Fishy photos: Pasi Visakivi

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

Covers

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.

Magazine cover 1/2013

Magazine cover 4/2005

Magazine cover 4/2010

Pasi Visakivi

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.

Flies

Pasi Visakivi

Reflections

Pasi Visakivi