Spring had arrived early up until today. Much colder and wet for today and tomorrow. This weather will put new snow in the Stanley Basin and clear-up and lower the flow on the Salmon River.
The FlyFish Journal Cover
The new issue of The FlyFish Journal just hit the newsstands and I have the cover image. The shot was taken at 1/8,000th of a second at 200mm. It's of a rainbow just after taking a baetis. Silver Creek, Idaho. I think I filled my waders not long after I took this shot. It was early November.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 80-200 afs ƒ2.8 lens
Big Wood River
Today was the final day of the season on the Big Wood River... The temps were in the mid to upper 60's and it was blue skies. The picture below was taken at the end of the day as the sun was about to go below the mountains.
Fly Rod And Reel Cover
Here's a sneak preview of the next issue of Fly Rod And Reel for which I have the cover image. It's of brown drakes at Silver Creek, Idaho.
Salmon River Steelhead III
Low and clear water and warm weather. Temps neared 50˚ on the Salmon River near Stanley, Idaho today. Water flows are just above the mean and the current flow is 472 cfs and the mean is 462 cfs. Look for flows to start increasing as the warm weather is slated to continue...
Salmon River Steelhead II
It looks like the high temps in Stanley for the next four days will be right around freezing with snow and snow showers. The low temps in Stanley are slated to be from 10˚ to -2˚. The low temps should keep the river low and clear for the time being. The current flow of the Salmon River as taken below the Yankee Fork is 509 cfs. The mean flow for today is 432 cfs.
Salmon River Steelhead
It's steelhead time on the Salmon River. The fish seem to be showing up between Stanley and Challis. The image below of the smallish hen was taken today. The water is still low and clear but the snow pack at lower elevations in the Stanley Basin is far below normal.
Lodgepole Forest. Winter
This was taken not far from the Harriman trail north of Ketchum, Idaho. Vertical lines and tunnel. 43˚ and the sound of spring was there in the warming snow collapsing under pressure from a boot and the level of the sun and mainly in how the trees reacted to the first warm wind and the lithe newer branches waved about about like happy arms waking up after falling asleep.
Fly Tying & Sun Valley Fly Fishing
It's fly tying madness here along with a strong dose of spring. Highs have already hit 50˚ plus around Hailey and on Thursday the high is forecast to be near 60˚ in Ketchum. The fly fishing on our local water has been and should continue to be stellar. It's midge madness on the Big Wood River and lots of midges and baetis on the Lower Big Lost River. This is certainly the best least crowded fishing of the year in this area and it should continue through March. This is--so far at least--an unusually warm March and hopefully that continues to translate into better than normal hatches, etc.
Trail Creek Road
This is a pretty stark image I took a few days ago on Trail Creek Road not far from HWY 93. The sheer openness and the single set of tire tracks and the spring-like color in the sage caught my eye.
Roughly 12 miles south of the above Trail Creek Road image, I took the shot below as the storm was starting to break. It's a similar horizon below but it has a fence line and telephone poles and a lack of snow on the ground...
Silver Creek. March
The Sun Valley area received about 7 new inches of much needed snow yesterday and I drove to Mackay. Below is an image I took, on my way home, in the late afternoon as the storm was starting to break. It was around 4 pm and I don't know if I can say I have ever seen more fish rising on this section of Silver Creek other than during brown drakes in early June. It was midge madness. Unfortunately fishing is closed at the moment on Silver Creek.
Desert Center Pivot
I drove over to the Big Lost River and Mackay yesterday. Drove north of Mackay too. By the Mackay Reservoir where there were still ice fishing huts and up to the East Fork of The Lost where there was about 5 inches of new snow and it was snowing hard and the visibility was maybe 500 feet.
Through The Windshield. An Idaho Junkyard
Here are a few of the images I converted to black and white from a recent trip to an Idaho Junkyard.
Junkyard Landscape Abstracts Part II
OK..., here are a few more abstracts. These images are of old rusty cars found at a junkyard. I originally thought most of my images from this shoot would be converted to black and white. I converted a few to black and white, but here are more in color:
Junkyard Landscape Abstracts
Here are two abstracts taken today at a junkyard.
Stocker Road
Below is an image taken yesterday of Stocker Road near the Silver Creek Preserve. It was midge madness on Silver Creek yesterday from Picabo all the way through the Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately Silver Creek--with the exception of a tiny section in the desert--is closed.
Ordinary Landscape Diptych
Here are two images taken of the same fire ring from almost the same spot using two different--albeit close--focal lengths. The color image portion of the diptych taken in the summer inspired me to start a project I call, Ordinary Landscapes. The location is Summit Creek, Idaho. The tracks going through the winter image are of coyotes.
A Field Near Picabo
Here's an image of a tilled field near Picabo, Idaho taken a couple of days ago. I converted the image from RAW to black and white in Photoshop CS6. I am including in this post a low-resolution image of the RAW file straight from the camera. Without making many changes/edits in Photoshop, you can see the latitude in shooting RAW--getting details out of the very bright/overexposed areas--and the enormous difference between the blah RAW image and the edited black and white image.
I also used the tilt function of the Nikon 24 pc-e lens to get the look of unlimited depth of field. I used--it's becoming a kinda fun term to use--the Scheimpflug Principle. The link takes you to The Luminous Landscape page for a good explanation...
Here's the low-resolution file of the RAW image straight from the camera:
Two Seasons Diptych
Two images and two seasons. Early summer and late winter. The same oxbow split in half. Two focal lengths. Silver Creek's East Oxbow:
South Fork of The Boise River
I shot over to the South Fork of The Boise yesterday and it dawned on me I hadn't fished it for at least two years. It's always a pleasure fishing a river/stream I don't know every single bend, pocket, riffle, etc. Didn't see many fish on the surface. In fact only saw fish rising in one spot. There were a good number of midges though and the nymphing was decent. The image below is of Keith getting in a little streamer time before the sun hit the water.