2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Steller’s Eagles On Ice

Apr 01 | Evan | No Comments |

Along with Chris Weston, I escorted a small group of wildlife photographers in Japan in search of Japan’s Winter Wildlife. View the 2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan Trip Report to see photos of Japanese Snow Monkeys, Red Crowned Crane, Swan, Steller’s Sea Eagles and whatever else we could find!  This is the third of 3 posts about Steller’s Sea Eagles, next are the Whooper Swans in Kawayu onsen!

Compared to last year, the drift ice that usually comes into Rausu was nonexistent!  Apparently the captain told me that there had been very little drift ice this year due to direction of the wind and other conditions.  At least we found one spot close to the shore where the water was calm enough that it had a thin layer of ice above the sea for the Steller’s Sea Eagles to land on. 

For me, this worked out great and I felt I could see more personality from the eagles for some reason.  Perhaps it was just because the eagles actually stayed in place for a few seconds rather than flying in and flying off!  Also the reflection on the ice was quite nice.

  

2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Steller’s Eagles Catching Fish

Mar 29 | Evan | No Comments |

Along with Chris Weston, I escorted a small group of wildlife photographers in Japan in search of Japan’s Winter Wildlife. View the 2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan Trip Report to see photos of Japanese Snow Monkeys, Red Crowned Crane, Swan, Steller’s Sea Eagles and whatever else we could find!  This is the second of 3 posts about Steller’s Sea Eagles, one more about the eagles in Japan and then off to the Whooper Swans!

I mentioned in my previous post about the eagles how I love to watch them fly.  Their attack and capture is quite impressive as well! The Steller’s Sea Eagles approach is fast and efficient.  Even though I knew and could anticipate what they were going to do to some extent, photographing the eagles was not easy due to their speed and agility. Luckily we had enough boat rides and time with the eagles in Rausu for me to come away with a few images I was happy with!

2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Steller’s Eagles Flying

Feb 26 | Evan | No Comments |

After a wonderful (but freezing) time in the 2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan, I planned another tour along with Chris Weston Photography.  While the places were mainly the same as last year, we changed the order a little to start with Steller’s Sea Eagles.  Chris is a fantastic wildlife photographer and I was really excited to partner with him again for another trip.  He actually just launched an online master class, I’d recommend taking a look as he is a great teacher and I always learn something from him even if I’m with him for just a few minutes.

Back to our 2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan tour though!  The previous year we ended with the Steller’s Sea Eagles but this year we were starting with them.  I love the eagles and the way they fly, sharply turn and perform acrobatics in the air.

In addition to the eagles, there were plenty of seagulls which I also find beautiful in their own way.  Not as dynamic as the eagles in Japan, but I find something about them quite calming and photogenic. Along with Chris Weston, I escorted a small group of wildlife photographers in Japan in search of Japan’s Winter Wildlife. View the 2018 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan Trip Report to see photos of Japanese Snow Monkeys, Red Crowned Crane, Swan, Steller’s Sea Eagles and whatever else we could find!  This is the first post of a few for the Steller’s Sea Eagles, see more in the gallery below!

 

2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan | Short Video With Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II

Mar 23 | Evan | No Comments |

I’ve been a Nikon guy since my first photography class in 1998.  First was film but quickly switched over to digital and never looked back but now it’s time to look forward.  Mirrorless cameras have been around for a while but the technology is now reaching a point that I believe is similar to when digital was starting to seriously challenge film.  In December Olympus released their flagship mirrorless micro 4/3 camera, the OM-D E1 Mark II and I was eager to get my hands on one.  The main attractions to me were the smaller size (less weight makes a huge different for my physical condition while traveling), amazing image stabilization (I can hand hold what is essentially a 840mm lens and get great results with photo or video), and other features like live composition and pro capture.  I might do a review OM-D E1 Mark II after my next tour of Japan in cherry blossom season but the short answer is that so far so good!  Partly because of the image stabilization I wanted to do a little test video.  It’s been a while since I’ve done any kind of video really, but I was quite happy with the results in the limited testing I did with it.  Of course I probably only had about 5 minutes of raw footage to make this 2 minute clip out of, which really isn’t anywhere close to having enough for amazing footage, but as a short test, I’m pleased!  Though it could have been user error, I do wish that autofocus during video was a little snappier!

In collaboration with Magic Is Photo Safaris, I escorted a small group of wildlife photographers for a Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan in search of Japanese Snow Monkeys, Red Crowned Crane, Swan, Steller’s Sea Eagles and whatever else we could find!  To see more photos from our photo safari in Japan, view the 2017 Winter Wildlife Tour of Japan Trip Report.