Mayfly calendar cover
Pasi Visakivi
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.
He added a few more details and a couple of links, and I of course immediately looked. I admit that the Finnish magazine web site that Pasi linked to had me more confused than enlightened (Finnish is no one of my core competences), but the gallery on his Google+ account counter-weighed that to full, and I of course invited Pasi to answer our fishy photographer questions. Here are his answers.
How did you start photographing - and what made you choose fishing related photos in particular?
Well, I have been interested in photographing from very young age but it did not develop into a significant hobby until I joined the editorial board of the Finnish fly fishing magazine called Pohjolan Perhokalastaja in 2001.
Since then fly fishing photographing started to interest me in a totally different way because couple of great photographers worked for the magazine. I started to fly fish in my early teenage years so I am firstly and foremost a fly fisherman and because of that I also started to photograph.
After I bought my first digital SLR camera I really started to get into the art of photographing. I used a lot of film and a pocket digital camera for years before that. I have read many books about photography in general but there is still so much more to learn. I feel that I am still in a very early stage of my photographing career and I am learning new important things almost every day.
Salmon fishing
Pasi Visakivi
I am definitely an all-rounder
Do you have a particular subject, region or a style of pictures that you mainly shoot or are you more all-round?
I am definitely an all-rounder. When it comes to regions, my photos have been shot mainly on Finnish brown trout rivers but also on several salmon rivers in Norway and Sweden. In the future I would like to cover many new interesting fly fishing places all over the world.
I really like to shoot widely different subjects of fly fishing lifestyle - from wide angle landscapes to macro shots of insects. I also like to cover flies and gear set-ups especially in winter times when fly fishing basically stops for a few months. I have a studio strobe system that I use for that purpose. In addition I also do some portrait, advertising, event and architecture photographing.
During the past two years I have been very interested in macro shooting. I am planning to purchase an underwater system for my cameras and get more into that part of shooting. I also like to use flashes and reflectors in my outdoor photographing.
Different subjects
Pasi Visakivi
Where are your photos used? Books, magazines, brochures, ads, web sites, prints, gallery exhibits or other places?
Naturally most of my photos have been published in our Finnish fly fishing magazine called Pohjolan Perhokalastaja (The Nordic Fly Fisherman). I have had three cover shots and I have published more than 20 articles in that magazine.
During the past two years the fly fishing tackle company Vision has used many of my photos in their catalogs and on their website.
A great online fly fishing magazine Catch Magazine has agreed to publish my three part essay called Nordic Encounters. First part came out last December and the third part will be published in April this year.
I have had three small exhibitions of fly fishing photographs in Finland and I have sold many fine art prints of my photos to individual customers.
On the river
Pasi Visakivi
Is photography your main source of income - if at all a source of income - and do you do other jobs as a supplement?
Photography is not my main source of income. I still have a full time day job, but photographing is no longer just a hobby. So, personally I consider myself being a freelance photographer.
Currently, my fishing trips maybe includes more photographing than actual fishing.
Can people buy your pictures and if so, then in which form and where?
Yes, of course everything is for sale. If someone becomes interested in my work they can contact me by email. Everyone can check my fly fishing photos in my gallery. There is only a small portion of my photos. On my computer is the rest of my thousands of photos.
Pasi at work
Markku Kemppainen - Marko Saarikalle - Janne Nieminen
Not all work
Jerkko Ahtinen
Where do you currently live and work?
I live in a small town called Hämeenlinna in the southern part of Finland. I work as a production manager in a local Arts and Congress Centre.
What's in your bag? Preferred cameras, bodies, lenses and other gear?
I use Nikon camera gear.
I have two bodies D300S and D300.
I have Nikon lenses like 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR2, 105mm f/2.8 VR macro and 35mm f/1.8. Then I have a Tokina wide angle lens 11-16mm f/2.8.
Lately I have invested a lot of money in lenses and now I can cover most of the situations I face while covering fly fishing related activities. Of course this set weighs quite a lot but I have no regrets. I have a couple of different Lowepro backs to carry the gear.
Lately I have invested a lot of money in lenses and now I can cover most of the situations I face
Other gear that I use includes two speed light flashes, reflectors, tripod, ball head, wireless remotes for camera and flashes, polarizing filters and other smaller stuff.
There is a lot of different gear to carry around while on fishing trips. You don't necessarily need all this stuff to get good photos. Regardless of the digital breakthrough in photographing, the same principal rules of how to take a good photo still apply. For me one of the most important aspects in photographing is the composition and the relevant rules have not changed at all when everybody moved to the digital world.
I use Adobe Photoshop for post processing and I also do HDR photos.
Reflections
Pasi Visakivi
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 contacted me because we had a common photography background: shooting film with Minolta gear. He turned out to be an avid fly-fishing photographer, and what was more natural than to include him in our ongoing series of fishy photographers?
I sent him the usual array of questions and he kindly replied.
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.
