A stark and almost monochromatic landscape, Hokkaido, Japan’s northern Island, is a place of abstracts and simplicity. From lone trees standing atop snow covered hills to Tori gates standing next to the ocean, Hokkaido offers winter landscape photography distilled to its absolutely essential elements
Join myself and Jonas Paurell in this snowy, minimalist photographic paradise. We’ll be travelling there deep in the winter to find pristine winter landscapes, starting our tour in Kussharo and exploring the island in a private bus to take in snow covered hills, trees laden with snow, fishing villages and lakes. We’ll learn how to work with austere winter landscapes to create simple minimal images as well as the big wide scenics, and with myself, Jonas and a local photography guide you’ll have plenty of guidance in the field to work on everything from composition, to exposure and capturing mood, pushing your creativity and ensuring you come home with a unique portfolio of images, as well as some fantastic memories from this incredible place.
THE AGENDA AND THE WEATHER
The winter weather on Hokkaido island is snowy and unpredictable. Just the way we like it! Some areas of Hokkaido get 600cm (19 feet 8 inches) of snowfall annually which is what makes Hokkaido unique. Each day we will study the charts and the local weather conditions to plan our day. So, pack your gear, and get ready for an unforgettable expedition!
THE ACCOMMODATION
We'll be staying in a mix of charming Japanese and comfortable Western-style hotels. Some of them offer access to private or communal hot springs (Onsens) for your relaxation. Everyone will be automatically booked into a single occupancy room unless you request to share with your partner.
FOOD
Our hotels feature delicious meals tailored to diverse palates based on Japanese Cuisine. Please let us know if you have any food preferences, allergies, or dietary restrictions, and we'll do our best to accommodate your needs.
PRICE
$9,495 (USD)
(Price includes single room. Shared room discounts = $300 per person)
GROUP SIZE
7-10
EXPERIENCE
Beginner, amateur, enthusiast and semi-pro photographers.
PHYSICAL DIFFICULTY
EASY/LOWLAND WORKSHOP effort level - No trekking experience required. Locations are accessible without significant effort.
WORKSHOP INCLUDES
Landscape photography and shooting in unforgettable winter locations
Guided photography sessions in the field with 2 guides
All dinners and breakfasts during the tour
All transport during the tour in a comfortable bus
All accommodation in single rooms
Theoretical sessions
Post-processing sessions in Lightroom and Photoshop
Airport Pick up/drop off: Start: Memanbetsu Airport 21 Jan 3pm | End: Asahikawa Airport 28 Jan 2pm
NOT INCLUDED
Flights to/from Hokkaido
Insurance. All participants are required to have their own insurance appropriate for hiking in mountains, such as health, accident, mountain rescue, repatriation, cancellation, personal liability, etc.
Lunches and snacks
Alcoholic beverages
Outdoor clothing
Photographic Equipment
ITINERARY
GETTING TO HOKKAIDO
To avoid excessive road travel during the workshop we start the tour in Memanbetsu Airport and finish in Asahikawa Airport, both of which have multiple flight per day from the Tokyo airports Narita and Haneda.
DAY 1 | ARRIVE IN LAKE KUSSHARO
Our adventure will begin in Lake Kussharo, a beautiful crater lake in Eastern Hokkaido. We’ll collect you from Memanbetsu Airport and after transferring you to our hotel in Lake Kushiro, we'll gather for an introductory meeting and get to know each other.
DAY 2 LAKE KUSSHARO
For our first day we’ll be immersed in the surreal beauty of Lake Kussharo, and the surroundings. This will be our first taste of deep winter in Hokkaido, The landscapes here combine both minimalism and grand scenics with a large lake framed by snow-capped mountains. Vibrant shades of blue contrast against the surrounding snow alongside the smaller, more intimate landscape scenes of snow covered trees, and clean, austere landscapes. We’ll also look for the famous swans that inhabit the area.
We may also have time while we’re here to visit Saroma in the north, famous for it’s fishing ports where the boats are pulled up out of the water for winter
DAY 3 - 6 | BIEI
We’ll then head to to Biei, deep in the heart of Hokkaido. Minimalist landscape heaven, Biei is snow covered hills with lines of birch trees, frozen streams and a background of dark peaks. This is the kind of place where you can get lost in composition, creating intimate portraits of the landscape, looking at line and shape in this pristine winter landscapes.
We’ll spend our time here in this fascinating agricultural land hunting for minimal compositions and if we’re lucky capture alpen glow on the mountains at the days end. We’ll also visit waterfalls where blue water runs through snow covered rocks, and make sure we find plenty of time here for some theory and critique sessoins
DAY 7 | SHOSANBETSU
Today, our private bus will take us to the coastal village of Shosanbetsu. We’ll spend some time capturing this small fishing town village before heading to the iconic Red Torii gate for sunset. We’ll spend some time playing around with different compositions and long exposures to try to capture this iconic symbol of Japanese culture.
DAY 8 | DEPARTURE DAY
We should have time for a final morning shoot at the Tori gate before we head to Asahikawa airport where the tour ends and we say goodbye, dropping you off at 2pm
WHAT WE DO (AND WHAT WE WANT YOU TO GET FROM OUR WORKSHOPS)
Our aim is to take you to beautiful locations and give you every opportunity to get great images while improving your technique over the course of the workshop. We believe that spending plenty of time in the field each day means that participants get into a shooting rhythm and can quickly put into practice new skills as they are learned. We ensure we spend plenty of time with everyone in the field, and from the beginning of your time with us we can identify your photographic level and what you’d like to focus on. We can then tailor the sessions to your precise needs and provide each participant with plenty of one-to-one tuition both in the field and in the post processing sessions.
We’ve carefully timetabled this workshop to ensure that while you get to experience some the most beautiful locations Hokkaido has to offer, from the iconic locations to some lesser know spots which are stunning in the winter. I know from experience that it’s wonderful to go home from any trip with a varied portfolio of images that really capture the range of scenes we’ll be seeing and tell the story of our trip across the island, so we’ll be shooting a wide range of locations which will give you the opportunity to improve and broaden your skills and vision. January is a great time to visit Hokkaido as we’re pretty much guaranteed to get deep snow essential to these kind of winter landscapes. We’ll also make time to do some editing, which we believe is an integral part of getting the absolute best out of an image looking at techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop to bring out the best of your images. Additionally we’ll have multiple theory sessions on everything from composition to story-telling in images, and a final critique session to give constructive feedback on people’s work.
Finally, we want to share with you our passion for nature and landscape photography in this incredible place. We’ll aim to build a great learning environment where people feel comfortable together and at ease with asking questions and making the absolute most of the trip. We want to make your experience here in the beautiful landscape of Hokkaido a memorable one and a trip from which, as well as getting some great images from amazing locations, you’ll also go home having had a true adventure with great company in a very special place.
TECHNIQUES COVERED IN THE EXPEDITION
IN THE FIELD
Understanding the light and choosing the best exposure
Composition. Balance and harmony, leading lines and creating depth. Using negative space.
Lens choice. From the wide-angle vista to shooting landscape abstracts with a telephoto lens.
Capturing mood.
Shooting multiple image panoramas
Controlling light in scenes with a wide dynamic range using graduated filters and/or multiple exposures
Photographing snow
Shooting in the blue hour and overcast weather
PROCESSING
Deciding which direction to take post processing according to the mood of an image
Using Lightroom to apply contrast locally
“Shaping” the light using contrast tools in Photoshop and Lightroom
Different techniques for blending multiple exposures of the same image
Stitching multiple panoramas together
Finishing touches for processing to give images dramatic punch
Sharpening images
THE GUIDES
ANDY MUMFORD - CREATIVE GUIDE
Andy is a Lisbon based professional landscape and travel photographer. Andy grew up in the UK loving nature and travel and took up landscape photography over a decade ago. Since then he has travelled extensively photographing all over the world and his photography and articles have featured in publications and books worldwide. He is a passionate photographer teacher and has been leading both group and one-to-one workshops for five years.
He is a Fuji X Photographer and a brand ambassador for Fujifilm in Portugal, although he also has extensive experience with Nikon and Canon cameras
JONAS PAURELL - CREATIVE GUIDE
Jonas is the founder of Terra Photography Expeditions. He has been a photographer for well over 20 years. He is a certified International Mountain Leader (UIMLA) that has spent a lifetime exploring the world's wild areas. Jonas will be leading the expedition.
Jonas loves working with developing photographers to strengthen their technical foundation and support them to unleach their inner creativity. Jonas achieves this through engaging lectures, educative assignments and hands-on teaching in the field.
READ TESTIMONIALS FROM MY WORKSHOPS
REGISTRATION
The workshops is run through Terra Photography, my partner Jonas Paurell’s workshop company . You just need to complete the booking form on my his site by clicking the button below. Jonas or his wife Veronica will then get back you with details on how to pay the deposit.
Terra Photography’s terms and conditions can also be viewed by clicking on the lower button, and if you have any questions at all you can contact me via email here