Planning notes
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The planning behind a shoot, written down
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These are working notes rather than travel writing. Each one answers a question that decides whether a shoot works, and whose answer is long enough to write down once: which hour Fushimi Inari’s gates are still empty, whether a temple allows a pre-wedding shoot, what a drone flight actually needs before it can go up.
Several of them save a wasted morning. Photography rules in Japan are set as much by venues and neighbourhoods as by law: many shrines and temples ban tripods or commercial shoots, some charge a fee for wedding photography, and since 2024 Gion’s private lanes carry a ¥10,000 fine sign. Knowing that before you plan a shoot around one is worth more than any advice about composition.
Others are about timing, which costs nothing to get right. Cherry blossom in Kyoto peaks for about a week, usually late March to early April, and moves from year to year. Fuji is clearest on winter mornings and often invisible in summer haze. The rainy season runs from June to mid-July everywhere but Hokkaido.
If your question is not answered here, ask it directly — the answer usually turns into the next article.
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