Expert Advice on How to Take Better Fishing Pictures
While my pictures have gotten better over the years as I’ve learned from some of my most egregious mistakes, I’m far from an expert. I don’t know how to use an SLR and in the heat of the moment I tend to be more concerned with my next cast than I am with getting a few more shots. Nevertheless I’m always looking to get more advice on how to take better pictures because they are the diary of my fishing life. Looking at them makes me happy, and when I get one that’s particularly poignant I go back to it again and again.
Below I’ve compiled a library of articles that’ll help you dial in the process yourself. While some of the points are repetitive, each one is sufficiently distinguishable that it’s worth reading.
Let’s start with two from my friend Tim Romano
And here are a bunch more from varied sources:
I can’t give you any new technical tips, but I can reiterate or accentuate some of the ones provided in the columns linked above. Here are some of my most important rules:
In the era of smartphones – which are not only convenient but don’t “run out of film” – along with massive memory cards, there’s no excuse not to take a ton of pics. Even if you want only a single shot of a specific pose, take several. You never know if the subject will have his or her eyes closed or do something else that makes the first shot unusable. You might also capture something exceptional. Use a burst mode if you have it to make sure you get it exactly right. If you’re worried about storage space, you can delete the extras later.
Your smartphone likely has all sorts of tools on it that you can use to crop, enhance or otherwise improve your pics. So does the basic photo software on your home computer. Even if you don’t want to purchase additional editing software, learn what you have at your disposal. Experiment with it. When you make a new version, save it as a copy and retain the original.
Download them as soon as you get home from a trip and then find a way to catalog them on your hard drive (and back it up). If you have pics you know that you’ll need someday, copy them to separate folders as well. They’re of no use to you if you can’t find them later.
Learn to tell your subjects what you want in simple language. The goal is to get the fish back in the water reasonably quickly. Provide simple commands that tell them where to move the fish, or point the fish, or how to move their hands to better showcase the fish.
Learn to tell your friends photographing you what you want. Ultimately, while it’s great to have good shots of your friends, you want great shots of your memorable fish and magic moments, too. Learn to succinctly tell them what you want. If you don’t think it’ll jinx it, tell them some tips before you actually hit the water.
