Preparing for a Winter Photo Shoot in Hokkaido

Winter pre-wedding photography in Hokkaido is shot in real cold — inland, the temperature can fall below −35°C. Preparing well is what keeps you smiling through it: snow boots instead of dress shoes, thermal layers with warmers tucked between them, socks that actually work, and time built into the day to get warm again. This is the preparation I go through with every couple before a winter shoot here.

The reward is a white world the main island never sees — snowfields crossed only by a fox’s tracks, the hills of Biei in winter, the night lights of Otaru. The photographs are worth it. But winter here is not something you prepare for the way you would in Honshu, and the details below are the ones that genuinely make the difference on the day.

Start with what goes under the dress and the suit

Thermal base layers, top and bottom. A thin layer against the skin, a heavier heat-retention layer over it, and an adhesive body warmer placed between the two keeps warmth far longer than either alone. Fleece-lined tights, warm socks, toe warmers inside the shoes — keep the centre line of the body warm and the rest of you can cope.

Two cautions from experience. Body warmers can cause low-temperature burns against bare skin over time, so they come off as soon as the shoot ends. And grooms: a thick thermal layer can quietly make a well-fitted suit feel one size smaller. Try everything on together before the day.

Colour, too — black thermals rarely show, but if an edge does appear at the neckline or ankle, beige or skin tones disappear against the dress. If you can get them, they are the safer choice.

The socks I keep recommending

Double socks, with a warmer between the layers. And if you pass a Japanese drugstore, look for Kiribai’s thick winter socks — the ones whose name roughly translates to “the mysterious socks that stop your feet getting cold”. The name sounds like a joke; the insulation is not. They are the warmest thing I have found, they survive wash after wash, and couples end up using them for the rest of their trip.

Snow boots are not optional

I recommend shooting in snow boots for much of the day. Where a location allows it, we change into dress shoes on the spot for the photographs that need them. But moving between spots in leather shoes is where winter shoots go wrong.

The opening of a dress shoe is wide, so every step scoops in snow. Around your toes it melts — and then, within tens of minutes in this cold, it freezes. It is almost always the groom who breaks first. Leather soles without winter grip are the other trap: on packed snow and ice they slide far more than you’d expect.

So: proper snow boots for the day. Sorel, The North Face, Columbia, Merrell, Keen, Salomon — in Hokkaido these are everyday shoes, the pair you wear to the convenience store. Choose zips or slip-ons over laces. Laces freeze, and cold fingers are in no state to tie them.

There is one more reason. When we find an untouched snowfield, I walk the first path myself — then the two of you make your own way from there. From the ground, and even more from the air, two lines of footprints belonging only to you say more about the day than any pose I could arrange.

Between photographs, get warm

A big overcoat you can wrap around everything until the moment we shoot, and a tumbler of something hot. If you don’t have them, tell me — I keep both ready. On my shoots we also build in time to step somewhere warm and let the cold come out of your bodies. Nobody photographs well when they’re only enduring.

Gloves, ears, and the small things

Ears are what hurt first. A hood helps; if it isn’t enough, a winter hat you can actually be photographed in suits Hokkaido’s winter perfectly, and hair can be styled to work with one. Grooms do well with ear warmers that fasten around the back of the neck — just don’t lose them from a pocket.

For gloves, choose mittens. Once five fingers are properly cold, getting them back into five separate fingers is a struggle nobody wins; a mitten with a warmer tucked inside is simply warmer. And because feet are hard to feature in winter photographs, matching knitwear or gloves can add a welcome change of texture to a set.

It is cold. There is no way to write that honestly and make it sound small. But the snow world waiting on the other side of that cold is one of the most beautiful things this island does — enjoy it, cold included.

Thinking of a winter day of your own? — Elopement in Hokkaido · Proposal & family photography