Challenges of photographing a man fly fishing

While vacationing at Bear Lake, but brother-in-law, who is an avid fly fisherman, asked me if I wanted to go fly fishing with him. I had not brought my rod, nor did I have an active license, so I told him I would come and photograph him fly fishing. We headed out in the late Saturday afternoon and he waded out into the Logan River near Red Banks. I didn’t have any waders on, so I had to stay on the shore or do some rock hopping. Here’s the best photo I snapped of him, and it happens to be when he had a fish on and was working to bring it in.

Canon 60D | 15mm | 1/250 | f/7.1 | ISO 160 | RAW

Here are the main challenges I was trying to overcome when snapping the photos.

1. There was an extremely busy background with lots of lines, making it difficult to see the rod and line.

2. We were in a closed valley as opposed to an open meadow, so there wasn’t much distance between the background and my brother-in-law.

3. Because of the sun’s position in the sky, he was fishing along the opposite bank that I was standing on, meaning most of the photos were from behind him. (Not the most interesting angle)

4. With all the foliage that ran alongside the river banks, I did not have access to him often. It required heading upstream and patiently waiting for him to get into view.

5. When I tried to have the sun behind him so it would illuminate the fishing line, the entire photo’s lighting became pretty flat, making it a less appealing photo.

6. There were some thick clouds in the sky, and when the sun went behind them, my lighting was messed up and made the photo look flat (similar to the 5th point above).

7. The foliage alongside the river created a shadow across the river that didn’t let it pop as much.

I’m not sure what lighting I specifically needed for this photo, but I think the setting made it a challenge. Either way, I am generally pleased with the photo, but it turned out a lot different than the work of art I had in mind. Oh well. Maybe next time.

~signed, Carltonaut