation arises.  This is never clearer than when I hear stories from colleagues, friends, and clients about cherry blossom tours hosted by local Japan tour guides without careful and thorough planning.   Anyone with any experience in leading photography workshops knows that cherry blossoms don’t suddenly burst into full bloom at the moment of your arrival.  Mother Nature has her own timing and probably will not coincide with your timing.  The entire country’s sakura reaches full bloom at different times, and many other factors contribute to when the sakura is at its hanami peak.  This is precisely the reason why my cherry blossom photography workshop tours are cross-country adventures.  If the sakura are not in bloom at our first location, then I have a second, third, fourth, fifth, and countless other spots in mind, so participants who join my cherry blossom photography tour workshop know they are going to view and photograph sakura in full bloom.

Cherry blossoms are beautiful, and I love them as much as I love photographing Hokkaido wildlife.  It is next to impossible to beat being up close and personal with the largest herd of Ezo sika deer on our planet, and wildlife Hokkaido photography tour workshop expeditions take an experienced team leader and a team who understand survival in sub-arctic conditions, and a bonus is to have staff that enjoys winter camping as much as I do.  Hokkaido reminds me of the Canadian Yukon or Alaska.  Hokkaido winter photography adventures mean extreme weather conditions could arise without warning.  Without the proper team, preparations, and knowing the terrain, you could end up like the Donner party, so make sure before traveling to Hokkaido you have diligently done your research.  If you’re looking to join a photo tour in northern Japan, there are only a few of us locals that run workshops in Hokkaido, and a few use local guides, but there are only a couple I would recommend.  And when picking your expedition leader, make sure he or she is experienced in winter terrains because the difference between expedition leaders and guides can be night and day.  Most have never spent a night camping when it’s -40°C, and I can tell you it’s life or death at that temperature.  Thankfully, the coldest I have ever seen it in Hokkaido during the day is -25°C, comfortable camping weather.

Air, land, shipping lane, and weather charts became the Covid-19 charts that I used in February 2020 to keep my team and clients safe, and everyone returned to their home countries or their next destination Covid-free, including my team and me.  Part of my goals as a photo workshop leader is to anticipate the needs of my clients and provide for them.  The drive to care for my clients stems from my awareness of how precious all life is, and is an element of Buddhism.  The concierge of the Zen forest acts as my spiritual guide assisting me in leading adventures, but the concierge also fine-tunes my clarity.  That clarity leads to harmony as I examine all the incoming information and make choices on hotels, photography locations, and routes for my clients, my team, and I to take.  My sustained compassion is a manifestation and combination of the concierge of the Zen forest, my experience, and my dedication to Buddhist teachings.  And, sometimes, that combined energy manifests in what seems like simple good fortune, not just for me, but also for the people I share my expeditions with.  As mentioned in a previous article, Japan’s 2019-20 winter season was predominately snowless, which ended up being a blessing.  95% of Japan’s ski resorts were closed, and the Sapporo Snow Festival in Hokkaido organizers were required to truck in snow for the sculptures.  Another stroke of good fortune was the ice sculptures melting and the festival ending a week earlier, just as the cases of Covid-19 were spiking in Asia.  98% fewer people were visiting Japan from the Asian sub-continent.  Most people were worried about the state of Japan in terms of Covid-19, but I was more concerned about my clients’ return home because the countries they were returning to were where the mass of tourists from the Asian sub-continent were visiting instead of Japan due to lack of snow.

A few years back, when I was co-leading a Hokkaido Photo Tour with Jim Zuckerman, and he wanted to photograph the Sapporo Ice Festival with our clients. My response was that I wanted nothing to do with that, “I’m going to the wild frontier,” I stated, and I boarded a plane while a colleague, Koji Endo, boarded his in Tokyo.  We met in Nakashibetsu, so while my team and the rest of the group were in Sapporo enjoying the annual Snow Festival, Koji and I availed ourselves of an opportunity to do some off-roading and see if we could find the largest herd of Ezo sika deer on the planet rumored to be gathered in the region.  Our adventure took us to seek out new locations on the eastern end of Hokkaido, spanning Rausu, Nakashibetsu, and Nemuro.  I had spent about 15 years in Hokkaido, and there were a few roads I had yet to explore, so I was excited about the chance to find more off the beaten path locations.  As we passed one trail in particular, I began to run through the catalog of roads, paths, trails, and Hokkaido highways in my mind and Garmin GPS, but I couldn’t place this path I had just seen.  I brought our SUV to a stop, and I thought to myself, “This is just a walking trail, isn’t it?”  And as if to answer my question, Koji and I simultaneously set our eyes on what we knew to be fresh tire tracks leading up to and on to this trail, which looked just like a pathway to the ocean for fishing.  More thoughts raced through my head, “I’ve traveled almost every pathway resembling a road in this region.  “We’ve got to take a closer look,” I said, so we went for it, and the going was rough, and we had to drive on ice for about 100 meters, but being born in Canada and driving winter roads, this was nothing new to me. 

Driving along the frozen marshlands, ocean and navigating other hazards and obstacles along the trail to the largest herd of Ezo sika deer make me feel like Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon.  As his battalion crossed the shallow river at the then northern border of Italy, it is reported that he uttered, ‘The die is cast,’ for he had passed the point of no return.  However, this is not a choice I make every year.  During my annual Hokkaido Photography Tour in 2017, 2018 and my private 2019 Hokkaido tour, participants and I had the good fortune of excellent conditions for the herd of the Ezo sika deer to be gathered.  But there are some conditions beyond my control.  I take my winter wonderland safari of Japan’s northern island seriously because seeing the largest herd of Ezo sika deer on the planet is a decision that only two people, myself and one other, can make.  Once committed, the drive is five kilometers using 4x4s in low gear on trails that don’t qualify as anything close to a ‘road.’  If you are unfamiliar with navigating frozen boggy terrain, you are better off warming your feet at your lodgings, but I have never been stuck in a bog on one of my Hokkaido photography workshop tours because my team and I often get out of our vehicles double and triple-checking the terrain such as ruts with stainless avalanche poles or monopods for depth because we don’t want to drive our vehicle into a Hokkaido Wildlife Waterhole.  Once I have started down the path to the Ezo sika deer, I check participants again to make sure everyone is ready to join the adventure with no cold feet, as I have to be 100% sure there are no question marks in my head about anyone, so there are no omens on the path to hinder our adventurous spirit.

Imagine standing almost to face to face with the largest herd of Ezo sika deer on our planet, with camera in hand, on a Hokkaido Photography Workshop Tour.  It’s impressive, and the significant part about this unique photo op is that the locations where the deer appear are only known by us Hokkaido locals.  Fewer know the exact timing when the herd gathers.  And I know the perfect timing when they are assembled and positioned, so the Ezo deer will have no choice but to come straight at us.  Behind the Ezo sika deer is the frozen Pacific Ocean, then open water; if they tried to go the way of the frozen ocean, they know it would lead to open water, and deers are no fools, so I know they will choose to pass by us. Once I stop our lead SUV about 100 yards (92 meters) from the deer, I make sure our other SUVs make a semi-circle to protect us just in case a few try to charge us, but Ezo sika deer are not big enough to jump over Prado SUVs.  The parcel of land is about 30 yards (28 meters) wide, and the deer always stampede, equal parts a show of strength and defense given by their numbers.  My goal for 2022 is to share a beautiful and charged Hokkaido Photo Safari with as many clients and friends who feel they rise to the challenge of Hokkaido’s wildlife.  We have space available for my 2022 Hokkaido Photography Workshop Tour, including Mt. Fuji, Snow Monkeys, the Red-Crowned Cranes, the Steller’s Sea Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, the Shima Enaga, and the Ezo red fox, plus much more.