Henry Gilbey
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Thanks for taking a look – the location is south east Cornwall, close to where I live.
The angler in the photos is a friend of mine – if anything had happened to him with the crashing waves, he would have been knocked off the rocks and simply fallen into a small kind of harbour behind him – ending up fairly safe we worked out. As I said, he’s a good friend, but he knows to worry when I say “I’ve got a good idea”……….he was actually fishing, it’s that I asked him to move a bit to take advantage of the pounding conditions.
I am really interested in the new Nikon 16-35 f4 VR lens – mainly because I can use polarising and grey grad filters on it, whereas you can’t with their (awesome) 14-24 f2.8 lens.
The most essential item is a polarising filter – plus a wide angle lens for those monster big blue skies. Look at getting some step down rings to allow you to use your polariser on smaller filter threads – I often use one of my 77mm polarisers on a 67mm thread with a ring, works great.
If the sky is looking good, really use it as a big part of your photos – don’t be afraid to get down low and put anglers against it if that makes sense.
And if you get any scuddy greay days, it can be tough to make them look anywhere half-dcent on the flats – use a longer lens and keep as tight as possible.
You will have a blast.
Have heard plenty about those grunter, that sounds like a blast…………and as for the kob, I love them and need to spend more time around them.
The southern tip of Angola is where I want to go for the kob – smashing them in the surf on plastics and the fly, seen a photo of a 100lb kob on the fly when I was staying a bit further up the coast at Flamingo. Had some nice garrick on chisel plugs, such fun.
That is a serious lot of water flooding down the Vaal !!
Love Ireland with a serious passion, but it rains a bit……….
Mike – as and when I head down next, will be in touch for sure. Have heard plenty about Stekfontein, I bet that place is a blast…….there is a big part of me that could move to South Africa tomorrow. Last time I was down I spent a few days at Kosi Bay and then went to Parys for the yellows. Been lucky enough to do lots of fishing related work in different parts of Africa and I have only ever had awesome experiences. So badly want to head back to southern Angola and also to Gabon……….and also to Jeffrey’s for the big kob. Too much to do.
Corey – I live in the south west of the UK, and any meaningful snow is very rare down here. Got some the other day though, but the problem was that most of these small fisheries we have to photograph in the winter then went and froze over. Went out sea fishing instead, I do a lot of this (being the useless fly fisherman that I am) and got these kinds of photos here
http://www.henry-gilbey.com/fishing_pictures/cornwall_winter_bass_fishing.html
Thanks Mike – just sent a couple of yellowfish articles out to some European magazines in fact. Now those are awesome fish………I shot the photos around Parys.
Zach – Plymouth is in south Devon, right on the border of Cornwall. Stunning part of the world and well worth taking a look when you guys get over here. Mid to North Devon and Somerset is where most of the best rivers are.
There’s a bed and supper for you guys if you pass near me, not a problem.
I photograph a lot of westcountry based fly fishing for a couple of magazines, got serious amounts of photos on file here.
Also got a very good couple of contacts who I know would be happy to help out with access to fishing, advice etc. – lots of small, pretty rivers that mostly cost virtually nothing to fish. Just ask away when you start making plans.
Absolutely outstanding stuff, huge credit to both Zach and Phil – so interesting to hear Phil’s insights into what is required from a cover for certain magazines. I have always wanted to know more about the reasons for various photos being chosen or not and that podcast hit the nail on the head big time. Nice one guys.
And I could not agree more with Phil’s comments on my FlyLife cover – I submitted the shot as part of a Seychelles outer atoll fly fishing feature, and never for one second did I “see” it as a cover shot. Very pleased to get it and I can see why they have used it, but not one that jumped out at me when I was editing that particular job. But I guess that is a big part of photography – different things appeal to different people in different ways.
One particular shot that jumped out at me on that slideshow is that brook trout (I think that’s what it is) in the water with net and reel – that does it for me in a big way. I am not usually a fan of “fish with no hands lying in net” kind of photos, but that is just one hell of an awesome shot that just gets in my head. Stunning stuff.
Currently in the midle of a big time cold spell here in the UK – I live in the south west in a city called Plymouth, was out on the coast yesterday photographing lure fishing for a species we have called (sea) bass. I guess a cousin of your stripers, but generally a lot smaller. Thought this photo might show you the kind of thing I do from day to day – all kinds of fishing all over the place. This was about twenty minutes from my front door. Cold and wet, but the conditions were going off big time.
Very cool cover, nice one !! I love seeing those kinds of shots on a cover.
And a Happy Christmas to all of you………
Zach – I can email them, but if it’s any help, I don’t use FTP for any of my clients – I use “You Send It”, it’s completely foolproof and easy to use. I believe sending smaller files with it is free, but I pay for the ability to upload large folders of photos etc. Upload the photos your end and then the client gets an email with a link from where they can download the photos. And I can also track when if and when stuff has been downloaded.
Check it here
I will sort some of those covers for you after I have processed a shoot that needs to go out.
Wow, there is some outstanding stuff on this post, so cool to see……
Is it cheating to put images up here that have already been used on covers ? Phil might have to be kinder then !! As an aside, I would be really interested to learn more about how somebody like Phil picks cover shots – I have spoken with a couple of editors over here before and in truth came away none the wiser………….sometimes I am really pleased with how they have used a shot of mine on a cover, especially when I did not “see” the image as a cover, and sometimes I am not quite sure if that makes sense.
Here goes a few (and Zach, please feel free to remove them if this goes against your original request) :
Not sure if this will help, but here goes……..
I don’t go near ACR or Lightroom until I have downloaded, edited, renamed and keyworded my RAW files in Photo Mechanic, whether that be on a small laptop when I am travelling or at my desk when I am at home – lightning fast, a programme that is designed purely for editing (no processing), does what it says really well. Don’t have to wait ages for RAW files to generate etc. and there is no “hang” time.
I have always worked with a simple filing system here from the days of trannies – if it works for you, it’s just fine.
Was using ACR and not LR because I hate the way LR tries to force you into creating some kind of LR-based database filing system, when I have been doing it myself just fine.
But somebody here told me I could essentially go around this database system in LR (my thanks), and I use LR all the time now – import the RAW files, do my stuff and then export them as aRGB JPEGs at 100%, and then delete the RAW files from LR – but only from LR, not from my hard drives. This I believe stops LR from trying to keep track of all my RAW files on my computers and drives.
I do like LR, same processing engine as ACR, I like the “look” it gives RAW files straight off, and it works for large numbers of images, but you can’t get away from the fact that it is still not the fastest RAW processor around. But I can live with it. Perhaps one day it will have the blazing speed of the old RawShooter (RIP).
Sharpen etc. in Photoshop.
Now I put my RAW files (with XMP sidecar files) and processed JPEGs into my filing systems on my various hard drives, and then back up everything. Essentially I am using LR solely as a RAW processor and nothing else. And that’s the way it’s going to remain, unless things change in the future.
Reading back it kinda sounds a bit tricky, but it works really well for me and I can get stuff in and out really efficiently. Always refining it over time as well.
On the Nikon front, the Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6G AF-S VR is a serious steal – I had heard it was very good for the money, and I have to say that I am blown away by what it does. OK, so there are times when the 70-200 f2.8 is the one to use, but as a “go anywhere, travel light” kind of lens, the 70-300 is just awesome……
I tend to use it as a 70-200 if that makes sense – it seems to go pretty soft after about the 200mm point, but this is fine by me. Razor sharp, great colour and contrast.
Sorry, forgot to add……
It’s expensive, and I don’t use a tripod much, but the best “small” tripod I have seen is the Gitzo Traveller. It is an awesome bit of kit. Have a look around though, there seem to be some much cheaper carbon fibre alternatives out there that might well do the job.
If it’s any help, I did try one of those Gorillapods a while back, it must have been the SLR model – I was hoping it might be useful for certain situations, but it was rubbish with a big pro-type SLR and lens.
I see there is a bigger model now, the SLR zoom, this might be worth looking at……….?
David is entirely right, I should have said that – grey, flat days when there is some kind of backdrop that allows me to keep the sky out often see me shooting primarily with some variety of 70-200mm lens.
Tim – pic 1 is a tough one from the start. (Awesome) fish and angler in the shade with a well lit background, very tough for any kind of camera to balance the huge range in contrast. OK, so multiple filters/and or a degree of fill flash might help, but I am presuming the welfare of the fish is very important……
Use the areas in shade to your advantage to get a balanced exposure – look around for a spot where you can place man and fish without any sky in the photo. Place them against the trees or cliff, don’t let the bright sky come into it and then blow the exposure in the background, up the ISO a bit and use a larger aperture to compensate for less light in the shade. Focus needs to be pin sharp on the fish’s eye. In my mind I call this “taking the sky out of the equation” – use trees, mountains, cliffs etc. Very useful for grey, low contrast days as well.
Or, move the angler and fish to a spot where they are in the same light as the background – even lighting all over makes for an easy exposure. Fill flash can be useful, as is a circular polarising filter for big blue sky days. Hope this is of some use.
