Many hongkongers travel to the northern countries during winter season to experience the charm of winter scenery when everywhere is covered in snow. To list some of the most popular winter travel destinations in Japan, in addition to the Sapporo Snow Festival in Hokkaido, the famous Shirakawa-go in central Japan is also a nice location to explore. Being known as the “Winter Fairy Tale Village”, Shirakawa-go organizes special Winter Light-Up Event every year which attracts numerous photo enthusiasts. Photographer Justin Law had been on a photo trip to Shirakawa-go, Gokayama and Shogawa-kyo Valley this January. Let’s check out the shooting tips and travel experience that Justin has for us!

Shirakawa-go is a remote village located in Gifu prefecture in central Japan. To get there, you can either take the public bus or drive. Public transportation to this area is relatively inconvenient with only a few buses running daily. You are advised to reserve in advance due to the limited seats available. A recommendation from Justin was to rent a car or hire a driver. “This makes it more convenient to go there, and enables you to arrange your itinerary more flexibly so that you can also visit places like Shogawa-kyo Valley, Gokayama and Takayama-shi in the periphery area.” Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go sees an increasing number of visitors every year. Those who would like to stay overnight there (especially in winter) are reminded to book an accommodation several months in advance.

To take photos of the entire village, you can go up to a viewpoint. The Shiroyama Viewpoint is a well constructed location which can be accessed via a walking trail in about 20 minutes from the village center. Since the daytime is short in winter and there would be crowds of tourists at the Viewpoint, Justin advised us to depart at around 3pm so that we could be there earlier to search for more favorable shooting location to take photos at Magic Hour. Besides, Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go organizes special Winter Light-Up Event on six selected evenings that attract plenty of tourists. “Although the light-up event is magically beautiful, I don’t suggest to go there during the event period as there will be crowd control measures. You can hardly take nice photos of the village even from the Viewpoint as you will be only allowed to stay there for a minute or two.”

When the white snow takes up a large area in the framing, the strong reflection off the snow ground will interfere the metering system of the camera, resulting in under-exposed photo with both the snow and subject appear darker than they really are. To solve this problem, we need to increase the exposure compensation by 2/3 or 1 stop, according to the proportion of snow in the frame. To ensure a proper exposure, it’s not enough to just check the photos from the camera’s monitor. A more reliable approach is to press down the camera’s “Info” button and look at the photo’s histogram. The histogram of a properly exposed image will have its pixel counts distributed evenly in the center.

Photos with merely the snow land may look boring. A recommendation from Justin was to observe more and include the surrounding environment in the composition. Add depth to your photos by including something interesting in the foreground, middleground and background, or complement the subject with some geometrical objects to enrich the photo’s composition. Besides, the ponds of various sizes in the village can add a nice touch to your photos by providing the reflection. “In addition to the basic photographic equipment, you can also add a circular polarizing filter in your gear bag. This tool can help reduce water reflection for sharper result. A flash can also come in handy when we want to freeze the moment of snow falling. The dotted snowflakes will add a touch of romance to your photo.”

Justin brought a few lenses with him in this trip to meet the needs of both wide-angle and telephoto shooting, and it turned out that the telephoto lenses were mostly used. “A telephoto lens is more useful in framing a shot. Ogimachi is actually in quite a distance when we take photos from the Viewpoint. A focal length of around 70mm will get you the entire village.” Besides, equipment featuring dust- and water-resistant design are preferred for snow photography. Before we return to a warm indoor area from the freezing outdoor, seal the camera in a zip-lock bag to prevent water droplets formation on the camera which can cause malfunction. When the snow is blowing, try not to change the lens to prevent snowflakes from falling into the camera body.

When shooting in low temperatures, the battery life will go down significantly. Bring a couple of spare batteries with you and keep them in your gear bag together with a warm pack. In addition to protect your equipment, it’s also important to keep yourself warm. “In winter, there is huge temperature difference between daytime and night time at Shirakawa-go, which ranges from 10°C in daytime to below -5°C at night. Therefore, keeping warm is very important. You should wear a waterproof and windproof jacket. Also wear a pair of sunglasses to protect you from snow blindness when you are staying long hours in the snow.”