Road Trip
- This topic has 15 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated Jun 18, 2009 at 6:58 am by
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It has been some time since I poked my head in on this board, but I hope this post finds everyone well. I’m ready for the verbal flogging–so don’t hold back…
I did get out on a nice road trip through Idaho and Montana this past week, fishing some of my old favorites, but mostly checking out new waters to some of us. Fishing conditions were challenging, but we did manage to get into our fair share of rod benders. Weather was an issue nearly every day, as wind and rain blew us straight off the river at times. We hit the S Fork of the Snake, some water around W. Yellowstone, the Beaverhead, and finally, the Big Hole. I caught one of my better fish on the Big Hole–that river is a special place for sure. While there should probably be more fish pics in this TR, I love to tell the entire story. Hope you enjoy.
Nick with the prime seat on the S Fork shuttle
This guy had some leftover hardware…
Hanging out on the S Fork
On to the next location…
Which wasn’t too shabby
Prepping for the day.
Dreamy.
Waiting for the take…
Paradise
A must visit. The Tacobus in Dillon, MT.
Time to replenish.
Good morning Beaverhead. It rained like a mother the day before, and I didn’t get any fishing pics. But this was a beautiful morning, and we immediately packed it up and headed to the Big Hole.
Hola Big Hole.
First fish of the day was a nice Brook on Nick’s rod.
Then I hooked into what turned out to be one of my better fish ever! A nice 20.5″ brown that had some shoulders on him.
Cutting firewood with the good old boys…
A fitting end to a memorable adventure.
Great shots and looks like you had good time.. Thats an awesome loop to take, looks like you hit some familiar places. That Nich is a stick and you gotta love the Hole!
Damn….. I gotta get out west more.
Adam, checked out your site and blog. Phenomenal work! Can you chat a little bit about how you used filters in your sunset/rise shots here? Those shots blew me away – as well as most of your landscapes in your portfolio. I just picked up a Grad ND filter, but its just a screw on, and i’m thinking to really make it work you need the square adjustable type?
Hey Eric–
Thanks for the kind words.Essentially, I shoot my environmental action/lifestyle shots the same way I shoot my scenic images–I just put a person in them doing something that many of us can relate to. For me, a complete image involves great light, engaging composition and dynamic subject matter. If you’ve already bought a grad ND filter, then you know that our camera sensors/film often cannot accurately capture the range of light presented when the light is best.
At sunset and/or sunrise, you get colorful, dramatic skies and often times a foreground in open shade. Unless you’re doing a digital blend or shooting for HDR, there is no way to capture this without a Grad ND filter. It is essentially bringing the dynamic range of contrast between highlight and shadow into and area that the camera is able to capture. It doesn’t alter color or anything else–it simply allows the camera to “see” as our eye does.
Unfortunately, the screw-on filter you purchased is kind of a fluke of a filter, cause you never have any control over where that filter line is placed. The gradient is placed smack in the middle of the filter, which blows because really, you never want your horizon line right in the middle of your composition.
I use Singh Ray 4 x 6 filters. IMO, they are the best. Yes, they are a bit spendy, but worth every penny. Most often I am hand holding the filters in front of my lens, allowing me to feather the filter (manual dodge & burn) to increase/decrease filtration over certain parts of the image, and also to adequately hide the filter line. This is a technique I’ve learned from my background in fine art scenic work, and one that simply requires practice.
Grad NDs come in different strengths and transitions. I.E. 1-stop/2-stop/3-stop etc. in either hard or soft step transitions. The hard step is well suited to even horizon lines, and has a much more abrupt transition to the max gradient. In the image below I used a 2-stop hard step filter to deepen the blue sky and render detail in the white puffy clouds.
The soft step is well suited to horizon lines that my have trees, mountain peaks, or otherwise poking above the horizon. In the image below, I used a 2-stop soft step Grad ND to deepen the blue sky and bring out the snow-covered peaks. Had I used a hard-step filter, it would have unnaturally darkened the top of the arch, in addition to the peaks and sky.
Reverse Grad ND filters are a bit different in that the densest part of the filter lies in the middle of the filter, as opposed to the top of the filter. This is perfect for shooting into the sun and sunset or sunrise (or whenever) as the brightest part of the image is where the sun is.
There are numerous other applications for both filters–basically anytime you have radical differences in light between the highlights and shadows of your image. On the image below, I used a 4-stop soft step Grad ND to account for the difference between the lit butte and the shaded riverbed.
The more you shoot with them, the better you will understand where and how you can use them. If you’re serious about it, you really should get a hold of some rectangular filters. If you don’t want to drop the cash on Singh Ray, you can try Cokin (cheap) or Lee (moderate) filters as well.
Also, you can check my blog and my blogs post on the Singh Ray blog for more instruction and examples of how I use these filters (I would link up here, but for some reason can’t figure out how on this particular site). Hope that helps!
Those are some amazing photos. I am envious every time I look at one of these threads. Envious of both the amazing photography and the fact that you guys get to regularly fish in those amazing spots. I am also with Zach about the Taco Bus calling my name.
Adam, sorry i didn’t get back to this right away, but thanks for sharing some of your insight and technique.
Wow, looks like a great trip, wonderful photos to remember it by. You really captured some great landscapes and lifestyle shots. I’d be proud to have those shots in my portfolio.
*note to self, buy some grad filters, a wider lens and move back to the Rocky Mtns.
http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.
http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram
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