I did have an agenda yesterday.......About a week or so ago I watched an outdoor show on the tube. On the show, the guide was taking most of his fish pictures in macro setting. Extreme close ups. Some of the pictures only showed a fin in the water, or just part of the tail. One picture showed just the lateral line of the fish just above the water line. With its belly and the white net in the background (submerged). I really enjoyed his pics, so, I am trying to take extreme close ups. Yesterday was my first attempt. I was wondering if anyone was going to comment on how big the fish were, or ask if my thumbs had gained some weight.
I fish alone alot of the time. Even when floating with my buddy. We each have our own rafts, and often get seperated. This can make photographing a fish difficult at times. Especially a larger fish. In the past I would slap that fish on dry rocks and snap away with my camera. I am going to refrain from that going forward.
Little fish are easy to photograph by myself. Larger fish can be tough. If I dont have a perfect little pool to resuscitate and photograph the larger fish then I will refrain from taking a pic at all.
Yesterday I caught a very thick hen. She was heavy with eggs, but not yet spawning. I netted her, then tryed to decide the best way to take her picture. She kept curling in my net, making a decent picture impossible. It is hard for me to gauge time in these instances, but if I had to guess, I bet I took 30 seconds trying to find a spot to take her picture. She was submerged in my net the whole time, and in fact,resuscitated herself. She had given me her all in a wonderful battle. The least I could do was turn her loose without looking for the "perfect" picture. I do know that most of my future pics of larger fish will have to come from my buddy. It's tough to find that perfect little pool.
I dont have any self imposed guidlines for taking pics, but sometimes you just know when the fish should be released without a picture being taken.
So, get ready for some weird close ups this Summer as I develop my "STYLE" of photography.