A picture paints a thousand words

Or so the record goes but its true that one picture can conveys so much whether its emotion,a lifestyle or the struggle for life, A year after being in Japan and i still haven't processed all the images, Yesterday i did some more of the eagle shots and a couple came to mind and took me back to the days we were there, The small fishing village where we stayed was called Ruasu which is pronounced Rowsh, A typical fishing village in the fact that its not very scenic, Drab is the word that comes to mind, You wouldn't go there unless you had to type of place, The weather was being unkind to us, When we were on the ice breaking boats it was cold and wet with some snow thrown in, The sea was frozen solid all the time we were on the boat but being an ice flow it would drift, So early morning when we are on the boat it was 3-4 feet thick and even the boat could not get through and in the afternoon it could be 3 miles out and then be back the next morning, How anything survives there is beyond me and yet there is plenty of wildlife, Deer, Fox, Eagles and ducks were fairly plentiful, If would walked out along the harbor wall there would always be a minimum of 30 white tailed and steller's eagles
A couple of images that i thought summed the place up were these

A young white tailed eagle sits on top of the ice flow, High points where the ice had crashed into each other were favorite perches, You could see the eagles miles out sitting on these, Nothing else around and no hope of a meal except from the boats with photographers on


That was the only day we had there where the boat could get out about 1/2 mile from the harbour due to the ice, One day we didnt make it out of the harbour and our trip was all of 600 meters and then a dead stop, Its the first time that i have seen a completely frozen sea, We had harbour walls all around so photographically it wasnt great but as i said there were a lot of eagles in and around the harbour and after a few fish were thrown over board there were well over 50 so a tremendous sight

Here is one of the few decent images from that morning, A mature white tailed eagle glided past the boat on the look out for a freeby, A privilege to be so close to some of natures most magnificent birds


The main reason for me to go back to Hokkaido is to go back to Rausu,It was the one place that we really struggled to get the eagle shots that we wanted, I know Pete is back in Hokkaido now so fingers crossed for you my friend

Dave

Japan Travelogue-Day 10+11

Things are still going GREAT, Day 10 and we go down to a cold dock in Rausu to see if the sea is still frozen, It looks like it is and when we speak to a captain its confirmed that once again the boats will only be going as far as the harbour, We take a gamble and decide to not spend the money and to shoot from the harbour wall, So we were a little surprised when the boats went past us and out to sea, They only went a few hundred meters but it would have made all the difference, I still managed some good eagle shots over the 2 hours we were there but who knows what we would have managed on the boat, The weather was cold but clear, We had had very strong winds during the night and heavy snow,Our car was in a drift and we ended up digging it out,We were surprised to see that the sea ice was nearly gone by the afternoon, the wind had moved it down the coast and out to sea-probably about 6 miles out to sea, We thought by the next day it would be by the neighbouring island about 10 miles away,  We noticed some ducks in the harbour and spent some time shooting them, We managed some scaup and goldeneye along with a young harlequin duck-nice, The light was good and in the right direction and the colours on the goldeneyes head was bright green rather than the black that you see when the sun is in, We drove along the coast in the afternoon and found some Sika deer on the hillsides, They posed nicely for us before we moved on, On the way back we decided to check out a place where Blakistons fish owls are seen, they are the biggest owl in the world, We sat by a small stream and waited into the dark hours, We were lucky and it flew in as the temperatures dropped, We managed some shots before it flew off, We waited for 2 hours until it returned and again we fired away, Its a rare bird in Japan and on the endangered list, Its was a fantastic sight as it flew in-huge to say the least and one of the highlights of the trip.
After downloading and getting ready for the next day it was nearly midnight, We had the alarm set for 4am,Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the harbour to see that the pack ice was back, It was snowing again but the captain said that we could get out into the sea so we set off, The eagles were plentiful but played hard to get, At the end though we both had some very nice images in the bag, We left Rausu and headed back towards Kurisho and back where we had started, We both wanted some more white tailed Eagles and knew just the place for them, We popped down to see the eagles and in 10 minutes i had about 50 images in the bag, We have 2 more days until we head back to Tokyo

Dave

Japan Travelogue-Day 5

Today was another early start-4am, We went back to Otowa bridge to see if the weather would give us some special conditions, Yesterday was cloudy and overcast with snow, You need bright but cold conditions to get the best from Otowa bridge, It was -15 and clear and when we got to the bridge the mist was rising from the river and with the cranes in the water in the distance it had a surreal feel to the scene, We spend a couple of hours shooting there before heading off to one of the Crane feeding sites, We grabbed a coffee and shot some cranes in flight before heading over to the International crane centre, We knew there was feeding at 2pm and when we arrived we were surprised to see the whole viewing area already covered with photographers, We found ourselves some place to shoot and at 2pm a guy came out and threw some fish on the snow, the place went mad and within seconds both White Tailed Eagle and Black Kites filled the air, it was a free for all for 15 minutes until the feeding frenzy was over, i was caught out and didnt have my camera settings sorted when it began and accidentally shot on AV-Big mistake and a tonne of images hit the bin, I am happy with some so not all was lost, WE WILL RETURN to this very special place, As well as the cranes,Eagles and Kites we also had a fox visit and we viewed some foxes mating near the main road
Tomorrow we move off and up to Lake Kussharo for swans and ducks, Lets hope our luck stays good-so far its been fantastic

Dave

Japan Travelogue-Days 3+4

Yesterday Pete and myself left Tokyo and headed for Hokkaido, At the airport we were informed that due to snowy conditions we may not land where we wanted-i.e Kushiro but may be diverted to another airport 3 hours drive away or even worse we may end up coming back, Luckily we managed to land safely in Kushiro, Grab the car and head for our accommodation, By the time we arrived it was too late to go out so a couple of beers and hit the sack as we would be up at 4 am the next day,
Today we packed the car and cleaned the snow off of the windscreen and headed for a well know bridge where the Japanese Cranes roost, On the way we viewed some fox near the roadside that looked really beautiful in their winter coats, We did see a few cranes in fields and small streams and after an age finding the bridge we arrived and found a place to put our tripods in between a hoard of Japanese photographers, Conditions were nor great light wise but it was good to see them in a natural environment, We had a fly by from a White tailed eagle, We also saw a whopper swan and a few nice duck species, After we left the bridge site we went to one of the 3 main areas where seed is scattered in fields for the cranes to feed on, The cranes were down to the last 20 birds until the Japanese stepped in and started a conservation programme, Today there are over 600 of the tall beautiful birds, A real pleasure to watch as they fly in and dance for their partners, The young ones were having a ball tossing leaves and snow in the air,We had steady snow most of the day and the conditions were perfect-overcast but bright, I ended the day with around 1000 images after getting rid of the rubbish, Back tomorrow for more cranes although we will also go to one of the other feeding sites were there is a good chance of fox,deer and white tailed eagles as well as the cranes

The above images taken with the Nikon D7000 which was faultless all day, Taking nearly 24 gigs of images in very cold conditions

Dave

Lets Talk-Nothing new

Its been a week since the camera gear saw light of day, I have been busy getting new stuff ready for agency submission and have some 'selects' to finish off and send back, Its very time consuming and a real pain in the butt for any photographer but if its not done then the pennies stop coming through the door, Not only that but its very easy to fall behind and get a huge backlog especially after a couple of major trips, I hope to catch up this week and get everything sent off and then hope to have a few days on the New Jersey coast next week before the final push to Japan, I mentioned last time about being scammed over a jacket, The tracking shows its left Shanghai but that's all, I don't know if i will receive it or i will get a call from customs, Either way it will go back and that will be that, I also mentioned that i had ordered some gear made by a British manufacturer called Snugpak, The jacket came but not the salopettes which is what i really wanted, After some too and froing it seems that the salopettes are on back order and wont be available until after i leave,I decided to also send the jacket back and start again, To be honest the jacket was not a patch on my Mountain Hardware jacket in either quality or warmth, I have now ordered what i should have done in the first place-Northface, If they can get people to the summit of Everest then Japan should be a walk in the park,
One other reason for a trip to New Jersey is to give the D7000 a good work out for birds in flight, I have had some nice images from the camera but really want to spend a few days to finally make up my mind if it is a good replacement for my old D300 which has now gone, I dont know why i get a nagging feeling but its there, I think maybe the reason is that out of the camera RAW images are very soft compared to the D3s and D300 although after sharpening they look good,
Camera gear wise things are pretty slow, The rumour mill carries on with hopes of a D800 in the next few months also Sony have announced a 24MP cropped sensor and also put claims out that they will change the face of Dslr photography, A bold statement indeed, They certainly have the capital and the resources to do it, I just hope that they concentrate on bring out a good range of lenses first as that seems to be their biggest drawback,
I guess we should be talking about our Photographic new year resolutions and i think for the first time i have not really made any, I will be concentrating on my foxes, I really need to find some new land so maybe that will be it, I have work left on my home studio which i intend to do as soon as i am back from Japan as i have a couple of clients that want a portrait session and thousands of images that still wait to be processed for new and existing agencies-lots to do and the time is flying,
Have any of you set yourselves a target for this year? if so let us know and if you need any help on reaching those tagets just ask and we will see if we can come up with some answers

Dave

Dave

Travel

I didn't take my first flight until i was 25 but since then i have travelled quite extensively covering 19 different countries, That's countries that i have stayed in rather than just touch downs, Next month i will be rounding that number off to 20 as i will be visiting Japan, I will be teaming up with my good friend Pete (Pierre le suisse on forums) and we will be taking in the Japanese Cranes,Snow Monkeys, White and Stellas Eagles as well as swans,deer and fox, It will be a trip of a lifetime and an adventure as we are doing it all ourselves and not through a tour/workshop,
The internet is the best place to start your search for information, We have been discussing this trip for about a year, There are a lot of workshops there now and itineraries can be had to give you an idea of where and when, My first purchase when doing my own travel is a lonely planet, I have used these for the last 11 years or so and they tell you everything from where to stay and how much from budget to expensive, Where to eat and cultural advise which is always good to know, It covers wildlife and festivals and information is normally accurate, One reason i like to do my own thing apart from saving some money is that if the wildlife is performing for you then you can stay longer whereas if you are  a workshop with a fixed itinerary then you have to go, Blogging friend and excellent photographer Mike Lane has done the trip and lead workshops there and his website is a wealth of information giving exact detail of where he stayed,how much it cost and even the phone numbers, One of the main places we are visiting is the island of Hokkaido, There is a very good possibility that the weather could be as low as -35 with a lot of snow, The good bit is that it will be incredibly scenic but the minus points are that at that temperature you need to take precautions and dress appropriately or you could get frost bite or even die, Good quality clothing and dressing in layers are the order of the day and i have been busy buying extreme weather clothing which must be included when you budget for these type of trips, Still lots to do before i fly out on the 8th Feb and i will keep you informed of what's what as we get closer to the date-exciting times

Dave