Wide angle challenges

I bought my camera after extensive reading through specs. Having a camera with a wide angle is great for taking pictures of surroundings but also taking pictures of subjects without having to walk backwards until the whole subject is in view (e.g. buildings or even just a picture in the living room).

Now what if you want to take a picture of the whole picture as you see it through your eye? The human eye can see a view angle of about 120 degrees. This kind of angle is impossible to capture with a regular camera unless using weird & expensive lenses like fish-eye lenses. Pictures taken with these lenses always produces weird looking pictures with a curved horizon like the one here on the left.

Another solution is stitching pictures together to make a panoramic view of the whole view. I just bought this nifty little application called DoubleTake. It's so easy to use: just drop the separate pictures you want to stitch together to form a wide view. DoubleTake makes sure that the overlapping areas are matched and crops the usable area of the whole picture and voila: a panorama view of the picture!

I like to take pictures of a stretch to show where the fishy parts are. This picture on the right is a stretch of the river from my last trip. The overhanging trees provided the shadow for fish to hide from the sun. Guess where I tossed my hopper-dropper rig?... The picture is a scaled down version of the real picture so you won't get a detailed view if you zoom in. But you get the idea.

On-line FF magazines

The internet being a much faster media than regular paper is giving fly fishing magazines a hard time. Some guys are using the internet to their advantage: why not an on-line magazine?

The on-line magazine This is Fly is the first of this new generation of fly fishing magazines only available through the internet. It's not your average on-line version of the magazines we know. It's pretty much the 'grunge' version with short articles with lots of graphically altered images, fast-and-furious action and weird fish caught in weird places. Kinda like fly fishing magazine meets MTV Jackass. Not really everyones cup of tea probably.

The brand new on-line magazine Catch Magazine is the next adventure by the famous professional photographer and fly fishing adventurer Brian O’Keefe. Catch is a visual extravaganza in terms of amazing photography, embedded video clips and mouthwatering destinations. You might call it a Brian O’Keefe commercial?... (grin)

Well anyway, take a look and make your choice.

Patagonia - Yvon Chouinard

Patagonia needs no introduction. It's basically the manufacturer of the finest outdoor clothing and fly fishing apparel. The man behind the brand is less known. Founder and owner Yvon Chouinard is also very much a pioneer in environmental conservation as well as one of the best rock climbers during his active years.

I've only seen pictures of Yvon Chouinard in silhouette in some advertisements of Patagonia in various fly fishing magazines. It's very inspiring to watch and listen to him in this little video. I really like the analogy he makes in the video: "...fly fishing, you have to read the river like a rock climber reads a rock...".

Another one:
"...fly fishing is not about catching fish... it's about adapting yourself to where you're worthy of catching a fish..."