From the category archives:
Spring has rolled around for another year and I thought it would be fun to make a 4 spot virtual tour of the Spring Park in Hirafu.
This virtual tour is made from 98 shots so it took a while to put together. Click on the red icons to move around the park and can also zoom in and out with shift/command. Still a few weeks left of good skiing and riding on the mountain.
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Marching up Annupuri Peak from Hirafu and Annupuri has become ‘de rigueur’ over the last few years and with good reason – the view is epic when the weather is on.
Here are 2 panoramas taken at different times of the year:
1st October 2010
28th Feb 2011
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On the 23rd March NAC hosted the Yoten Yotei Charity Film Night to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross earthquake appeal.
Lots of businesses donated great prizes and the night was organized by Shane Shehade and friends from Sekka.
A packed house was treated to a variety of 15 local films shot in and around Niseko
The eventual winners were:
A raffle was held after the film prizes were given out which was a good laugh
Besides the Niseko based films shown a special presentation from Aaron Jamieson of Niseko Photography who just recently returned from the disaster zone with Jason McGregor from J Build who together spearheaded a local relief effort delivering much needed supplies to the victims on the main island – here is a link to Aaron’s blog where you can view the short film and photos.
The night was a real success and a lot of money was raised for a good cause.
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Since our last post here on the studio343 blog the calamity that has befallen Japan, and Tohoku in particular, has taken the wind out of our sails…thinking of what has happened to so many people and also the possibility of what may occur in Fukushima and responding in any meaningful way has been a struggle.
Time to experiment. For a long time I have wanted to try a spherical panorama inside the Hirafu Gondola. There are a few problems to sort out. Usually when shooting panoramas I carefully make sure the tripod set up is level, there is no movement and I calculate or anticipate when movement may occur in the images and shoot with these things in mind. I had to throw out the rule book when shooting this one – movement everywhere on every level.
Happy with the end result but by no means perfect. Here are a few different projections which made me laugh…mission accomplished.
Thanks for reading and lets keep our chins up.
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For the last week I’ve been on the road around the northern part of the the main island of Japan in an area known as Tōhoku. Been shooting skiers Davina Williams and Luke Kneller for the Australian ski mag Powderhound while Christie Dowling has been filming The Tour De Flake and directing the trip as the editor for Powderhound – she is a serious multi-tasker.
Always good to get on the road and we’ve been to a few resorts: Zao in Yamagata-ken, Appi in Iwate-ken and Alts Bandai in Fukushima-ken. Getting the timing right with good snow and fine weather is never easy.
An aspect of skiing that can be easy to over look in the pursuit of ‘getting the shot’ is danger. I often find myself telling skiers and boarders to jump higher, hold the grab longer, etc. and on this trip Luke paid the price for possible magazine glory with a broken nose…
…damn – wasn’t to bad in the end but scary for a while there…lucky.
Here are a few shots along the way and a night pano from Appi.
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