Mount Fuji
Japan Photo Journal #4 | Travel Photographer
Fukushima Condensation
Kyoto Policeman
Fukushima Super Deluxe
Fukushima Design Space
Yamagata Sea Wall
Narita Marigolds
Hakone Ropeway
Temple Facade
Yokohama Bay
Rikuzentakata Sea Wall Grass
Narita Ushiku Daibtsu
Hokkaido Trees
Paper Cranes in Hiroshima
Tokyo Foliage
Yokohama Cityscape
Kyoto Station
Narita Flower
Kumamoto Castle
Izu Lines
Yokohama Nightscape
Nozawa Onsen Mountains
More Photo Journals from Japan
GEO Special | Tokyo Travel Photographer
For years, I have treasured GEO Special, a travel magazine that presents a contemporary look at a single location in each issue. Geo Special has a distinct style that doesn’t just describe a locale but also conveys ideas on how to best immerse oneself in a destination. As a traveler, the magazine’s superb research has helped me understand both the background and context of each chosen destination. Geo Special has pushed me to “discover more, experience more, and travel better.”
I was honored to see one of my Japan-based travel images land on the cover of a recent GEO Special magazine. The image, taken in Naha (Okinawa), is an outtake from an editorial photography commission focusing on the hospitality sector of Japan’s southernmost prefecture. For me, the cover page honor was compounded by the fact that this particular issue was GEO Special’s relaunch, a rebranded release dedicated specifically to my adopted home of Japan.
More Imagery From Japan
Niseko | Travel Photographer In Japan
Over a decade ago, my wife gifted me a ski retreat in Japan as a Christmas present. A couple of months after receiving the homemade voucher, a few friends and I flew to Sapporo to play in the big snow that Hokkaido is known for.
I distinctly remember arriving on Japan’s northern island just after dark. After a fast food stop, we began to meander towards Niseko. With the help of our headlights, I saw both forest and field under a constant barrage of tremendous, fluffy flakes. Traveling higher into the mountains, the snow progressively fell in larger and larger tufts, making it increasingly harder to see the road.
I had heard about Japow (Japan powder) for years. Though, as a skier who has been to a fair share of mountains, I wasn’t expecting the snow to trump anything I had seen in Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, or Breckenridge. But, driving towards the base of Niseko’s Grand Hirafu, I could tell that this snow was different. I was taken aback by just exactly how much accumulation there was. Street signs were barely visible. Roadside drifts were taller than buildings. Arriving in Niseko, I opened the van door and, quite literally, fell waist-deep into the famous powder.
Since that first visit, I have returned to Hokkaido several times to explore and ski. Yet, my most recent trip north from Tokyo to Niseko wasn’t to pounce in the powder but to capture it with my camera for The New York Times. The travel photography assignment had been in the works for nearly a year and, with Japan’s ski season underway, I was glad to finally get to work on the piece.
I quickly learned that skiing on holiday and skiing for work are two vastly different experiences. Since I was concentrating on creating images, I only purchased a half-day lift pass to Niseko’s Annupuri area. I knew that I would need the rest of my assignment timeline to photograph other Niseko offerings (i.e. food, libations, shopping, etc.).
In the end, I only took two serpentine descents. One run took me from the peak of Annupuri to the base of Grand Hirafu. The second crisscrossed the first, traversing the peak of Grand Hirafu towards the base of Annupuri. During my four hours on the slopes, I made nearly six hundred images of the terrain that makes Niseko one of the most beautiful places in the world to ski in deep, deep snow.
Take a look at 36 Hours in Niseko and enjoy some assignment outtakes below.
I was happy to see one of my images from the assignment on the front page of the NYT Travel Section . Years from now, the honor will serve as a souvenir from my time as a photographer in Japan.
More Travel Photography
Postcard | Dallol Salt Flats, Ethiopia
Being awestruck usually coincides with a place. I think of the desolate stretch of the Thar Desert leading from India into Pakistan. I think about the peak of Mt. Everest breaking through the cloud sea as if it was an iceberg frozen stoically in the distance. I think about Lake Tahoe’s basin and the turquoise waters of the inland, alpine sea. I think about the calm Pacific, rising and falling along the shores of Japan’s Taketomi Island. I can now add the salt flats of Dallol to the list of places that truly stir me.
The Afar region of northeast Ethiopia is as inhospitable as I can imagine. Dust storms. Acid pools. Extreme heat. It’s no wonder that the life expectancy for those who live here is a mere 45 years. Despite the conditions that define the region, I remain in awe of the vast expanse.
Momentarily, I thought about how to photograph the great expanse to show the magnitude of emptiness found there. I realized, though, that any attempt would be insufficient. The landscape is the epitome of negative space, where emptiness itself is the awe-inspiring subject.
Wish You Were Here,
…
