An aerial portrait in Hokkaido costs $530 for 30 minutes: 15 edited aerial photos and a 15-second vertical clip within seven days. We fly a registered drone over open land near Niseko or Biei, away from airports and Sapporo’s densely inhabited district, with the landowner’s consent and any MLIT approval arranged beforehand.
Why here
From the ground, a figure in a snowfield is lost in white. From 60 metres up, the plowed road, the tyre-free snow and your dark coat become a graphic — the shot Hokkaido is better placed for than anywhere else in Japan, because there is open land outside densely inhabited districts. What it needs is a landowner who agrees and batteries kept warm.
How the shoot is planned
Near Niseko we take off from land whose owner has agreed, with Mt Yotei on the horizon. First a top-down pass straight above you on a farm road, then a slow climb that reveals the cone, then an orbit at the edge of a birch wood. In Biei the same sequence runs on a consenting farm’s land; the famous public viewpoints are not used for take-off, and we do not cross fields we have no permission for. Between flights the batteries ride inside our jackets.
Clear mornings after fresh snowfall give clean, track-free surfaces; in deep winter they are rarer in Niseko, so we hold a flexible slot across two days. At −10 °C a flight lasts roughly half as long, which is why the 30 minutes are split into short flights. Afternoon wind on open ground often grounds us. In summer, the same land works with green crops in July and August — with consent, since fields are working farms.
What’s included
In the package
Inspiration
Frames by photographers on Unsplash, credited below — the mood to plan your own shoot against, not our portfolio.
Photos: Zion C, T K, Roméo A., Sebastian Dugudae on Unsplash
Before you book
$530 for 30 minutes, 15 edited aerial photos and a 15-second vertical clip, delivered within seven days. Registration, the MLIT application where one is needed and landowner consent are included.
Biei is outside densely inhabited districts, so many flights need no MLIT approval, but the fields belong to farmers and we fly only where the owner has agreed. Flying near people who are not part of the shoot, or at night, does need approval; we apply about three weeks ahead.
Not inside their restricted airspace. Asahikawa Airport is about 20 minutes from Biei, so we check every take-off point against the airport surfaces on the map before we confirm the location.
Same shoot elsewhere
Other shoots here
Next step
The service and place are already filled in. We reply within 2 hours, 9:00–21:00 Japan time; no deposit required to enquire.
