Fly Fisherman on the Saugeen River

PixelRabbit · May 25, 2015

Miss Alice let me know someone was on the river today (read was barking her fool head off lol) so I wandered over with the camera and found this fly fisherman wading down the river. I waited until he was far down river since I had my 100-400 on so I needed a good distance between us and started shooting. I've tried to get this shot lots of other times but mostly up river, apparently I was shooting the wrong direction

Getting the line in a good position was harder than I thought it was going to be!

Would love to hear your thoughts, thanks for taking a look!

IMG_0628bw-1 by Judi, on Flickr

PropilotBW · May 25, 2015

that is an awesome photo. I am digging the black and white also.
For comparison, I'd love to see the color version also. Unless he's wearing pink waders, I'm sure the blues and greens are fantastic!

PixelRabbit · May 25, 2015

Thanks Pro! Here is the colour version, I wish the water was .... perhaps more colourful?

IMG_0628-1 by Judi, on Flickr

The_Traveler · May 25, 2015

I think that it is framed too much to the left - another inch on the right would improve it.
I also think it is too flat and the shadows are blocked up and grey.

baturn · May 25, 2015

Well now I just don't know what to say. Oh well. I like the colour version as is.

Fred Berg · May 26, 2015

I agree with Lew that a little space on the right would help: room for the movement of the casting action. I also think it is quite flat.

PixelRabbit · May 26, 2015

Thanks for your thoughts all!

Lew and Fred, I 100% agree that a bit more on the right would have been great, unfortunately I framed it too tight and that's all I have

I was talking to someone else about this shot and said that it was a shot I'm happy with but it's not "the" shot and that is a big reason why.
I also agree that it's flat but I'm ok with that, as you see with the colour version the light was quite flat which allowed the trees to be less detailed (they are cedars and add a LOT of detail when in bright light) I enhanced the flatness of the trees in the black and white conversion to let the fisherman and his line stand out and not get lost in the details of the trees. I think perhaps the bulk blocking is coming from the vignette I added, I may mess with it a bit to see if I like it without that but as I said it's not "the" shot.

NancyMoranG · May 27, 2015

Very nice. Belongs in a fishing magazine.

D-B-J · May 27, 2015

I love the flat processing. High contrast low-grey-levels would have been too harsh for this. The "flat" processing lends itself to a calm and peaceful fishing adventure. Very very nicely done.

Jake