Watching the river, fishing the river
Nikola Novovic
Nikola Novovic sent me a mail:
"Hello, I am from the small country Montenegro, at the Mediterranean in southern Europe. My country has become a very popular destination for fly fishing in the last few years, because we have a large number of very clear mountain rivers and lakes with only wild fish, just one hour from the sea and beaches.
Trout, grayling, marble trout, softmouth trout, hucho-hucho, endemic trouts... all are common spices in the Montenegrian rivers. I have been a fly fisherman for ten years, and also a photographer. I write articles for fly fishing magazine in our country and columns about fly fishing in a daily newspaper. I saw your page about photography and I wanted to share my photos with you and your readers. If you want I can send a link to my web site to see some of my work.
Regards."
A stylish fly angler
Nikola Novovic
I immediately returned to Nikola with the usual pitch for the Fishy Photographers, and he soon replied. Here's what he wrote back:
a) How did you start photographing - and what made you choose fishing related photos in particular?
When I was a little boy, my father bought a Polaroid Color camera for our family trips. I was playing around with it and now I know that the passion for taking photos was started there, in my young age.
I started fishing 20 years ago, when I was a teenager, and soon I bought my first digital camera, because I found it very important to show to my friends all the beautiful scenery that was in front of my eyes every time I was fishing.
For the last couple of years I have started to work as a guide through the Simms Fishing Guide program at the travel agency Montenegro Fishing Paradise (formerly Montenegro Outdoor & More), specializing in fishing, because for the last years my country has become a popular destination for fly fishing in Europe.
So I invested in some professional photo gear and took my passion for photography to another level, taking photos of my friends from all over the globe. Now I find myself mostly catching a moment through my lens, and fishing only when need to show some tips for inexperienced anglers. Of course, I do a lot of fly fishing just for myself, because I think it is a good recipe for a long life.
B/W - or close
Nikola Novovic
b) Do you have a particular subject, region or a style of pictures that you mainly shoot or are you more all-round?
I am in love with nature. I am a family man with a full time job, but for me it's very important to spend a lot of quality time outdoors.
My country has the mountains in its name. It's made of mountains and rivers and lakes, but still have a beautiful Mediterranean coast and sunny beaches. So I often find myself outdoors, looking at that beautiful landscapes through my lens. Of course the unique moments from my fly fishing trips are my main points of interest.
Subject variation
Nikola Novovic
Impressions of Montenegro
Nikola Novovic
c) Where are your photos used? Books, magazines, brochures, ads, web sites, prints, gallery exhibits or other places?
I write articles about fly fishing for a daily newspaper and a local fly fishing magazine, and some of my photos are used for advertising for fly fishing in my country and by the travel agency I work for. I hope that my photos will catch some interest internationally, especially now that I work as a guide for people from other countries.
d) Is photography your main source of income - if at all a source of income - and do you do other jobs as a supplement?
No, I have a full time job that helps me enjoy my two passions: fly fishing and photography. So maybe the word "freelance" best describes me as a photographer.
e) Can people buy your pictures and if so, then in which form and where?
Yes, I have my photography web page, and my Facebook profile, so everyone can contact me. I have a lot of unpublished photos, so only a part of my work is in my online portfolios.
f) Where do you currently live and work?
I live and work in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro in the central part of country. My country is very small, so from my town I only need to drive one hour to get to the north by the deepest canyon in the Europe below some of the highest mountains. If I drive about half an hour from my town to the south, I am at the sunny Mediterranean beach.
In good company
Nikola Novovic
g) What's in your bag? Preferred cameras, bodies, lenses and other gear?
My gear list is short, because I find it hard to bring all the gear I wish to have. After some time I found that two or three lenses did the job for me.
So I am equipped with a Nikon D300s body, a Nikon 50mm prime lens, a Tamron 17-50 f2.8, and a Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens.
In my bag I also found room for a flash, triggers, ND Graduated filters, CPL filters, a light carbon travel tripod, spare memory cards, and extra batteries.
For great macro shots, especially in some hard angles, I found that a Canon G12 is an outstanding little camera with full manual controls and the capability to take a RAW files.
Nikola with rod and camera
Nikola Novovic
All Fishy photographers
Croatian photographer Aleksandar Vrtaric has a slightly different photographic style compared to many other fly fishing photographers. He likes to go close and often uses very tight compositions. We asked him the same questions as we usually ask out Fishy Photographers, and Aleksandar kindly relpied.
Angus Drummond is a Colorado based guide and photographer whose images have been used in magazines and books as well as on web sites. Angus' images are also available as fine art prints. We summoned Angus as a part of our Fishy Photographers rally and asked him a few questions.
Barry Ord Clarke is an Englishman living in Norway. He is a well known photographer and writer - both in Norway and internationally. We approached Barry with our usual set of fishy photographer questions, and here are his answers.
While scouting for photographers for our series on Fishy Photographers, I bumped into Corey Kruitbosch's name a couple of times, and found his beautiful images on Flickr. Corey has almost 2,000 stunning images in his stream.
Like before I approached him with our usual set of questions and he cordially replied and sent some samples of his work.
I noticed Dennis's images through his numerous contributions to our user's image galleries, where he has uploaded quite a few photos. I mailed him and asked him our usual set of photographer questions, and here are his replies.
How did you start photography - and what made you choose fishing related photos in particular?
Finnish photographer Harri Hytönen was brought to my attention through Facebook where he inquired about our Fishy Photographers series and referred me to some of his excellent work. We hooked up and I sent off my usual set of questions. Even though most of the summer passed due to busy fishing schedules and vacations, we finally got together both a set of great pictures as well as Harri's replies, which you can all enjoy in this article.
Henry Hegeman is an avid fly-fishing photographer, and what was more natural than to include him in our ongoing series of fishy photographers?
When I started my series on fishy photographers I was recommended to contact Isaias, who is a professional fly-fishing photographer based in Patagonia. Isaias agreed to participate, and even though we both took our time, we finally managed to put together replies and photos for this article.
This is the first article in a new series on Fishy Photographers built over the same template as our long-running Fishy Artists series.
This premier article is about Jim Klug, known by any for his participation in the DVDs Drift and Rise and the recent Connect as well as his activities in the Yellow Dog Adventures fly fishing booking company. We have summoned Jim in his capacity as a photographer specializing in fly fishing, and presented him a row of questions.
While I was researching for the series on the recently started Fishy Photographers, I simply searched the web for fly fishing photographers, and Jim Levinson's web site popped up, showing some beautiful pictures from the US north east. I contacted Jim, and he agreed to participate and answer my questions.
How did you start photographing - and what made you choose fishing related photos in particular?
One single image from the camera of Danish Jonas Høholt has burned a lasting impression on my mind: the fantastic image of a small frog swimming over the open mouth of a rising rainbow - a Jaws goes Lilliput moment captured with great skill and drama.
Researching a bit further on Jonas I found numerous great images by him, and I of course contacted him with our usual set of fishy photographers questions.
I got in contact with Swiss Lukas Bammater through his fellow countryman and colleague Daniel Luther, who contributed an article. Lukas dropped me a mail saying "I would be happy to share some of my fishing pictures and experiences with other GFF-readers too".
I stumbled over Marcel's web site and his excellent pictures while searching and browsing for potential candidates for our Fishy Photographer series. When I started investigating a little, I realized that I already "knew" Marcel, but from somewhere completely different than fly-fishing. Marcel and his wife Meher have a thriving wedding photography business, and I had browsed both their site and their blog in connection with my non-fly-fishing photo-related web browsing. I approached Marcel and asked him our usual bunch of questions.
Mark Lance is a Colorado based photographer whose beautiful and varying images can be found on his web site River Light Images, but are also used commercially in catalogs, ads and brochures. We approached Mark to have him tell about his ventures into fly fishing photography.
I have known Michael for many years. We have been working together on the staff of a large Danish fishing magazine, and Michael is an excellent fishing writer and photographer.
Michael is a very creative person who has also written children's books and short stories and not least he's an avid rock musician who is very active in his band Wildflowers.
But this is about fishing photography, and Michael agreed to answer my usual row of Fishy Photographer questions.
Nick price is another photographer whose name popped up during my recent quest for fly-fishing photographers. A professional guide with a very keen eye for fly-fishing subjects and a really nice online portfolio - not least with some beautiful B/W images and some cool bug close-ups.
I approached Nick with our usual bunch of fishy photographers questions.
Nikola Novovic sent me a mail:
"Hello, I am from the small country Montenegro, at the Mediterranean in southern Europe. My country has become a very popular destination for fly fishing in the last few years, because we have a large number of very clear mountain rivers and lakes with only wild fish, just one hour from the sea and beaches.
Finnish photographer Pasi Visakivi dropped me an e-mail. It read:
- I'm a 42 years old fly fisherman and a freelancer photographer from the southern part of Finland. I would like to share with your my fly fishing photos.
Dutch Rudy van Duijnhoven is a well known freelance writer and photographer in the northern European fishing community delivering photos and articles to many European magazines and websites. Rudy is also very active in the fly fishing and fly tying scene and appears at shows as a fly-tyer and caster as well as a working journalist, documenting and reporting.
I asked Rudy our usual row of Fishy Photographer questions.
Soren Skarby is a Danish fly-fisher and photo journalist and a good friend of mine. He takes part in the small fishing report site where we share fishing stories and images. Oddly enough, Soren doesn't contribute many images. he actually rarely brings a camera when fishing. He does take fishing photos, but as a professional for magazines.
I asked Soren the usual row of questions and he replied as follows.
Stu Hastie is a New Zealand photographer whose work first came to my attention through his images in our user's picture galleries. When I started using Facebook I also noted Stu's image posts.
The quality was top notch, and being in NZ he didn't seem to have a shortage of subjects. I dropped Stu a message on FB, and soon he was answering our usual set of Fishy Photographer questions. Here's what he replied.
Danish angler and photographer Susanne Worm has a keen eye for great images. I asked her our usual round of fishy questions.
