In addition to my Japan photo workshop tours, I spend several months each year in classrooms, mentoring and teaching photographers at all levels—from aspiring students to accomplished visual artists. My engagement spans numerous themes, including Architecture, Vintage, Creative photography, Flowers, Macro, Leading lines, lighting techniques, Editing, Colours, Street art, and Seasons. However, my main photographic passions are wildlife, landscape, and cultural festival photography.
Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, is one of my favourite destinations for wildlife and minimalist landscapes. Each year, I discover new gems of Hokkaido; this year, I tracked and re-found a fantastic spot where the Elusive Shima Enaga (Aegithalos caudatus japonicus) are abundant during warm winter sunny days; these birds in Japan are known as snow fairies and are a household name, they are uniquely all-white face and is a sub-species of the long-tailed bushtit. The Shima-Enaga occur primarily in Japan. This January, while leading a photography workshop, we spotted them twice and got some great shots as they leapt from tree to tree. These birds are small, jittery, and fast (12-16 cm in length, including their tail at 7-9 cm. Males and females are identical. You will most often hear them before you see them; they have a constant, high-pitched call. Outside of the breeding season, they live in flocks of 10-20 birds, composed primarily of parents and offspring that make up the majority of the flock; they tend to stick together. Wondering birds from other flocks sometimes join, and together with other adult birds, they help raise the brood. However, most birding encounters last about fifteen minutes as these birds fly from tree to tree in search of food; the Shima Enaga is insectivorous all year long. They mainly eat arthropods, predominantly, and prefer eggs, as well as astronomical giant moths and butterflies. However, they will occasionally eat vegetable matter, and one thing they cannot resist is sweet tree sap, especially free-flowing, on warm, sunny, early Spring days.