Professional Fly Photography by Ben Cochran

[Neal Osborn]

Check out some wonderful examples of professional fly photography here http://flyartstudio.com/wordpress/?p=331.

Ben was kind enough to do a guest blog at FAS and offer comments.  Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the post to see high resolution pictures (resized) from Ben’s streamer portfolio.  

[keith b]

Thanks Neal,
That was an interesting read, and I will finish it later.

[mark s]

Neal and Ben,

Great shots and answers.

[anonymous]

Neal and Ben good usefull and

[olle bulder]

Great article Neal. It a good read, thanks.

[lee church]

Very cool read

[Neal Osborn]

I am glad you guys like the new format and frankly the fly photos speak for themselves.  I thought Ben’s photos would be a good way to “apply” some of the tutorials and lighting basics we have been discussing.  

Mark, I believe Ben’s comments on knowing your equipment is aimed more at a general audience and the point-and-shoot guys in particular.  The PAS cameras can be very powerful but few people take the time to learn how to harness their manual capacity. However, I have noticed that the pros really do know their equipment on a level different than the advanced amateur.  In my discussions with Ben he mentioned the importance of feeling the shot and knowing what the camera is able to do on a subconscious level.  For example, the human eye can see something like 11 stops of light/shade but digital camera sensors see only like 6 stops – so knowing your own sensor and how it performs in highlights and shadows would help to build a mental library of the equipment to apply to future shots.  Also, I recently learned that I “mash” my shutter release button and create shake in my pictures but learned this only by watching a pro snap away (more like fire away) with only a gentle tap on the release.  Other aspects of knowing the equipment, especially for macro photography, include understanding your systems TTL flash and metering and how they communicate (very important if you move to off camera flash).  

[mark s]

Thanks Neal for clarifying.

[David Anderson]

Nice shot Ben – and love the flies as well.

It’s been a while, but are they early New England streamers ?

www.dsaphoto.com

A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.

[Cameron Mortenson]

Neal…Fly Art Studio just keeps getting better each month.

[Ben Cochran]

Thanks everyone. I must say that I truly admire Neal for his dedication to wanting to share information and his desire of helping others. I know it takes a good bit of time for him and he expects nothing back in return, he just enjoys sharing. in hopes that it is helping someone: That makes him tops in my book :).

Hey David and thanks to you as well 🙂 Yes, many of those are classic Carry Stevens patterns, the rest are tied in the classic Catskill style.

Bob is truly an amazing tyer, as well he has been awarded a slew of international gold medals from major fly tying competitions. He was also awarded “Most Innovative Fly of the Year” by Fly Tying Mag a few years ago but it is his passion that makes him ty first.

It kills me as I have never seen fly’s tyed with such accuracy that they can be called sterile. as his works.

I cropped the close up, of this one fly, to better illustrate the detail that he puts into each fly. Each of the fly shots are uncroped and print 100% @ 18″. Talk about in my face :).

Neal has also posted the remainder of the 16 uncroped individual fly photographs.

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