Fly Fishing Portraits

Julie Spence.  Big Lost River, Idaho

A new priority for me will be taking fly fishing portraits.  Both on and off the river...  The river or proximity to water is one of the most fundamentally calming places for people and the calmness more often than not translates into fantstic expression and it is precisely that expression I am after. 

Happy New Year!

The Passionate Photographer, by Steve Simon

Trees & Sun

Camera: iPhone 4

I want to mention a really wonderful new book on photography, The Passionate Photographer, by Steve Simon.  While the emphasis of the book is mainly on the journalist approach to photography, it speaks volumes to any photographer.  It's filled with images of Steve's and some of his favorites.  He also has many quotes from prominent photographers:

"I can have aspirations or ambitions or ideas or goals for my work, but in a sense, the only purpose those goals serve is to get me to take the pictures and only through the taking of the pictures will I find out who I am or what my pictures look like.  In the end, oftentimes the pictures that I think I'm going to take aren't the pictures I take and the direction I'm headed isn't the direction I think I'm headed."

--George Heisler

The Passionate Photographer is the first book on photography I have come across that articulates the emotions of the photographer--much like a writer can feel the gamut of emotions in the midst of working on a novel so too can a photographer. Perservere, and shoot and shoot and shoot and after 10,000 images or maybe even after 100,000 images the photographer will have a substantial base knowledge, a knowledge that cannot have been gained any other way. 

The Burn

Overexposed Burn Area.  Sun Valley, Idaho

Nikon D3s & Nikon 24 pc-e lens

This image was actually an accident.  I hiked through this burn area recently and dramatically overexposed a few images by mistake and after uploading them felt I could be on to something.  Generally I am on the side of slightly underexposed but I will certainly be playing around with dramatic overexposure...

Sun Valley Fishing Report

osprey black & whiteOsprey Holding On To A Rainbow.  Silver Creek, Idaho

Nikon D200 & Nikon 80-200 afs 2.8 lens

Thinking of hitting the river near Sun Valley?  As it is we have an extremely low snow pack and relatively warm daytime highs making for really good winter fishing conditions.  The Big Wood is seeing some surface midge activity and good nymphing using stone flies and midge pupa patterns.  It's good stuff right now with virtually nobody on the river.  There is essentially no snow on the valley floor and there is nothing substantial forecast through at least the 26th of December.  Keep in mind Silver Creek below the HGWY 20 bridge stays open through February and can offer pretty good streamer fishing this time of year.  Avoid days down there when we have an inversion.  The easiest method I have found is to check the Sun Valley skiing report and look at the temps on the bottom and on the summit.  If it's warmer on top the temps on Silver Creek located down valley could be extremley cold.  Also, if you are up for the drive, the Lower Big Lost River can fish really well.  The current flow on the Lower Lost is 132 cfs making for easy wading and spring creek like conditions.

Wheel Line

Wheel Line Silhouette

The above image was taken this morning just before sunrise and converted to black & white using NIK's Silver Effex Pro.

Nikon D3S & Nikon 80-200 afs f2.8 lens

The new Winter addition of Sun Valley Magazine is out and I have done the photography for a small piece on winter fly fishing on the Big Wood River.

Nik's Silver Effex Pro

agave black & whiteAgave

 

hammonds meadow black & whiteHammonds Meadow, Santa Barbara

 

I have been editing a bunch of older images using Nik's Silver Effex Pro 2.  It's really fantastic software...

On another note, here's the link to a phenomenal short video on skiing lousy street conditions with incredible videography.  That's right, street conditions.  It's a must see:  http://www.sherpascinema.com/theatre/jp-auclair-street-segment-allican

 

Boiling River, Yellowstone

boiling riverBoiling River & Winter Color

The Boiling River, pictured above, nears its meeting with the much colder Gardner River.  The temps in the water pictured above are scalding hot. 

gardner riverGardner River

Steam from the Boiling River confluence can barely be seen in the background...

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

To Tilt Or Not To Tilt. Mammoth Hot Springs

Scorched Trees & Mammoth Hot Springs

Nion D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens. 

The above image was captured without using the tilt or shift function on the Nikon 24 pce lens.  It was taken handheld at an aperture of f14 and it's a manual focus lens...

The above image is essentially the same as the first in this post compositionally but I rotated the lens 90 degrees and fully tilted downward and focused on the tree trunks.  The plane of focus now runs horizontally across the mid section of the image in a wedge shape from left to right.  The plan of focus is "thinner" on the left than the right, hence the wedge shape, despite the fact it's hard to notice.  This image was also captured at f14 to essentially "widen" the horizontal focus plane.  At f3.5--the max aperture on the Nikon 24 pce lens--the plane of focus would be substantially narrower.  Both images were processed differently using Nik's Silver Effex 2.

 

Winter Contrast.  Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

Boulder Mountains & Star Trails

star trails & boulder mountainsStar Trails Over The Boulders

Nikon D3S & Nikon 50 f1.8 lens

This is my first image using the software StarstaX.  It's about 80, thirty second exposures stacked together.  One of the benefits of doing this is reducing noise.  Another benefit, as the 1/2 moon was behind the camera and essentially front lighting the boulders, would be allowing for longer star trails without over exposing the image.  If there is any negative I can think of so far it's that StarstaX cannot yet read RAW files.  I convert my RAW files when exporting them from Aperture to StarstaX.  Pretty easy and the best part is StarstaX is free.  For more info check out the StarstaX site HERE.

Nik's Color Effex Pro 4

Star Trails & Burned Area.  Idaho's Frank Church Wilderness

Nikon D200 & Nikon 14-24 2.8 lens

 

I have been reworking a few images in Nik's new Color Effex Pro 4 now for a few weeks.  The image above is a year or so old but I just ran it throgh Color Effex Pro 4 and have consistently found the new system to be far better.  The biggest reason for me is the ability to "stack" different filters which means you don't have to leave Color Effex to then open it again. This alone has saved me a lot of time.  More to come...

Rick McIntyre & The Lamar Valley

rick mcintyreRick McIntyre, pictured above is and has been a Biological Technician for the Yellowstone Wolf Project essentially since its inception with the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone in 1995.  There's no doubt he's the wolf guru in the park.  His knowledge based on years of experience observing--it is said that he spent over 3,500 consecutive days watching Yellowstone wolves--is unsurpassed.  While his voice is quiet with a slow cadence, he candidly answers questions from tens of thousands of visitors each year.  Imagine the patience needed to answer questions from that many people.  In the image above, Rick is watching the Lamar Canyon pack on the west side of the Lamar Valley.  11 wolves in all.  At the time of this image, 3 Lamar Canyon pups were pseudo-stalking 3 large bull elk while the adult wolves sat in the background and watched.  I asked Rick why he thought the large bull elk didn't run and he said he believes the larger and healthier bulls stand their ground and the adult wolves know and respect that.  "The pups may try to make a go at the bulls but the odds are low they will try and if they do they will not likely succeed."

rick mcintyre Rick McIntyre & Will Price watch the Lamar Canyon pack.

viewing through a spotting scopeRick and many others are often generous with their spotting scopes.  Pictured above, Will peers through Rick's scope. 

Nikon D3S & Nikon 24 pce lens

yellowstone coyoteCoyote.  Lamar Valley

Nikon D200 & Nikon 80-200 afs 2.8 lens