Photographing on my annual Hokkaido photo tour, or any of my Japan workshop tours means chasing the light with camera in hand daily, and believe me, my participants, support staff team members, and I cover lots of ground; we don’t sit around in our hotel rooms.  I also don’t play celebrity photographer and bore clients with endless hours of in hotel workshops as many of my competitors do!  Also, as a local to Japan, you don’t have to wait for my team and me to get over jet lag with you.  I always recommend to clients who are traveling on long haul flights to arrive a day or two before our photo workshops start date in order to adjust to the time difference, because as soon as our meet and greet has concluded, we hit the road.  

All themes of photography are a pure joy for me, and I especially enjoy abstract photography, especially unique tree bark; there is something special in tree bark patterns that grabs ahold of me.  And a closer look is a must, especially when I happen upon evergreens such as, the Lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana).  The pine tree is native to northeastern and central China, but across Japan, we have dozens of transplants that I have come across, including in Hokkaido.  And on day two of my annual Hokkaido photo tour, while my group of participants and I were on our way to the snow monkey park, we stopped at an ancient Buddhist hall built in the 16th century to photograph the hall, its garden, and one of these rare pine trees.