2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Maiko Portrait Session in Kyoto

May 29 | Evan | No Comments |

If you have stopped by my blog before, you may have noticed my group tours to Japan have participated in a few portrait sessions with real maiko as the subject of our portrait session in Kyoto. It’s rare for visitors or really Japanese as well, to meet a real maiko or geiko (geiko is what geisha in Kyoto are called), so it’s a special experience just meeting a maiko and even more specials to be allowed to take portraits of a maiko.

Photo created by and courtesy of Patricia Pomerleau

Photo courtesy of and created by Patricia Pomerleau

Photo courtesy of and created by Kel Blake Photography

In general, the weather for the 2016 Cherry Blossom trip had been great, with only 2 days with really bad and rainy weather. One of our rainy days in Kyoto happened to be on the day we had a portrait session scheduled with a maiko. Cloudy would’ve been perfect weather to provide soft light for our portrait session in Kyoto, but rainy was almost as nice as we had a location that would keep the maiko covered and protected from the weather, but still could create some nice portraits with mostly natural light.

Photo courtesy of and created by Barna Photo

Photo courtesy of and created by Patricia Pomerleau

As it often is, the portrait session was one of the highlights of our group photo tour of Japan! Below is a gallery of a few more of Patricia’s photos, my photos and also a few by Mami Yasui including some of the behind the scenes and our interactions with our lovely maiko!

: Photo courtesy of and created by Patricia Pomerleau

: Photo courtesy of and created by Patricia Pomerleau

: Photo courtesy of and created by Patricia Pomerleau

: Photo courtesy of and created by Mami Yasui

: Photo courtesy of and created by Mami Yasui

: Photo courtesy of and created by Mami Yasui

: Photo courtesy of and created by Mami Yasui

: Photo courtesy of and created by Mami Yasui

With Tokyo, Hiroshima, Miyajima and Himeji Castle already visited, next up for the 2016 cherry blossom tour was Kyoto, my favorite city in Japan! After Kyoto we would continue our tour of Japan to photography Mt. Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes, still chasing and photographing the cherry blossoms around Japan! Interested in joining the 2017 cherry blossom tour? Please contact me today to start your trip to Japan during cherry blossom season or any other time you’d like!

2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Portrait Session in Kyoto and Tokyo

May 28 | Evan | No Comments |

Photo created by and courtesy of Kel Blake Photography

While in the USA, my main business is small boutique portrait photography studio, so while on these photo tours of Japan, I always enjoy working in a portrait session or two if the other photographers are interested. For the 2016 Cherry Blossom Tour of Japan, we not only had a portrait session with a real maiko like in previous trips to Japan, but also had a few opportunities to take portraits while visiting both Kyoto and Tokyo.

In Kyoto, two members of our group decided they wanted to explore Kyoto wearing traditional Japanese clothes. After arranging for them to each rent a kimono, we went off into Kyoto for a portrait session. Kyoto is literally a picture perfect place for portraits, especially during cherry blossom season in Japan.

Once we returned back to Tokyo we also had a portrait session in Tokyo with a model in and around the Yoyogi Park area. It was a lot of fun taking portraits both in Yoyogi Park and also with Omotesando as the backdrop for some city portraiture in Tokyo.

2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Arashiyama and Kenninji

May 27 | Evan | No Comments |

Even when visiting the same cities in Japan, every photography tour of Japan has some locations that I’m returning to and some locations that are new. When visiting Kyoto, Fushimi Inari is always one that photographers want to visit along with the bamboo forest in Arashiyama. One location in Kyoto that isn’t always on my list of places it visit is Kenninji in Gion.

Kenninji and Arashiyama are not close to each other, Kenninji is in Gion and Arashiyama is Western Kyoto, but I’m including them both in this post just go along with the some places I return to and others are visited depending on what mother nature in Japan gives us!

Kenninji a lovely temple and especially a nice place to visit if it’s raining like it was one of our days touring Kyoto. Kenninji has covered walkways around the edges so you can still appreciate the gardens but also allows photography inside most areas of the Temple.

2016 Cherry Blossom Photography Tour of Japan | Fushimi Inari Taisha

May 25 | Evan | No Comments |

Fushimi Inari Shrine in south eastern Kyoto is always a popular place to visit for photography tours of Kyoto or just as a normal tourist visiting Japan. Like the bamboo forest in Arashiyama though, if you don’t go early in the morning, good luck with getting photos without lot’s and lot’s of fellow tourists in the photos!

There are not too many places open early in Kyoto before sunrise, but Fushimi Inari Shrine never closes. Photography wise, I’d recommend visiting Fushimi Inari as close to sunrise as possible. If you can visit Fushimi Inari before sunrise, the small lanterns in the gates should be on like the first of the two photos below.