JAPAN PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS
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SEEING JAPAN : Winter 2025
Hokkaido Intensive
A CREATIVE IMAGE-MAKING PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR
Robert van Koesveld and Daisuke Kondo
January 24 – February 05 / Only 1 spot left
Welcome
Photographers Robert van Koesveld and Daisuke Kondo invite you join them for a journey through the unique Winter landscapes of Hokkaido in northern Japan.
With a small photography tour size, you will be inspired to create images that reflect the poetic beauty of farmlands, mountains and hills under snow.
Moving to the coast we will marvel at the sea ice and sculptural shore protection.
Visiting inland lakes, we look for elegant environmental images of the famous red-crowned Japanese cranes and whooper swans.
Your creativity will be well supported by coaching, teaching and conversation.
Highlights
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An inspiring variety of winter landscapes – forests, farmlands, windbreaks, gorges, waterfalls, mountains, seashore, lakes and those poetic lone trees in the snow.
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Creative focus for your images drawing on your own style. Find your response to this white world and make images that express your vision.
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Spend time with whooper swans and Japanese cranes and make portraits or landscapes of these elegant creatures in their environment.
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Time to review your images as you go, consider your purposes and methods, all with access to two photography coaches, whose priority is your creativity.
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Due to carefully researched routes and itineraries, your time in the field is maximised.
Space For Creativity & Learning
We can offer support and guidance to take your image-making further and deeper.
With just 4-6 participants and two photography coaches it also means we can travel in one van and be flexible in response to interesting options that present themselves.
We are excited about offering creative opportunities to you in a place we both love.
Calm and Focused Travel
We have designed this itinerary so that we travel only short distances between our hotels. This means more or longer stops are possible, every day. Also, we stay at each hotel at least two days and so, less packing and unpacking. Good photos come from taking time and thinking about your vision. We will build in opportunities to review your images as well as teaching that is designed around the daily locations and the participants’ interests.
‘Our Priority is Your Creativity’
Leaders & Guides
Robert van Koesveld
Robert is a full-time photographer whose work is primarily involved with world cultures. He has been interested in cultural travel all his life. Since retiring early from his psychotherapy practice, he has concentrated on photography and travels extensively each year. Together with his wife, Libby Lloyd, he published a photo book about Bhutan (‘Bhutan Heartland: Travels in the Land of the Thunder Dragon’, Fremantle Press, 2010). His book ‘Geiko and Maiko of Kyoto’ was published in 2016 and, in advance form, won the Australian Professional Photography Awards category of best Photo Book for 2015. Robert is interested in capturing ‘spirit of place’ and ‘peoples’ presence’ in a cultural context. He has led photo tours to Bhutan, India, China and Japan. To see more of Robert’s photography click HERE>>
Daisuke Kondo
Daisuke (Dai) has always been passionate about exploring the world’s environments and cultures, even while growing up in Tokyo. His travels began in Australia and led to him guiding outdoor adventures in Japan, New Zealand and Malaysia. As well as developing his photography skills, Dai trained as an Emergency Medical Technician in North America. This useful combination of interests, knowledge and skills enabled him to conduct photography tours and teach First Aid in his travels. His extensive travels in his native Japan led to him establishing Spark Photography, specialising in leading photography tours and outdoor adventures throughout his homeland. As well as working closely with a renowned National Geographic photographer, Dai has worked with Robert van Koesveld on his previous photo tours and scouting trips. Dai lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
To see more of Dai’s photography click HERE>>
Itinerary
This photography tour begins in Sapporo and ends in Abashiri. We travel from west to east, with no backtracking.
Beyond Sapporo our overnight stops are always for two or three nights, and we drive short distances between hotels.
Day 1: January 24 Sapporo
We begin with an afternoon briefing, followed by a shared meal. Our hotel is easily accessed by train from New Chitose airport.
Day 2: January 25 Sapporo to Biei
Driving to Biei we stop in a couple of our favourite locations. In the afternoon we begin exploring landscape locations under deep snow.
Day 3-4: January 26,27 Biei
During our three days in Biei we visit some well-known trees and lesser-known places. There are many opportunities to build images in different light. Each snowfall resets the landscape, so locations are always changing. We also look for birch forest, treelines, gently shaded hills and the blue waterfall.
Day 5: January 28 Biei to Obihiro
Winter transforms the farmland of Furuno with its vineyards and other crops. We look for shapes and patterns in the landscape with the Daisetsuzan Mountain Range as background. The Sorachi River also provides opportunities.
Day 6: January 29 Obihiro
Windbreaks and bare fields invite both sun and shadow compositions. Hokkaido has a long history of working draft horses, and we will visit these huge female horses and capture images of them running in the field.
Day 7: February 30 Obihiro to Kushiro
The Pacific Ocean coastline brings new opportunities to construct images using the tetrapod shore defences as well as the fishermen’s port with their boats all hauled in for winter.
Day 8: January 31 Kushiro
The famous red-crowned cranes are a special delight, and we will look for cranes in a range of locations and background landscapes.
Day 9: February 1 Kushiro to Lake Kussharo
Hilly farmland and wiggling fence lines. Deep snow forming shapes in the valleys. Fascinating volcanic scenery of Akan-Mashu National Park.
Day 10: February 2 Lake Kussharo
We visit the whooper swans in the misty early morning. Our small van means we can access quiet locations where the swans gather around Lake Kussharo. The lakes and forests of Akan-Mashu National Park, including the steaming vents of Iozan.
Day 11: February 3 Lake Kussharo to Abashiri
Deciduous and evergreen forests on snowy hillsides invite images of shape and texture. Spectacular views from Bihoro Pass of Lake Kussharo, Japan’s biggest caldera lake.
Day 12: February 4 Abashiri
We explore the drift Ice on the coastline of Okhotsuku and take a cruise on an ice breaker.
Day 13: February 5
Tour ends with breakfast and airport transfers.
Image-Making
Robert considers a camera as just a tool for engaging with our world and for making images. The best images are made not ‘taken’. We aim to photograph what we feel, not just things or places. By engaging with the people and places we meet, we deepen our experience of them and their cultural and physical environment. Then we can begin to identify ‘what this photograph is about’ and find ways to make an image that reflects our deeper experience, and also really moves and interests the viewer. Sometimes one image tells your story, other times it needs a sequence or series of images.
Teaching and Coaching
Developing as a photographer is not just a product of time. Experience needs reflection to be genuinely useful developmentally. Technical skills are valuable at times, but simply acquiring a bunch of techniques, or a bunch of cameras, won’t really take you forward. While we can talk about technical matters if appropriate for you, we are most interested in deepening your conceptual process so that you come away with images that matter to you. If you are open to sharing your images and visual process, we can support your development.
Robert will offer some group teaching tailored to the actual participants, and with a small group we will be able to converse and coach individually along the way. Still, we won’t be intruding, and if you just want to work on your own, we will leave you to it. We (Robert and Daisuke) will photograph alongside you at times and are always happy to share our process of conceptualising images. Your images are our absolute priority. There will be opportunities for image review as well as teaching and coaching. We are always open to chatting about image-making and Japanese culture.
Physical Fitness
A basic level of walking fitness is essential, but this tour is not a hiking tour or a trekking tour, so nothing extreme will be required of you. We will likely encounter fresh snow and sometimes ice; we provide light metal shoe attachments for the icy conditions. The hardest physical test will be to occasionally climb some stairs. Just let us know if you have any health issues or doubts, and we will see how we can work around them.
Transport
We will travel in a spacious van throughout our journey which allows us to set our timing according to the light and the opportunities. Keeping the group small means just one vehicle and gives us freedom to stop for opportunities and take the backroads where they are most interesting.
Accommodation
We have an interesting mixture of hotels and onsens planned. Because Japanese hotels often do not open bookings until around 6 months before the date, we will send a final list at that time. Some of the hotels are western style while others are more traditional with tatami rooms and futons put out on the night; most westerners add an extra futon for comfort in traditional rooms. Western-style rooms can be quite small in Japan.
Some traditional Japanese onsen-style hotels have access to a hot bath which Japanese really love; you may too.
Food
Dinners in Japan are a real feature and we will have quite a few banquet-style Japanese meals, often in our hotels. Other times we will visit a range of local and speciality restaurants. Menus will include local delicacies and dishes throughout our journey including: Ramen, Sukiyaki, Shabu-shabu, Okonomiyaki, Onigiri, traditional homemade Udon and Soba, and Sushi/Sashimi. Breakfasts are usually included in the hotel arrangements and are either very simple ‘western style’ or traditional Japanese.
We have found that when we are on the move, there is maximum flexibility, personal choice and efficiency if guests choose ready-to-go lunches from the ubiquitous Japanese convenience stores. As well as being a fun cultural experience, it means we don’t waste time ordering and eating there. It also allows us to sometimes eat lunch on location in the wild. Other lunches will be in local restaurants.
We will do our best to accommodate food preferences or restrictions. Please email before booking if you have specific concerns.
Health and Safety
In what we hope will be post-Covid times, we will nevertheless maintain appropriate infection precautions. We will clean inside the vehicle each day and avoid queues and crowds. Hand cleaning gel will of course be available. Please discuss any health concerns with us before signing up. Health matters are covered in more detail in the trip information you will receive after registration. Japan is a mask-oriented culture, so masks are likely to be a part of our wardrobe at times. Following best practice health protocols will be a requirement for guests and leaders.
Who should come?
Those with any level of experience as a photographer will enjoy this trip, as will artists and non-photographers who can, of course, enjoy making written or sketched images. We do spend lots of time in most locations, so you need to be open to that. In terms of gear, there are no special requirements, other than your ability to carry it; we recommend travelling reasonably light. Anything from a good phone camera through to a mirrorless dslr or a medium format camera is fine. If you are not a photographer, something like a sketch book or writing journal will be good too. We provide a detailed pre-departure document to help with gear and most other questions.
Curiosity and respect for the rich and complex culture that is your ultimate host is also important
Dates and Prices
Dates:
January 24 – February 05, 2025
Prices:
What is included:
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Ground transport during the tour by private passenger van
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All breakfasts, and dinners (excluding drinks)
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Hotel accommodation throughout the tour (12 nights)
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Entrance fees for all included locations
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Expert photography coaching and key cultural briefings
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Use of individual ‘YakTraks’ which attach to your boots to manage slippery surfaces, and access to snow-shoes
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Review, post-processing and image composition sessions during the tour
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One-on-one sessions to develop use of light and composition, story-telling and post-processing
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Specially developed notes and materials specific to your tour.
What is not included:
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International and domestic airfares and visas if required
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Lunches
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Personal expenses including laundry, snacks, drinks and extras you might choose to buy along the way
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Transfers between the start and finish hotels and airports, etc. (people often have independent plans)
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Travel Insurance for cancellation, health and travel (required as a condition of booking)
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Camera and other gear insurance
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Costs arising from unforeseen circumstances or factors beyond our control.
Reservation
Please download the booking form and terms and conditions below.
If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact us.
