Understanding Japan’s topography is key when leading any Japan photography workshop, especially my annual Essence of Autumn Leaves photo workshop or my annual Mt. Fuji Autumn Leaves photo tour.  Mt. Fuji is garlanded by the Fuji Five lakes: Yamanakako, Kawaguchiko, Saiko, Shōjiko and Motosuko.  What visiting photographers don’t know is that on any given day at one of the Fuji Five lakes, you may only be able to photograph a hazy, cloud obscured Mt. Fuji, but at another of the Fuji Five lakes, only 30 minutes to an hour away, you may have clear skies.  I know the weather patterns like the back of my hand, and I always have a backup for my backup in case of foul weather.  Unfortunately, visiting photographers who choose tour operators using a bus as a mode of transportation are forced to follow a location and time schedule because a run of the mill photo agency is responsible for their workshop, not a pro photographer.  And I can assure you, if you want to see the true beauty of any place in the world, you travel with a local pro photographer like me, because if you do, that photographer will introduce you to a feast for the eyes placing you in front of gallery worthy scenery, and I will help you capture gallery worthy prints versus the run of the mill tour company that simply drops you off at a location and leaves you to your own devices, or you’re trapped with an international celebrity all-star photographer who thinks they know Japan’s topography, but they don’t, so they contract an unskilled local guide to help try and discover ancient pilgrim trails or hidden temples and shrines, but on the odd chance the local guide finds an off the beaten path gem, it is luck.  If they hired a person on par with my skill level, it would cut into their profit margin so dramatically it wouldn’t make fiscal sense to even come to Japan.  As a result, they stay on the beaten path.  

On a side note, I have completely stopped accepting bookings for Mt. Fuji during Japan’s spring monsoon/rainy season due to there being a 1-5% chance of seeing Mt. Fuji, and even 5% may be an overstatement.  In the autumn, there is moisture in the air which makes for rolling fog banks versus the rainy season which is just impenetrable cloud cover.  Using a run of the mill photo agency seems like they must spin a magic 8-ball with all the Fuji Five Lakes having an equal chance of appearing.  Once spun, the workshop leader declares, “Okay, today we’re going to (fill in the lake).”  Wow, best of luck with that.  On my Autumn Leaves photography workshops, I won’t know what lake we’re going to photograph until about an hour before we depart our lodgings.  I actually use weather charts, not fortune telling 8-balls for my information.  During my Essence of Autumn cross-country photography workshop and my dedicated Mt. Fuji workshop, which happens to be in my backyard, and a location I’ve visited countless times, you have the highest percent chance to view Mt. Fuji with me with perfectly framed red maple leaves.  For those planning to visit the base of Mt. Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes, this region is not accessible to everyday visitors.  Of the Five Fuji Lakes (there are actually two more plus the ocean and several mountain ranges), using mass transit, you will only have easy access to two of the Fuji Five Lakes, and time schedules restrict you.  On my Mt. Fuji Photography Workshops and all of my Japan photo workshops, I never use public transportation because of how limited it is; all my participants see Japan in the comfort of business class SUV seating.  My participants also have access to my encyclopedic knowledge of Mt. Fuji’s mythology, sociology, and history dating back to when the Indigenous or First Nations People of Japan, the Ainu, inhabited the region.  This type of on the beaten path Mt. Fuji Photo Workshop that many agencies and photo workshop companies offer to their participants becomes a shallow and forgettable introduction to one of Japan’s most iconic symbols.  Mt. Fuji stands essentially unchanged for ages, representing something more significant and more meaningful than the nation itself. It carries the essence of the people and the natural world.