Zach Matthews
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I agree David.
If you think about it without prejudice, what do the DSLRs really get you? Megapixels are now irrelevant. Quality of glass is important but technical perfection can be useless if the subject is uninteresting or if the photo won’t be printed at a high enough pixel density to show the superior capabilities of the DSLR.
Some tricks still can’t be handled without a DSLR: long exposures, synced flash scenarios, rapid shutter speeds, etc. But the gap is narrowing and meanwhile a lot of the things which used to make DSLRs “special” have become almost cliche. Fisheye shots, rear curtain sync flashed shots–heck, hi res stills to rival any DSLR can now be pulled from some video cameras.
At the end of the day the end user is not the photographer but the consumer who views and either appreciates the image or does not. As point and shoots and carry-around camera phones eat further into the DSLR skillset, to me that forces DSLRs the other direction, into the realm of what previously was medium format and the like. And there has never been — and never will be — a lot of demand for that kind of photography. Some demand, certainly, but not a lot.
Photography has become completely commoditized and just like any commodity, overwhelming volume tends to drive down exquisite quality, but meanwhile the public really doesn’t care all that much.
Zach
Clay the best advice I can give is to bring a radio and listen in on what the other boats are doing. They usually have the fish pretty well located and you might learn where the crowd is by eavesdropping. 🙂
David, just by way of example, here are a few panos that I expect to be published in the near future (some of them are already slated):
Now, all of those certainly have technical deficiencies, but the vast scope of the view overwhelms those in many respects, AND you always have the ability to grab out a section at higher res than your normal picture.
What is particularly impressive is that the moving water wasn’t visibly disrupted by the sweep of the camera. This one, for example, is wavy off to the right but would make a great spread image with space for text where it blew out even if you lopped off the right third:
I expect to keep using this tech and I think panoramas will be finding their way into a lot more magazines as others follow suit.
Zach
See Clay, I am an idiot. Because that right there is an absolutely excellent idea, and I actually have a cast iron version of that thing which I should have brought and used. Next time we head up there I will absolutely try that and I bet it works.
Zach
You got that right, David. This is a river that gets some fish in the winter when they have a lot of rain and this winter is looking rainy. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Mike the whole dynamic there is different with the new high water fishery they’ve developed. I don’t think you can go to the White at 16,000 cfs. and expect it to be what it is at 3,000. We went to sling meat and to some extent it worked; we had follows and slashes from big browns (one of which ate my fly and just didn’t get hooked). We didn’t land anything large either (although I caught several rainbows on nymphs at one point just to demonstrate).
From what I was told the hopper thing is a lot like the streamer fishing; lots of casts and long days for a few fish, but potentially large. Maybe it’s just my striper mentality these days, but that’s kind of what I expected. Getting blanked on big fish doesn’t bother me; to me it’s a time on the water scenario and we just need to put in our licks.
Chad Johnson is the head guide for Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher. When the Michigan guys came down and showed the Arkansas boys their articulated streamer tactics, Chad went out and gave it a try. He caught a 27″ brown fifty yards off the ramp… and then didn’t break that mark again for three years.
But I guarantee you this: no shop in the country has as many pictures on its walls of 28″ plus brown trout (every single one of them caught in the last four years) as Dally’s.
Zach
Man that’s an amazing story Mike. I’m wondering if the part about the rod being stolen wasn’t manufactured by the brother in law as a cover for losing the rod in a river in Montana, which also makes me question whether anyone else knew he was IN MONTANA?
Hahahaha.
ZachShould be fixed now guys — uploaded file to wrong directory. Let me know please if anyone has any more problems.
Zach
Yeah, there was a problem with the upload last night apparently. I’m going to fix it as soon as I get home today. Thanks for checking Jedidiah.
Zach
Flat Creek is an absolute blast and I would totally fish it versus anything on the south end of Yellowstone Park that time of year. Bring a lot of hoppers and tread lightly, because the whole area is basically a bog which will radiate your footfalls into the water. There are big fish in Flat Creek. They’ll sit on the inside corners of bends sometimes in shallow water where you can see them. Walk very gently, keep a low profile (literally, kneel and crawl), and bring a box of hatching mayfly dries just to be prepared.
I love that place.
Walt that’s the plan, although I need to work out access to both. Right now the question is, what does the standing wave on the lower Hooch look like?
https://youtu.be/AvhKVRN5pck?list=PL59849727D8FB7C21
That guy is kind of a nit wit but there’s no doubting the jet boat skill. I am pretty sure I can run that wave but I’m just a bit concerned about it. What do you guys think?
Zach
Walt, it’s been great. We’ve had a lot of dirty water this summer, probably due to the increase in construction in the Atlanta area, but nevertheless we’ve had an awesome time in the boat. So far we’ve only boated a handful of small stripers and a gar, but we’re starting to figure out some of the differences in this kind of angling. If we get into a multi-day low water period without generation from Buford Dam in August, I might just have to take a couple days off work and really put it through its paces. That’s what it’s going to take to get to the clarity levels of the heyday years of 2011 and 2012, I think.
Teaching this one to row has been fun.And to cast.
Andrew isn’t exactly in need of instruction…
Also looking forward to floating this winter for some SNITs. They’ll make for a nice low country boil. I hear you can put them in a cheesecloth bag and I’m looking forward to trying it. Might as well eat some striper bait myself…
Zach
I think you’re right on the money. Best tip on mending is to lift the rod to 10 oclock in the air before flicking the tip. It’s a lot like making an underpowered cast or a sideways roll cast. You just don’t want to move the tip of the line out of the water.
Zach
