John Cornicello presents - Once wasn't enough! - Blain Harasymiw vol ll July 22nd, 10 am Pacific Daily Savings Time (2 am July 23rd JST)
As a multi-themed visual artist, anyone who has worked with me or has joined one of my workshops knows I am non-stop 24-7. Some have even referred to me as the ‘Energizer Bunny’ or commented, “You have too much energy; can I have some of what you’re on?” Aside from the pun, I love my job, and I love to be on the go. Zen and the ‘Beginner’s Mindset’ allows me to refresh my perspective constantly, so I don’t have a need to shove my visual arts abilities in other people’s faces or to hear praise and reassurance from my peers, and sometimes I even feign ignorance or I assume not to hear them, refusing to feed their spiral of negativity. I’ll always be a beginner, but as contradictory as this sounds, I do enjoy mud throwing now and again, and in several themes of pro photography, I’m in the top 5% shooting for the top 1%. Only time will tell. I am still a beginner in my mind, so I am enthralled by a challenge. I have the dogma ideology discipline of the Hagakure, and I love the visual arts so much that I feel a deep and unabiding need to finish any project. My first conversation with John Cornicello was 2 hours and 14 minutes, and after a decade break from speaking on film, I have some catching up to do. It could take a few weeks of constant photo discussions for me to feel caught up. My office manager, staff writer, and I are working on an upcoming book with my name rather than a pseudonym for the first time. On July 22nd, at the same time, 10 am Pacific Daily Savings Time (2 am July 23rd JST), I’m going to discuss topics that I was not able to cover in the first discussion, such as Japan’s four seasons. Click here to join in the conversation
Winter
I am going to discuss various themes, one of them is my annual Hokkaido photo tour, including Hokkaido wildlife such as the Red-crowned cranes, Steller’s Sea Eagles, and the White-tailed Eagles and their winter feeding grounds on the pack ice of the coast of Rausu in the Shiretoko Wildlife Refuge national park, Hokkaido, Japan. I will include spectacular images of eagles clutching fish in their talons, in flight, and some eagles in strife. Also included will be the Ezo Red Fox, Shima Enaga, and others. Still, I can’t leave out the largest herd of Sika Deer on the planet as photographed by me, winter in Mt.Fuji, snow monkeys. Finally, the Kawazu sakura with its avian companions, the mejiro, also known as the warbling white-eye, and the Brown-eared bulbul that love to slurp and eat the sweet nectar of the cherry blossom bud flower.
Once we reach Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, and we are in tancho territory, I say to participants, "Look UP" there are the Red-Crowned Cranes, also known as snow ballerinas. Actually, it's my attempt at a joke, but it's no joke as the birds are plentiful in the regions I lead clients to photograph, and first-timers to the region are amazed at the size and wingspan of the huge Red-Crowned Cranes, which stand at 150 to158 cm (4ft to 5 ft) tall weighing 8 to 11 kg (17 to 25) pounds with a large wingspan measuring 200 to 260 cm (6.5 ft to 8.5 ft) and live more than 60 years, Their courtship dance is as graceful as ballerinas. They bow to one another, then raise their heads towards the sky and call in unison; the pair or the entire flock will leap into the air at the same time commencing in the courtship dance. Out on the pack ice, we spot and photograph the Steller’s Sea Eagles, huge and beautiful and one of the most fierce diurnal birds of prey on our planet natively, relics from a few ice ages. They feed out on the pack-ice in the rich fishing waters of Japan's north. The White-tailed eagle which is smaller and sub-regional endemic to Japan also feeds on pack ice next to the Steller's Sea Eagles; tensions are high when fishing and the white-tailed eagle hold there own against the much larger and legendary Steller's sea eagles. The area is also home to the largest herd of Sika deer on our planet.
Part of Hokkaido’s northwest is comprised of Akanko, Kushiroko, and Mashuko Lakes, which are among the clearest and cleanest on our planet, and lake Mashuko is the 2nd cleanest on our planet, the mountainous landscape is breathtaking, and is sacred land including burial grounds. The First Nations People of Japan, the Ainu are world-class artisans, including wood carving, painting, and storytelling, among other creative pursuits; I visit with them with clients, and we photograph their museum-quality arts and crafts. We then experience the Ikor theatre, the Ainu performance of spiritual, cultural awakening, during the evening’s lomante fire performance where we have press box seats, followed by fireworks by the lakeside.
Spring
During the spring is my annual Japan cherry blossom tour which is a cross-country adventure due to the fickle cherry blossoms and how they open, and like anyone of my Japan photo tours, Mt. Fuji is included along with snow monkeys, a few castles, shrines, and temples with some cultural and candid festival photography.
If international visitors associate one thing with a Japanese spring, its cherry blossoms and cherry blossoms photo tours carry an extra significance due to the fact that they are one of Japan’s cultural emblems. Over 20 years of experience pursuing the perfect cherry blossoms means I understand how to scout out the perfect cherry blossoms. I guarantee it. I take my participants on a cross-country cherry blossom expedition with a full-bloom guarantee. In contrast, many members of other cherry blossom tours don’t even have the chance to see one full-bloom sakura, and their tour leaders throw up their hands, saying they can’t predict when the blossoms will open, bloom, or fall away, the excuses are endless. But if you take a tour with this type of company and you actually see full-bloom sakura, you should then immediately go and buy a lottery ticket because you’ll never have a luckier day. These companies use apps and google as their primary sources of information. Good luck!
Photographing sakura also means birding and spotting the Mejiro, which I have nicknamed 'little ninja' because of their lighting fast speed and acrobatic abilities; they move quickly up and down cherry blossom tree branches, gulping down the nourishing sweet nectar of the cherry blossom flower just as they freshly bloom, they are as lighting fast as a kingfisher on the move. Timing and patience are everything to view and photograph the Japanese white-eye and cherry blossoms together. I know only a handful of birding photography leaders in Japan who can photograph them, the how, when, and where.
Fall
My photo expeditions and Japan autumn leaves photography tour have the most breathtaking scenery Japan has to offer. I am humbled every year as my clients and I journey as pilgrims on the time-honored route and embrace the ancient villages with their majestic landscapes, shrines, temples, and castles. On that tour, the journey begins in the Yatsugatake Chushin Kogen Quasi Nature reserve in the Japan Southern Alps. My participants and I use the ancient pilgrim route that legendary 'Samurai-Takeda Shingen' was known to use with its many mirrored ponds while viewing Japanese autumn maple leaves and Mt. Fuji in the backdrop a 130 km away.
No autumn in Japan, however, would be complete without a trip to Jigokudani Yaenkoen Monkey Park and seeing the Japanese Macaque. The Japanese Macaque is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. They have become known as the snow monkey because they are the most northern living non-human primates on Earth. At first, the hot spring bath up in the foothills were built for human use where the source of the hot springs water pours naturally from the ground and is fed to the famous hot springs village Yudanaka where visitors have gone to relax in the healing hot springs for hundreds of years. But soon after the construction of hot springs baths in the foothills, the monkeys soon claimed them as their domain. After five years of scouting, for this year and next, I have added Niigata to my autumn leaves tour, which includes rice terraces and way off the beaten path locations where few westerners have ever tread, and in some cases only once every decade.
Summer
Festivals are held during the entire Japanese summer, and Murakami is one of the most amazing off-the-beaten-path locations to enjoy. During July every year, the Murakami city is home to the Taisai Festival, where mikoshi or portable shrines are carried by townsfolk as part of the city-wide celebration in appreciation of the local shrine, which folklore dictates was relocated there nearly 400 years ago. Summer sights continue with Niigata’s outstanding floral beauty. During summer, the Hydrangea (Ajisai) spring into bloom across the prefecture, the soil, and its pH level dictating what color the blooming flowers will be. The range is a rich, nearly purple shade of blue all the way to white with just a tinge of pink as an accent. The flowers also bring birds feeding on the ground next to the plant and taking shade under the Ajisai, sometimes combining floral and birding photo ops, and this is nearly the entire prefecture as Niigata is blessed with abundant wildlife flowers and agriculture over most of the entire span of the prefecture.
No visit to Japan would be complete without a visit to Mt. Fuji; in my opinion, I talked about that in my first photo discussion, and for winter, so for summer, I am going to introduce the Aokigahara jukai, the forest that was created in 864. Basically, a forest was created in volcanic planting pots at the base of Mt. Fuji. Aokigahara is a fantastic, mystical forest that spans 24 square kilometers across the Northwest base of Mt. Fuji. I introduce others to it so they can have their own Japan photo adventures there as I did when I first arrived in Japan years ago.
I may change up the order of the discussion, starting with a Japanese ryokan that inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, or cities, art, people, or any of my various multi-themes photographic pursuits.