Zach Matthews
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You are asking questions that most of the people in the industry have struggled for years to answer.
Here’s from the horse’s mouth:
Hi Zach
Thanks for your message. 99% of my images are taken with the aid of graduated neutral density filters to hold back the bright areas. For the recent 1% I’ve been experimenting a little with HDR but have certainly not mastered it yet and am not sure if I will pursue it further.
Thanks
Tristan Campbell
http://www.absolutelynothing.co.uk
http://www.lightanddarkness.co.uk
Anyone know where to get a good graduated filter?
I think John is correct that he is drawing the exposure compensations down by -1.0 or -2.0 (quite a lot, in other words), and then throwing a circular polarizer AND/or a neutral density filter on top.
Carter –
I am not sure the moving water would work with HDR, since it requires a longer exposure; it might, I suppose, but you might also get stray stuff floating across the layers that aren’t on both (HDR requiring more than one shot, after all). He also has some moving grass, etc., that doesn’t look like it’s been masked over or anything.
Zach
This is going to be rambly.
There’s just such a gap between the kind of “EXTREME!” fishing (or other sports) advertised in a lot of media and the kind of “extreme” fishing most of us really do.
Is it extreme to go fishing in 20 degree temps, with ice in the guides, 2″ of snow on your shoulders, and 8 miles of trail behind you? Yeah, I certainly think it is; at least, that’s extreme for me! On the other hand, that kind of fishing is still a far cry from floating a river in Mongolia with no support, even by air, (especially were you to get hurt), after a three-week’s trip via decommissioned Russian six-wheel.
I have to give the AEG guys props, because I honestly believe the conditions they put themselves in are as billed. They don’t have a support team like that Bear Grils guy on Discovery Channel. They are really sleeping in yurts and under their transportation, whatever it may be. That’s worthy of respect.
The disconnect comes, I think, when marketing people attempt to sell the AEG image, as a lifestyle, to people who live in the cities in America. Realistically, what I was doing with Caesar Stair and Lauren in the photo Mike posted above is about as “extreme” as you can get in the American Southeast (at least as far as coldweather stuff goes). We were never in any personal danger, though.
Would I like to go on an expedition with Frank Smethhurst to Baja or with the AEG guys to NZ or Mongolia? Hell yes. But the fact remains that I, like most people, have chosen a lot tamer path. I will never do what they are doing; what the marketers do is tap into my dream that someday, somehow I still might.
So I guess my point is that marketing really, for the most part, just sells a fantasy, whether it be the ‘I’m-a-Scottish-Lord-hey-ghillie-get-me-my-whiskey’ or ‘I-had-nothing-to-drink-but-bongwater-and-yak-piss-last-night-hand-me-my- streamer-rod.’ The fantasies are custom tailored to the market demographic, but they’re no more realistic for either the old guys or the young guys.
Zach
I think Gary is going to weigh in here, but it looks like Mike is largely correct.
Here’s a very dense biology text relating to the evolution of Atlantic salmon:
Basically what I glean from that is that brown trout and Atlantic salmon diverged from a common ancestor way further back than I thought – 4-5 Million years ago. In much more recent times, Atlantic salmon (which remained true to their roots and made longer voyages) migrated to and colonized North America. They didn’t do this in big waves though; they were dependent on things like lower sea levels extending Ireland to the west, etc. They probably also lived in areas that are now beneath the waves.
Based on genetic testing, it appears that Atlantics and landlocks are in some cases even more differentiated in one area than Atlantics from both sides of the ocean. I suspect that means that the isolated landlocks had more opportunity to go on diverging than the Atlantics that remained able to breed with other Atlantics.
At any rate, the answer to my question seems to be this: brown trout evolved out of the common ancestor with Atlantics *before* that common ancestor made its way to the New World. (In other words, Mike was exactly right when he said “Both species evolved from a common ancestor, as you stated.
Mike –
“The reason there are no browns is because browns DID NOT evolve from landlocked Atlantic salmon.
Hey Mike –
We were fishing, in that picture, in the snow and crud because that’s when that particular river fishes best.
Pontoons can easily be car-topped. They are extremely stable platforms, not just in the rivers, but also just offshore in the ocean. I’m going to be taking mine to Gulf Shores this summer for some inshore fishing; I’ll post pics when I get back if we can make it work again.
Zach
BD –
That’s because landlocks are revisiting the same biological territory that created brown trout to begin with.
