First time wildlife photographers who lack experience in birding and wildlife photography may misunderstand how challenging it is to spot, and capture the perfect wildlife image.  You could be on Hokkaido photo tours for 10+ years and never get a shot like the ones I’m sharing with this newsletter.  Some run of the mill photo workshop agencies declare that the Steller’s Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) and White-tailed eagles are essentially everywhere in Hokkaido and easy to photograph, and that all the locations where the eagles are can be easily reached by a tour bus and on any of the roads criss-crossing Japan’s northern island.  As a Hokkaido local, I can tell you that all of this is false.  

Many times on my annual Hokkaido birding photo tours, the eagle or another raptor-like its cousin, the Steller’s sea eagle, won’t descend, and you then shift your focus to different locations on the pack ice trying to capture another photo opportunity.  For the first photo in this newsletter, I spotted the White-tailed eagle just as it had homed in on its prey, and I felt it would descend like a predatory lightning bolt from the sky plunging into a small opening in the ocean in pack ice to claim its prey.  It’s times like these that separate the experienced wildlife photographers from the photographers that are still learning their equipment and developing their skills.  So few photographers, only a handful I know, can get so up close and personal and have the knowhow to get the shot.  Many participants on  my annual Hokkaido photo tour, take comparable if not nearly identical photos to the ones attached to this newsletter, and that is why my workshops are usually sold out, two years in advance, Hokkaido 2023, and Hokkaido 2024 are sold out and, Hokkaido 2025, is half sold out already.