Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

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Flashback Japan – feature in Japanese National Geographic

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Happy 20th Anniversary to National Geographic Japan, the first international edition of National Geographic magazine!

In honor of their anniversary, National Geographic Japan created a special section called Flashback Japan in their December 2015 issue, and I am honored to be featured.  They selected one of my images from my story about Japanese Winter Wildlife, originally published in the January 2003 issue of National Geographic.  Here is the spread from Japanese National Geographic. I have provided an English translation of the Japanese text below.

Here is the English translation of the text on the spread above, published in Dec 2015 National Geographic Japanese edition:

Deer and Sea Ice, Hokkaido, Japan

One morning, photographer Tim Laman was exploring the remote coast of Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido. While he was making landscape photographs of the sea ice, several deer appeared, walking along the beach. “I became very excited at what they might add to the composition,” Tim said.

Laman, a world-class wildlife photographer, is also a field biologist with a doctorate from Harvard. He says, “I like to capture images showing animals in their landscape.” After a while, two of the deer, coming from opposite directions, met and gently touched noses, perhaps in greeting. “It was a brief moment, but I snapped the shutter and captured it.”

Japan is a second home to Laman, because he was born and grew up in Japan — in Tokyo, Sasebo, and Kobe, due to his father’s job. So the story, Japan’s Winter Wildlife in NGM 2003 January issue, was like a dream come true. “I wanted to show the broader world the beauty of nature in Japan. I chose the winter season for its clean beauty,” he said.

On his assignment, he worked in Nagano, Iwate, and Hokkaido, to capture monkeys in Jigokudani or swans in Lake Kussharo, and many other subjects. Tim says some of his favorite photographs are those of Red-crowned Cranes in Kushiro Shitsugen wetland. “Sunrise on the river, and the roosting cranes backlit through the mist. Or a couple making a mating call as snow gently fell through the air. I had many unforgettable moments.”