Dry Flies, Rivers, Trout & Tarpon.: Photo evolution

My picture-taking has changed a lot over the years, just like the technology, only I haven't come close to keeping up or going pro. Most recently, I've had to make a transition to even smaller and lighter in order to try and keep down the weight and bulk in my vest. This, while still trying to maintain a small level of quality. I'll never become a pro, and the internet today is overflowing with stunning photos, so there isn't a void to fill. This journal is simply a place for me to look back to for reference and remembrance.

Back in the 80's and 90's, I used a mirrored, full sized 35mm SLR with long lenses, short lenses, and a few other gizmos like tripods and flash. I never got good, and seldom carried it streamside, but learned the basics of exposure and composition to get a good shot here and there without any post-production. Shoot enough film and I'd get a good slide or two. Then, momma took my Kodachrome away.

I sort of lost interest in pictures at that point, and ended up with some kind of point and shoot 35mm for a transition period, sort of the end of the 35mm era.

When the digital age rolled around, I again opted for some easy to carry point and shoots. No filters, no post processing, but at least I didn't have to take the film to the drug store any more! For me, this wasn't until the mid 2000's. (I didn't even have internet until 2002, or a desktop until 2004, or a cell phone until 2006!) I only needed pictures for marketing, and to share with clients.

Then a client introduced me to the Pentax WG series. Waterproof, bomb proof, one-touch macro, auto bracketing, and at the time one of the only compact cameras able to take a polarized filter by using a snap on adapter. When I started this journal, I was carrying a WG-II in a vest pocket. It isn't too large, but still weighs about 7 ounces. It makes shooting fly close-ups a breeze. I used two of these exclusively up until last season. With physical ailments and limitations increasing, its become harder for me to get the shot of a fish in the water using a shutter button, holding steady, one handed.

Enter the screen grab. A few years back, I became enamored with these half-in half-out shots of the fish under water and the horizon above. I still haven't mastered these, but I found out that photographers had a little trick they used in the form of a dome. Before that, I just thought they were good at holding their cameras perfect at the surface of the water! So I bought a dome for my GoPro. It works pretty good if the water is gin-clear, the sun is out, and the fish stays in my hand for a few seconds. I still have to do a screen grab from the video, but I learned how to do that. The sharpness and color were even right a few times. Which brings me to this season, and today.

I need the picture process to be quick and easy on the water, so its back to the GoPro, minus the dome. The latest model this spring (already outdated!) shoots in 4K and 5.3K, whatever that means. Lots of pixels! Clear and detailed, they advertise. Well, it seems to be the case. I'm currently playing with all the settings on the Gopro to find the best ones for screenshots. All I have to do is point it at the fish with one hand and hold the fish for a few quick seconds. No pushing of a shutter or holding perfectly still. It seems to be working. Less time bending over or kneeling.

It doesn''t focus on macro close-ups, like of flies, even with a 15X lens I got suckered into buying. But my phone does! And I now carry that in my wader pouch every time, all the time, for medical emergency purposes should the need and desire arise. I'm not gonna hold my phone in one hand and a fish in the other, standing in the river though because that's a disaster waiting to happen. But the camera specs on my phone blow away any camera I've ever owned. So lately and going forward, my posts are phone shots of flies and landscapes from my Samsung Note 20, and 4K screen grabs of the fish from my Hero 10.

An evolution from a full sized 35 mm, to compact 35mm, to compact digital, to smart phone, to GoPro and a screen capture. Smaller, lighter, easier. May the fish stay wet and alive, and the photographer stay dry and upright.