Morsie
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Neal thanks for that but I hope my stuff doesn’t need that much work ;D ;D ;D
Lauren I think you have to develop an eye for the unusual and never let the opportunity go by. The mundane usually remains mundane. There’s usually something graphic in a sky or in the landscape you can utilise to lift a pic from the ordinary and out of the holiday snap category.
All of these stand out for that simple reason, the exploitation of something eye-catching. Train your eye – sometimes you have to force yourself to drop whatever you’re doing or even to stop the car to seize the moment when you see something :o. Practise saying “ZACH, STOP THE CAR”!!! ;D ;D ;D 😀 Don’t do this :-X ::) 😎
Apologies for the wild blue border, I know it occasionally clashes a little……….
MorsieMay not be a fish-eye, just a wide angle pointed down that leads to a curved horizon but I’m sure Corey will tell us………
Lauren as mentioned in a previous post Lightroom’s graduated filter function is GREAT, outstanding in fact – I just don’t bother carrying filters anymore, not even polarisers.
Morsie
Nice Corey, that river bend shot is a pearler. Landscapes with a fish-eye lens is something different. Great use of the shape of the river and the shape of the lens.
Lauren – look to the sky, clouds are great and usually make an image, as you have noted. As Dave Anderson and I are want to say “good cloudage mate”.
Lauren, All of my landscapes inevitably have fishermen in them………. I guess that makes them fishing scenes rather than traditional landscapes. This one isn’t even in “landscape” format but its a shot I like.
I like this one particularly for the sky.
And this a “dans la lumiere” landscape.
This is actually Christmas Island and really only be described as a “seascape”
Morsie
This is what I mean by using the shadow of the subject to shield the lens and avoid flaring.
This shot (with a little tweaking) was used a book cover.
Morsie
Interesting way of doing it Chad, thanks, I’ll try it at the next opportunity – I imagine you need some pretty low early or late light anyway.
Morsie
Bryan I can’t see a problem with the glare you have there, no detail has been lost and the fish are wet so a viewer would expect to see some kind of glare. I’ve stopped using a polariser because they can be such a pain in the butt.
Alternatively shoot the fish in shadow or get an assistant to hold a scrim ;D
The last shot is excellent, I find the top two shots to be over contrasty and over saturated but it works on the last on.
These queenfish can be a terrible fish to photograph because they are so silver but they do have some subtle detail in their skin, easy to blow your metering to pieces with them. I get whoever’s holding them to roll them so I get the least flare.
Morsie
Abe, I finally got around to stringing up the 5 ZAxis with the 230 grain Sage bass line (Bluegill). It had the desired effect and it feels like you could throw a boot with it.
Morsie
Thanks Will,
As nice as it is to photograph in low light early morning and late evening situations, so often (in saltwater anyway) the best fishing is through the middle of the day when the light is at its “worst”. If we’re going to be fishing photographers we just have to learn to deal with it and make the very best of it. The light in these images was the ugliest I think I’ve ever encountered – it was about 120 degrees and there were big dust storms. The fish were caught in mid afternoon so I had to look to do something interesting with them. Would like the opportunity again and would probably use a reflector as there were enough hands on board for someone to hold one. My hot shoe was playing up badly, turns out it had been damaged, and flash quality was sporadic. I now carry a second flash. The glare in these pics just about hurts my eyes looking at them and that was the feel of the day I wanted to capture.
The fish is a Murray Cod
This is a good one too, I particularly like the dark background. Often the best detail is found when the subject is in shadow rather than full sun.
Morsie
Neal I’ve come to consider my camera gear as just a tool used to do a job. I have camera armour on the bodies and have also bought some waterproof covers for the lenses because I want to be able to get shots in crap weather as well.
I also really like the backlighting effect you get when you shoot into the light, particularly through fins. Pity we couldn’t get the fish straight on this one.
Here’s another
Especially good for those fish that have big fins.
Morsie
I think if you’re going to specifically shoot casting you choose the line first then the location. The line should be in full light and ideally the bg in shadow or you can’t get the shutter speed to freeze the line.
That’s the way I do it anyway, was looking at Lefty’s new casting book last night – those guys (Lefty and Jay Nichols) nailed it perfectly.
Morsie
John, I’d rate line choice MUCH higher than that and would put the BG and the line on an equal footing – they have to be be contrasting colours, orange against green yellow against blue etc. Orange does stand out against most things You can have the best dark BG with controlled light but if the the line doesn’t pop you have nothing.
Morsie
Make sure you get good batteries in your flash unit and that they’re fully juiced up. You’ll find it’ll fire on full every second cast. I use Eneloop batteries and a Sanyo charger. It takes 24 hours to fully charge a set but they last a long time and they don’t loose juice if they’re just left to sit.
Morsie
Yep auto composite metering (not on spot), then just tweak the flash compensation and ride the dials.
“Don’t fear the flare” – I like it!!!
Morsie
