mick mccorcle
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This is a great thread! Most of us, Michael, struggle with many of the same challenges that you do. The advice shared on this thread will help all of us.
I’ve had an SLR for over 20 years, but have gotten serious with my photography only in the last decade. I still have lots to learn and many areas of photography to explore, which is what makes it fun.
Here are a few things I have learned over that time:
1. Take lots of shots. Not mindlessly, but the best way to learn is by doing, so the more you shoot, the more “data” you generate to analyze, and the more you learn.
2. Always keep your camera handy. Don’t be caught wishing you had it along. Part of getting the good shots is just being in the right place at the right time with a camera in front of your face.
3. Go to a photo school, if you can find one. Nikon, Canon, Photoshop, and other organizations run “photo tours” with weekend classes in most major cities each year. I’ve attended a couple of “Nikon Schools,” a class on outdoor photography with Rod Planck, and am scheduled for another photo weekend in March at a class sponsored by the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. These are places to meet fellow photographers, learn from experts, and be inspired to keep growing as a photographer.
4. Find more experienced photographers with whom you can share your work. I’ve been fortunate to find one of those, since the woman who is the program coordinator for our state’s Casting for Recovery retreats is also an accomplished photojournalist who teaches at a nearby university. She has shared with me the course syllabi for her photo classes, including the “exercises” and projects she assigns to aspiring photographers. She also critiques some of my photos.
5.
Nikon USA offers a five year warranty on Nikon glass, but not on “gray market” glass, so it pays to get the USA versions.
Mike, her comment to me has been: “I hope you get rid of all this stuff before you die, because I don’t have any idea what to do with it.”
I’m reading Trout Reflections by David M Carroll. He’s a gifted naturalist, artist, and author (a recent MacArthur Foundation Fellow) who is mostly into turtles, but wrote this story of a year in the life of a brook trout that is just masterful. If you like this one, you’ll also probably enjoy his Swampwalker, which won the John Burroughs medal.
We’ve moved four times since I started tying flies, and each time my spouse has encouraged me to “upgrade” my space and storage areas. Most recently, we moved from a place where I had a stand-alone building away from the main house where I could spread out (and not be bothered to pick up after myself each time I finished tying.)
This time, my stuff had to be “integrated” into the main floor of the house, so I was informed that whatever storage and tables I used needed to match the woodwork and decor of the rooms nearby, since it is just off the kitchen. So after a custom furniture and cabinet maker got done, here’s the result:
First photo shows the Tying Room with my frequent co-inhabitants, the dog Rio and the cat Bow (short for Rainbow River Cat).
Storage for tying and photo equipment in cabinets, fly fishing, tying, and photo books on shelves. Drawers contain files, photo and office supplies, etc.
Tying table, about as messy as I keep it
Storage cabinet for tying stuff, with boxes for hackle, bucktail, pheasant tails and skins, etc.
Rod tube racks, plus more storage for tying materials.
Not shown is a closet full of fly fishing vests, jackets, etc, with boxes for reels and spools, leaders, and other miscellaneous fly fishing stuff.
I’ve already gotten my wish — I spent the day with my family at Dave and Emily Whitlock’s, a surprise trip for my 60th birthday last month. It was wonderful!
See my thread “A Keeper,” which details the trip.
Mick
Just to add another choice to the discussion, I have four Xi2s and love them. I would not overline them. They work fine with many of the lines already discussed, once you’ve learned to cast them. (My tendency, at first, was to apply too much power on the forward cast, which they don’t need.)
The lines that work best for me are the Wulff Saltwater Bermuda Triangle Taper lines. I have Wulff BTT floating, intermediate tip and intermediate lines and they all work well with the Xi2s, especially in situations like sight fishing for redfish where you need quick, accurate casts with minimal false casting. I’m not a long distance caster, so I don’t know how those lines would work at a distance, but they work fine for me out to 80 feet.
All in good time, Lee. Let me get my act together first.
I’ve been fishing on the San Juan for over a decade now, so I’ve tied a fair number of flies down to size 32, and caught fish on them all. I’ve given myself permission not to have to tie any dries below a size 24, so when the fish were hitting those size 26 parachute Adams, I was using flies tied by those little old ladies somewhere in Asia or Africa.
Very helpful, Neal!
As far as myself, I’m a retired psychologist, semipro photographer (meaning I’ve had some things published, but don’t do so regularly), and inveterate gearhead. My wife tells me I’m only interested in hobbies (cycling, fly tying, fly fishing, photography) that have high gear requirements. So while I’ve used the lenses mentioned above, the R1C1 has never been out of the box, until now.
Yesterday I was playing with the 105 (D, not VR) and a 4T closeup lens, handheld on my D200, just to see what it was like. The depth of field was tight. I do have an FX camera, so I’ll pull out the tripod, monoball, and all the trappings, crank down the aperture, turn on the lights and give it a go.
Having watched this thread develop over the last 18 months, I too am curious about whether Zach made a move to a different vice. I moved to a different locale since my post in July of 2007, I’ve also changed some of the fish I chase, which has prompted a change in my vise of choice.
I was using a Renzetti 3000 when tying primarily trout flies for tailwaters, but my move into striper country, with side trips to fish for steelhead in the NW and lake trout and Arctic char in the Arctic has caused me to switch back to my Dyna King Barracuda Junior. It has jaws to handle the bigger hooks much better, though its rotary action (which I tend to use a lot) still leaves much to be desired.
So, Zach, what was your choice?
