picture article

In the fishing world it's all about the picture. Especially in the muskie fishing world. If you don't have a picture then what do you have? A fishing story. And who believes fishing stories? Better yet, who believes a fishing story about a 55" muskie if there's no photo? Heck...even WITH a photo there's still argument by some. But at least with a great picture you have proof, and ammo against the argument.
Think of it this way; Who would read Playboy if there weren't any pictures in it? (Wait..someone actual reads Playboy???)
You get my point.

First is the equipment. Now, unless you actually work for Playboy there's no reason to get crazy here. Some people HAVE to have the best and that's ok. But then again there's some guys out there that do some serious damage on muskies by throwing a $5 bucktail they've had since 1982. It's all in knowing HOW to use the equipment..not how much you spent on it. We have a couple different cameras. They range from 5 megapixel to 8 megapixel.
But...BUT..There's 12's...15's...20's.. Don't I need those??
No.

Here. Let me show you what you can do with an 8 megapixel Canon camera.
This is Gregg Thomas' booth that we did for him. The center photo was shot by us. If you've ever seen Gregg's booth you'll know that it's huge. 8 feet tall by 10 feet wide. That would make that center muskie about 15 feet long if it were alive. And if you looked closely at his booth you saw that you can count the rings on the scales of that fish. There's no pixelation...no sawtooth eges..no grain. It's crisp and clean and virtually unaltered other than making it 10' wide.



My main camera is a 5 meg Canon Powershot A-95. My partner uses the Canon 8meg SLR.
We like these cameras because they are simple to use, have true color, are relatively inexpensive, and have a flip screen.
Flip screen??? What's dat?
A flip screen is a viewing screen on the back of the camera that can be rotated out so that you can actually see yourself when you are shooting yourself.

It makes shots like this not only possible..but incredibly easy.


And those shots are a little more interesting than these kind of shots...

Ya see. There's no real frame of reference. Nothing in that photo lets you know that that fish was 21" long.

But what if you have a muskie and you're solo?
Yeah..that's a problem. But we think we found a solution.
A GORILLPOD

I leave mine screwed into the camera and ready to go in my backpack. (That's why i wear a single strap backpack...so i can whip it around to the front and access everything in a second). If you're in a boat have it already set up and ready to go.
Have the timer pre-set and all the other settings on the highest possible.
Don't worry about getting the shot 100% level. Just worry about getting the picture taken correctly and in focus. You can level it in any iphoto or photoshop program later. Heck send it to me and I'll do it for ya.
The legs on the gorillapod can be molded to fit any surface no matter how curved,rocky,tackle infested..whatever. The legs flex and they can also wrap around anything, like the steering wheel of the boat.
It makes shots like this possible.


Now here's a word of advice. PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! Practice at home. Because the LAST thing you want to be doing is fumbling with a camera when a muskie goes crazy in your hands/net. You need to know what button does what. And HOPEFULLY when you set up the camera on the steering wheel BEFORE you started casting today, you took a practice shot of yourself in the EXACT spot you'll be holding that fish. That way you will have seen that you and your fish will fit in the frame.
DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT...take pictures solo, check them, find out you aren't even in the frame, set it up again, and repeat the process 5 times. NO fish's life is worth that, just because ya didn't practice a shot first.

Batteries. Did you put the freshly recharged batteries in? Because there's nothing more depressing than turning it on to take a picture of a trophy and getting the "Change the batteries" message. I've done it myself. We all do that. But now i carry a couple things extra with me all the time.
1) extra batteries.
and 2) A cell phone.
Cell phone pictures suck. True. BUT...it can also save the story. Plus it can prove to your wife that yes, you really are out fishing.
Here's a cell phone shot that I had to take because my camera batteries were dead. (duh!)

Hey..in a pinch it's better than nothing.

Remember when I mention using the highest settings?
Ok..how many muskies are you going to catch today? 1? 2? 5? (You BETTER have pictures if you're sayin' 5!)
How many pictures can your memory card hold?
900?! Really? Now that's impressive.
Wow. 900 pictures.
But that's 900 pictures at the LOW resolution setting. So basically you're going to take 900 pictures of ONE muskie and they are all gonna look like crap.
Ok..people. We're gonna catch 5 muskies today. Even if you ONLY get 70 pictures on your camera because the settings are ultra ultra high...there's no way you're gonna shoot 70 pictures of 5 fish!
See where I'm going with this?
Please..do yourself a favor and always use the highest settings. That way you can have the best looking shots AND be able to make a wall out of them if you want to.

The sun: It can be a great thing to use in shots! Like this:


If you know a trick or two you can even do stuff like this easily:

BUT..The sun can also kill you. Like this:


That is why you should ALWAYS face the sun when being photographed. If you can't due to boat position then use a flash. A simple flash would have saved those last two shots.

Size Matters.
Sure does. It's our company slogan. And it's the idea behind big game fishing.
My best advice to you is this: GET SMALL TO GET BIG!
A 6'+ tall guy standing while holding a big fish looks great.

BUT..a 6'+ tall guy KNEELING/CROUCHING while holding a big fish looks AWESOME.
Like this:



And my last tip would be this:
DON'T EVER DO THIS!

There is nothing more ridiculous looking than that! Do NOT hold the fish out. Hey...if it's a big fish it'll look huge anyway! If you pose right ( like the older gentleman in that other featured pic. Chad Cain's client, Hershel Orenstein) it's gonna be the shot of a lifetime!
But please...please...please..do NOT try to pull a "Louie Spray" and push the fish out to make it look bigger....or as in that last picture, try to make a muskie look like a beluga whale.

Oh..and last but not leat... SMILE. You just caught something that very few people on the planet can catch. Enjoy the moment.