Hokkaido Landscape & Wildlife with Daniel Kordan

Inclusions

• All transfers ( including drivers’ services, gasoline fees etc)
• Lodging in hotels – twin rooms, shared with another participant (750 USD supplement for single room)
• Instructions by professional English-speaking guides

Exclusions

• Airfare to and from Hokkaido
• Meals
• Visas (if applicable)
• Single supplement (750 USD)

 Day 1

Arrival to Kushiro airport on recommended flight
(will be sent to the group). You can arrive via Osaka or other cities, but arrival time to Kushiro airport should be no later than 13:00. Upon arrival to Kushiro your guides and drivers will meet you and transfer to our hotel at Tsurui area. Discuss upcoming adventure with your tour leaders at delicious Japanese dinner and soak in traditional and world famous Hokkaido onsen bath.

 Day 2

These 2 days we devote for bird photography. We catch in our compositions the graceful dance of cranes in different locations around Tsurui. Images your will take are like traditional Japanese ink paintings! We will have a local photographer with us – animal specialist and good spotter who will bring us to his favorite locations to photograph Sika deer and Hokkaido foxes, cranes, eagles and owls.

 Day 3

We drive to Rausu. From here you can see Kuril islands already! Our main goal in Rausu will be to photograph Steller sea eagle. We take a sea excursion with local bird specialists. Get ready your telephoto lenses to catch magnificent eagle in action! For sunset we plan to visit lake Furen

 Day 4

At sunrise we photograph wildlife around lake Furen. We check out from our hotel at lake Furen and move
towards Teshikaga. Today we switch from wildlife to landscape photography. For sunset we visit Mashu lake. Lake Mashū is a beautiful crater lake formed in the vast caldera. It is located in Akan National Park on the island of Hokkaidō, Japan. The lake has been called the clearest lake in the world. Around lake
Mashu we will find lots of minimalistic scenes of single trees. Besides that you can photograph graceful whooper swans at sunset with golden light behind. They spend winter here at hot springs bathing in warm waters of Kusshiro lake.

 Day 5

We photograph lake Kussharo from the best viewpoint – Bihoro pass. After sunrise we have breakfast, check out from our hotel and drive to Biei with several stops on the way. This day we
devote to minimal style of photography – single trees in the deep powder of Hokkaido snow hills.

Arriving to Biei in the evening. Settle down in our hotel in Biei for next 3 nights

 Day 6

These are the days we spent most of the time with classical minimal style Hokkaid o compositions. We visiticonic “Christmas tree”, Blue pond and several other less known spots. Images of Japanese single trees in the snow always remind me of an oriental writing, and they are perfect when printed and framed on the wall.

 Day 7

We continue exploring Hokkaido by driving further south from Biei towards Sapporo. At sunset we photograph torii gates on top of the rock in the water. Get ready your ND filters to make long exposures, timeless images.

What to bring

Gear:

– DSLR camera with tripod and remote shutter release, its better to use spikes for your tripod

– A wide angle lens. For example, Nikkon 14-24 or Canon 17-40. Best lens for use in wide-angle scenes or architecture photography

– A middle-zoom lens such as a 24-70 mm

– A telephoto zoom lens, such as a 70-200 mm

Wear:

– Waterproof and windproof jacket (average is -5 C for March)

– Waterproof pants

– Warm down-jacket and thermal pants

– Casual clothes for dinners and lunches and photography workshops

– Knee protection (skateboard equipment, for example)