fishing montana

Please Be Respectful

admin Blog, Fishing August 22, 2016Brown Trout, fishing montana, Madison River

If you are a photographer or a fisherman then this is really important. We are in a warm summer which means that water temps will be warm and water levels low. A number of rivers in Montana right now are closed because of this which makes the spots that are open more heavily fished. It is very important to remember that when fishing or taking pictures afterwards that you be as quick as you can with your aquatic subject.

Outdoor recreation is a ton of fun but it does require respect if we want these places to exist in the future. Fish don’t do well out of the water after they have been played. It’s critical that you get them in as soon as you can and if you intend to take photos to be as quick as possible. Make sure that you put the fish in the water in between shots or do only shots where the subject is partly submerged. There are many stories and news reports going around right now of fish being dead on the shoreline because of selfies. Please be respectful! They might be fish that we like to catch but they are still another living animal on this planet.

Just One More Day

admin Blog, Fishing June 24, 2016fishing montana, Madison River

It’s Friday yet again! It’s been a heck of a week with new Photoshop, D5 upgrades, vets that have gone west and so much more. It’s already summer in Bozeman with temperatures way higher then I would like but that means good times on the river and hopefully some good shooting. Here’s wishing everyone a happy Friday and a good weekend.

Printing is Your Friend

admin Blog, Tech Reviews January 13, 2016Brown Trout, fishing montana, L5, L5 Sentinel, montana fishing

Like any other business networking is a big part of photography and making friends is just as important as keeping relationships alive. I was taught early on that giving prints is a great way to keep those relationships going because everyone has something meaningful to them but they might not always be able to see or photograph it themselves. Prints are a great way for everyone to remember the good times.

The first time I went to EAA Airventure, Oshkosh was in 2011. I had never been there before but I got to see another part of the aviation community and met a lot of nice people there. The Bergen’s, the owners of this L5, were among those people I met and worked with on an assignment. We quickly became fast friends and to this day every time I talk with them they mention the print of their L5 hanging on there wall.

My good friend Alex is constantly coming up with new adventures, especially when it comes to fishing. Every time yields new funny stories and some photographs. However, each time he goes back to this one image because it is his favorite hanging on his wall. Nowadays it’s getting even more affordable to do printing especially with the release of Epson’s new Surecolor series like the P400. It seems like such a simple thing but in this business the more you give the more you get and in the end that’s how the best stories are created.

When the Lessons Pay Off

admin Blog, Fishing December 21, 2015June 14, 2020Brown Trout, fishing montana, winter fishing in montana

The one thing that’s hard to see when you’re teaching is the results. Often we don’t know how far and when the lessons we teach to others come into practice. It’s certainly something I think about time to time when writing this blog but the one place I didn’t think it was having an affect was with my fishing.

Over the last few years I have been going out fishing with my good friend Alex, who has been fishing the Montana waters for over twenty years. Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot from him about how to fish the rivers around Montana. Well at the same time he was learning photography from me as often I would take his picture while holding is catch. For the first time this past weekend, the shoe was on the other foot when I landed this beautiful Missouri River Brown Trout. After putting in a few basic settings in the flash and the D4, the lens being the 24-70 AF-S, I handed the camera over with one simple instruction. “Don’t drop it!” Well he did a great job and all of those little things like composition, placement of me in the frame, angle of the fish and so on were spot on. For the first time handling the D4 I was impressed. It just shows that by having fun and talking through the fundamentals, anyone can be a photographer.

Now he managed to get a lot of really nice shots but after the trophy shots were in the bag we switched and I had my fun photographing this beaut. The best part was the fish was never in danger which is important. When fishing this time of year you have to be careful of temperature, how long you play it and how long it stays out of the water. Well when he was released he had no problem and he just casually swam off.

As photographers we aren’t just storytellers we are teachers and no matter how silly the question might seem to us, the person asking genuinely wants to know and to them the answer means a lot. It may not be obvious at that moment but teaching can make a difference.