Best Day on the River!

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Thank you Shawn for opening my eyes! If you ever have the chance to work with Project Healing Waters, I highly advise you do it. These men and woman are amazing. Thank yo for everything that you have done for us.

Understanding Exposure

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By no means am I a pro photographer yet. Not enough time behind the lens, not enough time pressing down the shutter. But very similar to fly fishing I love the practice. As I was growing up I would just love to go cast, not really fish, even though I was mostly on the water, but just cast and practice the art of casting. Now I find I love practicing shooting with the SLR.

One of the first books I ever read was called “understanding exposure”. This taught me that I need to stop shooting in P or Auto mode and move onto M or Manual mode. One of the greatest advantages to the digital camera age is the amount of mistakes that you can make and it really does not cost you anything. I take thousands of pictures that are junk, can you imagine the cost of my hobby if I was still using film?? But what shooting in Manual mode has taught me is how to read and understand the light meter. What f stop to use and how to use the camera in a creative way.
So the picture above I wanted to focus on the crease fly. By the way one of my new favorite top water patterns for small-mouth. Not sure why it took me so long to fish it for small-mouth but so far it’s my favorite 2010 small-mouth fly. Anyway back to the picture. While shooting in Manual, I need to change my focus point as well. Adjusting the focus point to the crease fly, and then wanting a somewhat blurred backdrop I choose a f stop of 3.5. The next step is what ISO to shoot in. For the well being of the small-mouth I had to make a quick decision. I wish I could of made a couple shots at 100, 200, and 400. But as this was an evening shot and I wanted to get it right I choose 400 and snapped off a couple quick shots and released the small-mouth unharmed.
As I try to compare photography and fly fishing. In fly fishing especially when you are hunting big fish you get one chance and now in photography knowing and understanding your camera to get the right shot with the understanding of not harming a living creature, puts a little pressure on the situation. I love it!

Big Lake Blues

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I really just like the different experiences when shooting, the different landscapes, horizons, or locations. Even though this is still Michigan, getting a chance to go out with Trout Scout Charters and take a couple shots of the big lake scene was right up my alley. With blue being my personal favorite color, finding the back drop of the sky very appealing to my personal eye.


Working with the blues of the sky and the clear Lake Michigan water. The day we were out we had some nice 3-4 foot waves, so the turn over of the lake gave me a very dark blue/black water apperance. I had to battle ISO trying to shoot in the 100’s but with all the movement it was hard. When shooting outside I love to use the lowest ISO that I possibly get away with. Next time on the Trout Scout I think I’ll bring a tripod and hope for less waves to really slow down the shutter speed and pull out even more color. Gotta love digital photography and the opportunity to just keep leaning from our opportunities. Thank you Capt. Lance to taking us out.