Opening Day Silver Creek

In lieu of fishing with the masses on Saturday, opening day of fishing this year, three of us headed out to Silver Creek to get our first casts in at the stroke of midnight and the new season. We were just mousing around... Below are a couple of milky way images. There was a meteor shower on Friday night too but was not that spectacular from our vantage. The milky way, however, was lit up and spectacular.

First casts of the 2014 season on Silver Creek.

Silver Creek, two fishermen and the milky way.

Silver Creek, Idaho

Below is an image that I took near the end of February on Silver Creek this year. Note the lack of snow. While Picabo got some much needed rain today, Silver Creek is near an all time low for this time of year. The current flow has gone up to 85 cfs with the average for this time of year around 124 cfs. Diversions from the Big Wood River following Gannett Road are now full and the loss from those diversions will eventually make a positive difference with the flow on Silver Creek.

John Huber. Late February. Silver Creek, Idaho.

The Restoration of Silver Creek On The Double R Ranch

For those of you who have not seen this video yet, here is a great piece on the Purdy's portion of the Silver Creek restoration project. This is from the Picabo Angler You Tube Channel. Nick Purdy, in addition to operating the Picabo Livestock Company, K-K and Double R Ranch, also owns Picabo Angler in Picabo, Idaho. I am a guide for Picabo Angler.

Kilpatrick Pond Panorama

Below is a panorama--26 images in this case--of the entire Kilpatrick Pond. I took the images a couple of days ago and included both the Nature Conservancy and Purdy sections of Silver Creek. For those of you who do not know, the Kilpatrick Pond on Silver Creek has undergone a major restoration project which essentially culminated a few weeks ago with the "re-filling" of the pond. The pond was lowered to a stream level and diverted to the north while the old dam was taken out and the new dam installed. The impetus of the project was to mitigate warming water temps in the summer months by narrowing the channel and installing a dam with a bottom release in lieu of a top release. Over the summer months the water temps would gain over ten degrees from the upstream to the downstream end of the pond. A dredge was also used downstream of the Kilpatrick Bridge to pump out tons of silt and in doing so deepening the channel as well. Opening Day of fishing this year is on Saturday May, 24th.

Silver Creek Panorama.

Revisiting Images From A Recent Trip

I am in the process of revisiting images from a trip I took to Italy about 3 months ago. I took thousands of images and am finding that it's been helpful to have stepped away from them for however many months. I am noticing details now that I definitely overlooked when I first ran through the images... Venice in the winter really had dreamy light. The shot below was taken near our apartment in the evening and it's of my younger son Charlie. The image was taken using an aperture of ƒ1.2 for very shallow depth of field and no flash was used...

Charlie Price. Venice, Italy.

Camera: Nikon D3s

Lens: Nikon 50 ƒ1.2

Silver Creek

Cumulus clouds and wind and smoke from refuse piles rolls over the clean Picabo Hills and stinks of cottonwood limbs and scorched dessicated weeds. It's spring near Picabo, Idaho.

Spring. Silver Creek, Idaho.

I keep a photography journal where I store thoughts, ideas, quotes, etc. Below is a quote that is a favorite by Theodore Roosevelt:

 

The Man In The Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end triumph at high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.