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Action Media Workshop

Learn the tricks of the trade
this is test
Anna Segal Niseko Japan photography
Central Hokkaido ski tours
Backcountry tours in Niseko with Niseko Photography
Niseko backcountry tours

About the Action Media Workshop

The Action Media Workshop is a once in a life time opportunity to improve your photography or cinematography game with the aim of turning it into a profitable future business. You can either choose to focus primarily on video or photography or do a combination of each depending on your previous experience

 

The focus of this camp is on preparing for and shooting professional skiers and snowboarders in action. We will also help you to develop strategies to market yourself and sell your work to sponsors and media outlets. To achieve this you will be working with real life pros who are prepared to launch themselves off whatever the creative collective come up with in the name of a good shot.

 

The Action Media Workshop will be lead by Niseko Photography’s own Senior Photographer Darren Teasdale who has worked for 15 years as an action sports photographer in the snow industry. The cinematography will be run by Sean Balmer, who has been working worldwide for nearly 20 years and has some prestigious events like the Audi Nines and Toyota One Hit Wonder under his belt.

¥360,000 per person. The Action Media Workshop will have a maximum of 4 photographers and 4 videographers which means each group will have their own teacher at all times when out in the field.

From the 3rd March – 11th March 2023. A total of 8 nights and 9 days.

Includes accommodation, daily breakfast and dinner, transport, 2 days of lift passes, avalanche safety pack, a teacher daily and a pro to shoot between 4 of you, as well as professional photography for the entire trip. You will also be given your own NPG cap and beanie.

We have put together an itinerary however, occasionally this may vary slightly based on weather conditions and other factors beyond our control. Please click here for our full terms and conditions.

Accommodation

You will have a twin share room in a new house in the main village of Hirafu with close access to all the shops, bars, and cafes.

Transport

We'll pick you up from and drop you back to the airport, as well as provide all transport whilst in Niseko.. so you can sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. You can also enjoy discounts at our bar and we can drive you home ;).

Food

You will be supplied a simple breakfast and dinner at a local Japanese restaurant daily. If you have dietary requirements please let us know and we will do out best to accommodate you.

Photography

This is an intensive workshop and you will be provided one on one photography and video tuition every day and night of the camp. Added to this your teachers will also take magazine-quality images of you to remember the trip by.

Lift passes

For your 2 days worth of lift access side country tours we will arrange all your passes. So all you need to do is get into the car and you are on your way to riding deep powder without a worry in the world all day!

Equipment

We will provide you with avalanche safety equipment daily. It will include a Ortovox 3 plus beacon, probe and shovel. We recommend renting your ski gear at Rhythm Snowsports.

Rhythm Summit
Who is this tour for?

Media Creators

Although this tour is aimed at creatives to succeed in the snow sports industry it really helps to be an intermediate to advanced skier or boarder. This is so you can access the terrain where we will be photographing the pros. If you haven’t done a lot of time in the backcountry yet that is ok, we will teach you… just as long as you are fit, determined and confident skiing/boarding super deep powder. This camp is for those passionate about capturing amazing content and want to follow their dreams.

BEGINNERS0

INTERMEDIATE0

ADVANCED0

On day 1 we will pick you up from Chitose Airport and take you back to Niseko. Depending on everyone’s arrival schedule, there may be time to go for an afternoon ski, organise any rental equipment you may still need or do an avalanche safety refresher. (Lift passes for this day are not included in the price). After everyone has settled in we will head to our base ‘North House’ for a welcome cocktail and meet and greet. After this we’ll get you back to your accommodation to prepare for a big week of shredding pow and learning from the pros!

Day 2 will be a lift accessed sidecountry 4 hour power session. This will be an opportunity to warm up the legs, dial in your gear and get plenty of fresh pow without having to earn your turns. It is also an opportunity for us to get to know you and your style of riding and shooting. The resort we take you will depend on where there has been the most amount of snow overnight and may be Niseko UnitedMoiwaRusutsu or Kiroro.

 

The aim of the day will be to teach you some basic techniques about how to shoot in resort, manage groups, models or pros and some basic avalanche safety. The day will be finished at ‘North House’ with a session on the beacon training course and then inside to upload images and footage. This will include cataloging techniques, and image/video selection. We will then finish with dinner at a local Japanese restaurant where we can discuss how the day went and the plans for the following day, including gear choices, settings etc.

Action media workshop in Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan

On day 3 we will go on a scouting trip with our pros to find a feature or two that we can prepare for our shoot. If we get what we need early we will shoot the session thoughout the afternoon, otherwise we will get it perfect for an early morning shoot the following day. Understanding how to locate and build a feature is just as important as shooting it. Don’t worry though, what goes up must come down and we will still find some tight lines to shred during the day. We will also talk to you once again about safety in the backcountry and show you the best way to travel to and from your destination. When it is time to send in the pros, we will teach you about selecting your position for the best angles, how to avoid other photogs onsite, team management for a smooth and productive shoot, weather watching, composition and much much more.

 

Understanding how to scout and build a feature is the key to getting shots that stand out from everyone else. It also allows you the opportunity to think about creative angles and technique – all of which we will go over with you on the day.

Niseko backcountry tours with Niseko Photography

Day 4 will depend on how we went on the previous day and if we still have our feature(s) to shoot. If so, we will head out early for the session and try to bag some good light and early bangers. If we are ahead of schedule and got our shots on the previous day we will have 2 options open up. The first option is to head out to shoot some more features we know about, utilising the skills learnt to push the team to manage their shooting. The second option is dependent on snow and if we got a decent reset overnight we will head out to re-shoot the features from the day before with the focus on improving on what we captured the day before and capturing some different angles.

We have scheduled one weather day for this workshop. It may not fall on day 5 and thus we will change the schedule as needed. However this day will be an opportunity to rest the legs and get on top of retouching some of the amazing images and footage you have collected over the last couple of days. We will set up at ‘North House’ for the day with a 9am session from Darren on how to retouch your images, followed by a session from Sean on video.

 

The day will be entirely dedicated to the art of retouching your work, apart from a lunch break where we will take you to Kutchan for a delicious sushi-train experience. This may also be an opportunity to get a few urban shots or cut-away scenes to add to your final film or photo project. We will end with a planning session for the following day and an early dinner because the next 4 days will be intense!

Day 6 will start with a backcountry session in the morning to make the most of the fresh powder and good morning light. We will concentrate on how to get the best composition and capture an image that is clearly in focus regardless of the weather conditions. We will again go over backcountry safety as well as locating, preparing and shredding an area for maximum reward.

 

After our backcountry mission we will head into some of our favorite urban locations for an afternoon session. The team will show you how to pick locations that have great composition and don’t impact on local culture. They will also teach you how to work with your pros to plan and shoot a feature as quickly as possible with no impact to the locals. We will finish the day with a debrief back at ‘North House’  and a session on the computers.

Day 7 will be a full day backcountry mission. We will leave early and spend the day touring some of the awesome backcountry zones we know and some natural hits and features. The purpose of today will be to shoot everything from start to finish and the art of telling a story through images/video. We will capture everything from the morning debrief meeting to the celebration beers after a successful shoot and everything else in between. We will end the day at a local onsen and then a wind down session to discuss the how everything went.

Heli ski Niseko Photography

Day 8 is all about you and we will start with a freeskiing session in the morning and in the afternoon we will finish any retouching of images or video editing before presenting our slideshows or short video on the big screen at the The Brick Bar, Here we will be holding a party to showcase your work, celebrate a successful week with new friends and to thank everyone for all of their hard work.

On the final day we will leave early to get to Kokusai Ski Resort for first lifts in the morning. Here we’ll ride the untouched side country runs of this fun little Japanese resort and further explore into their backcountry zones. Once finished we will stop at Jozankei to freshen up at a local onsen before dropping you back to Chitose Airport that evening.

 

We’ll also be available after you leave via email and skype to help with any further work on your images and video projects.

Niseko cat skiing tours, Hokkaido, Japan