Tōhoku Road Trip February 20 2011, 6:23pm via studio343.jp

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.