Published Feb 10. 2010 - 14 years ago
Updated or edited Feb 7. 2019

Pictures of nature

Don't forget that fishing is many other things than anglers, fish and casting. The animals we see, the landscapes, the flowers and all the little details.

Popeyes - These popeyes caught my eyes while we were taking a break while driving to the water.
Low light - Low light becomes almost any landscape
Rapseed - Extreme colors seen from the car when moving between two fishing spots.
A tuft of grass
Oak leaves - It might be Welsh river Usk in the background, but it's the juicy leaves that makes it a place to long for in this picture.
Nature
Martin Joergensen

When we go fishing and bring a camera, it's most often to take fishing pictures. We will usually try to capture the essence of the fishing by putting fish, anglers or at least fishing water in the pictures. Sometimes we may sink to the depths of shooting insects - but mostly the ones our quarry eats.

But don't forget that fishing is many other things than anglers, fish and casting. The animals we see, the landscapes, the flowers and all the little details that help make a day by the water a great day - even without catching fish!

This article aims to inspire you to shoot pictures of nature and the environment around your fishing spots and on the way to and from.
Such pictures will supply you with great illustrations and might even be more fun to look at for people who aren't as much into fishing as the rest of us. Pictures of beautiful nature can be a great supplement to that nerdy selection of fishing pictures, which we fly fishermen like, but which can also be somewhat a drag to the non-fishing audience.
And we do meet a lot of nature when we fish. Thanks to just getting out there we tend to see early morning landscapes and sunsets over beautiful hills, deer gathering near the woods, hares, pheasants, otters, beavers and even bears, eagles, moose and many other creatures, which many people can go through a lifetime without seeing.

I usually use our local small whale - the porpoise - as an example. I usually see them monthly and I fish a few locations where it's rare not to see them. Most people I talk to are envious and have never these lovely little marine mammals.
Unfortunately they are not easy to take pictures of. You see the fins when the animals surface to breathe, but only rarely see the rest of the animal, except on bright days in very clear water. And you mostly see them on a fair distance, so shooting good porpoise images require luck, skill and some good equipment.

I usually divide pictures of nature into three categories: landscapes (and waterscapes, which I will return to in their own article), detail shots and creatures.

Off season - A swamp at a time when fishing is out of the question
View with flower - Extreme foreground/background in a landscape. The flower makes the view much more interesting.
Notice the angler - This landscape is helped on the way by a foreground and the small angler in the water. Both emphasize the perspective.<br />
Silhouettes - A nice contrast between the morning light on the coast in the background and some dried flowers in the foreground.
Landscapes and views
Martin Joergensen

Landscapes

Landscapes are of course the larger vistas and impressions of the area where you fish.
Such pictures can give people an impression of the places we spend our fishing time.
Whether you fish lakes, streams of the ocean, there is almost always nice views to photograph. Common rules regarding landscape photography apply when shooting such pictures. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that you have a good foreground in the picture. The background is usually always there. That's what we see when we admire views, but having something near the camera will enhance the impression of perspective and give some depth to the picture. And you can always use anglers to create perspective - both in the foreground and in the scene itself.
Landscapes lend themselves very well to wideangle lenses. Most compacts have lenses, which are not quite wide enough. In 35mm (old fashioned film) terms you want a lens in the 20-24mm range. 35Mm will do, but the wider the lens the more you get the perspective you want. Normal and telephoto lenses can do landscapes, but it takes a little more thought and work to capture.

Spring forest - Nice impression caught on the way to the water
Perspective - A cliff and some trees made interesting by leaning back
The flat landscape - The magnitude of this Icelandic landscape and the magic lights makes it work in spite of its simplicity.
Monet was here - Almost impressionistic - blue, green and red
More landscapes
Asger Sondergaard Olesen - Martin Joergensen

Details

Details can be anything, which is caught closer: rocks, plants, small parts of any landscape. Don't think of details as just really small things, but more like parts of the whole.
I like to shoot plants, flowers, rocks, and all kinds of odd and interesting things I meet when fishing. Plants account for the majority of these pictures. We have a whole category called botany in our image archive, and it contains a lot of great pictures.
Details have produced some great imagery over the years, some of plain rocks, lots of twigs, moss, lichens, grass patches and numerous other things that might not catch the eye when seen as a part of a large landscape or scene, but very beautiful when seen isolated and studied up close.

Drop - A single drop on a leaf. Such a beautiful sight for the one who looks.
Large insects - Butterflies are very good subjects. They are large, colorful and generally slow moving insects. Great to practice your macro on.
Dandelion - In a different perspective
Spiderweb - A misty morning and lots of spiders.
Simple - These grasses were just caught beautifully in the low light.
Little things
Henning Eskol - Asger Sondergaard Olesen - Martin Joergensen

Details can be shot with almost any camera and lens. The most bland P&S-camera can capture details in... eh, great detail. No need for expensive gear here.

Creatures

The creatures are all the animals we meet, which are not the fish we catch - or try to catch at least. The fish will have their own chapter in this series.
Here I'm talking everything from the smallest insects to something like deer, elk, moose or even bear or wolves.
Since we anglers like to be out in dawn and dusk, we tend to move around in nature at the same time as the wildlife, and our chances of bumping into something interesting are a fair amount better than the average person just walking an afternoon trip in nature.

I usually don't recommend gearing up for the whole big wildlife safari with regards to photo equipment. Toting a large 500mm for bird photography might land you some nice bird images, but it will most likely keep you from landing any fish.
Personally my bird shots are few, while larger wildlife as well as smaller critters often find their way in front of my lens. But it's fun to try to get nice wildlife pictures when you bump into some rarely seen animal on a misty morning.

Birdshot - You don't need the extreme gear to get great bird photos. A bit of composition can compensate for the lack of a long lens.
Beetle - We see lots of small insects on our way, and with the macro facilities of modern P&S cameras you can get some great insect pictures.
A small lizzard - Warming up in the sun on a cold day - a perfect subject. Easy to catch even with a small camera.
Bird - When fishing in the ocean, birds are a regular subject, which will often give some very nice pictures.
Martin Joergensen - Kasper Mühlbach
Impression - The closest I ever got to a bear in spite of several visits to BC
Safe distance - With critters like this in the water you are happy to be on a boat or a bridge, and not wading chest deep!
Damsel - Damsels often offer good photo opportunities. Thay are large and can sit still for quite a while.
Seal - I crept nearer while it was under and snapped a few as soon as it emerged quite close to me.
Deer - You don't need to get extremely close to get nice images of larger animals
Critters
Nils Folmer Jørgensen - Asger Sondergaard Olesen - Martin Joergensen

Comments

This is what it's al...

This is what it's all about......beautyful planet !!!

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