Gone Fishin' I

Gone Fishin' I is a try at capturing the idle days of Spring/Summer,

seen here on the banks of the Kalama River, Washington, where the

prey is trout and steelhead (oceangoing rainbow trout almost

identical in looks and taste to salmon). Your good faith critiques

and comments are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or

very critically, please attach a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Love the capture, not sure why this one isn't slapping me in the face, tho. Could be the other fishin' pole and person in the background. You captured the idea...and that is what matters most.

I think it is a wonderful shot, and the hat facing backwards on the boy's head just reeks of attitude - it really makes the shot. The compositon is well done, with the long diaganol of the pole, the great curve of the bank he is standing on, and the dark vertical of the boy himself. I would agree with the poster above about the person or thing at the top of the curve of the bank, and I would be tempted to remove it, but that is just an opinion. The image is really great, and I love the way the water is lit around the curve and into the distance, as well as the backlight on the boy. All the way around, a really nice shot. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Mark

I actually have another two that I might have uploaded and wondered about. This was the simplest of the three, with just the boy (and some sense of a person in the background, a girl. In the other captures the girl is cavorting in the background, with one focused on him and another on her, leaving him out of focus somewhat (narrow depth of field with 200~400 Nikkor, E.D. V.R. lens (here handheld, but jumping all over the place because of a low ISO and therefore a slower shutter speed and a VERY HEAVY lens on a D2X camera.

 

You might look somewhere (maybe here or not) for the other capture(s), one of which surely will be posted somewhere, as it has more of a 'story'. Here the story is simple: boy, gone fishin'. Idle days of Spring/Summer and not much more.

 

I can take much more complex photos (even though mother 'cautioned' me about taking photos of her 'children' -- which to me sounded very much like a barked order not to (to which I replied I have a good reputation, was a far distance off, and they were in a public place -- a park -- and therefore open to public photography. I was expecting the sheriff any time and to have to explain myself, since anyone who takes a photo of a child these days is suspect, no matter whether they have 2DX(s) around their neck and a D200 with a 70~200 f 2.8 zoom and another D2X with a monstrous 200~400 zoom, almost two feet long.

 

I am in Ukraine where parents are proud if you take a photo of their child, and they'll hold him/her up for you to get a better capture (at least they think they're helping).

 

This was in Washington State about two and a half weeks ago.

 

You are right about not 'slappin' you in the face' but not all photos will do that. Have patience; I am sure I've got a face slapper here somewhere.

 

;-))

 

John (Crosley)

You know what I think would've made this photo amazing... is to have backed up just a little and focused on the coarse texture of the earth somewhere between you and the boy. I love seeing the grainy texture of the earth by the boy and how it softens as you move past the boy along the shore. I think it would be wonderful to have your eye move from a soft foreground, to a sharp texture-rich earth, then the softened silhouette of the boy, and finally the the ever softening ground after him - especially with the water being as soft and white as it is. Nevertheless, I think it beautiful!

In desaturating, careful consideration was given to the 'look' of the water, as it involves (in channel mixer) making various choices about what colors to emphasize/de-emphasize, very much like putting filters on a lens (for black and white photography), to bring out certain elements, but in post-processing. It doesn't count as a manipulation (but cloning out the background certainly would) since it just involves adjusting lightness, darkness and contrast (which is just lightness and darkness) as well possibly as some sharpening, which is just a sophisticated technique for adjusting lightness/darkness/contrast. (read up on 'sharpening' if you think I am wrong, and you'll see . . .) But with a supersharp lens like Nikon's 200~400 E.D.V.R., one hardly needs to sharpen unless something is outside the plane of maximum focus or there is lens and/or subject movement.

 

This is just another one of John's varying shots . . . every one of them somewhat different.

 

Look at the next one to see . . . it's more 'beautiful' in a traditional sense yet on the same compact flash card.

 

Thank you for the nice comment; I'll take it to heart (and to bed, since it's 3:48 a.m. where I am now.)

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

you do good work....!

In fact, you have the same idea I had, but at the time I took this particular photo (and he was in the correct position, I was carrying a D200 with a 12~24 mm wide angle lens and the mammoth Nikkor 200~400 lens, and nothing in between (or if there was another camera it had no flash card or the flash card was full -- I forget, though I remember being terribly burdened by cameras and lenses when I took this, and also standing right on the squishy banks of the Kalama, about to have my foot in the water, and where it's steep and hoping I didn't tumble, with cameras, lenses and all into the Kalama (I couldn't have been nearer to the bank if I'd tried or unless I'd been on a boat or pontoon.

 

So, I had similar ideas to you, but before I could implement them by going to my car to untangle the cameras around my neck, fix/exchange compact flash cards and do other necessary things (all the while having to go to the bathroom horribly badly and no restroom within a near walk), the boy had moved and the 'scene' had decomposed itself -- it just 'fell apart'.

 

Your idea is 'right on' but I doubt if there's another twig to hold a fishin' rod like that this side of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn -- a forked stick in the grond (right out of Norman Rockwell).

 

And the backwards hat just got me.

 

Kids don't know how to wear a hat with the brim forward (just give a kid a hat and put it on his head, brim forward, and see how he immediately turns it around sideways or reverses it).

 

Kids will be kids, and that's what this photo is about . . . I think.

 

And hot days.

 

John (Crosley)

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

Not every one can be a forehead slapper, but I keep plugging away, and just when I think I've run out of ideas or talent, something new and different (and often better) comes along. That's one reason I move around a little bit/ I keep getting refreshed and getting 'fresh views'.

 

I see scenes I've 'taken before' and think 'how could I really improve on that' and just pass them by often, but in Ukraine I return to the same town square on a regular basis and the people change constantly (though many know me on sight and to talk to) and every time I go it's fresh captures . . . when I'm a little bit inspired. Or if I'm not inspired, someone will say 'photo me' and I do, and then we tell jokes or racy remarks about the women (with the guys) and they're my friends and they help me find interesting subjects -- a variety of helpers (but I really don't need their help -- it' s just fun to make so many 'friends' or meet so many 'friendly people'.)

 

Thanks again, Dennis.

 

John (Crosley)

The very narrow angle of view of a 200~400 V.R. E.D. Nikkor zoom lens didn't allow for taking the 'detail' you were interested in my capturing.

 

Also, extraneous stuff in the background on the banks or near it (that's furniture in the background if I remember correctly -- lawn furniture), prevented me from taking a more 'inclusive' photo with the 'dream scene' you have visualized for me. I visualized it too, but it just wasn't there.

 

And I could not 'back off' as there was a boat on the banks next to me, just behind me, which I could not crop out of any photos taken from farther back; and if I went back any farther also, there were huge rocks and a bridge abutment for the high canyon-straddling bridge overhead, all of which prevented the 'dream shot'.

 

However, if I had immediate use of a shorter lens, then I might have taken part of your 'dream shot'.

 

Keep an eye peeled (in months ahead) on the Internet, and perhaps I'll post one of him (seated) with the girl's silhouette cavorting in the distance on the Kalama's banks -- they're more my favorites, and I expect to post one of them sometime in some folder, or on some other site -- I haven't decided and won't reach that decision may be for several months.

 

Thanks for your thoughts Heather.

 

John (Crosley)

excellent...simple and wonderful like a dream.

 

It certainly reminds me a little of my boyhood.

 

Standing beside a river with a fishing pole - - - and catching nothing.

 

I saw this boy's catch (or lack thereof) and felt he was learning an important life lesson, as well as a rule of fishing.

 

You go to the fish and place an offering before them; whether they partake or not is up to them (as well as any skills you have, but bankside fishing with bait or lures requires precious little skill and an awful lot of luck, as practiced here).

 

So, whether you catch something or not, it better not be for your supper, because you might go away empty handed.

 

It's the 'process' of fishing that is the attraction (or better be), standing at river's bank with a fishing pole and a hook in the water waiting for something 6 to 12 pounds to 'bite' and maybe to haul that sucker in.

 

In the meantime, there's sun and a lazy day, with your only duty to be to stand there, pole in hand (or propped up as here).

 

Time seems endless then; as I recall from my own youth.

 

It's also a process of hope -- standing there all day, hoping some big lunker will come along and 'make your day'.

 

Nino, your comment 'makes my day'.

 

John (Crosley)